Pet Habitat South Africa

<< Back To Blog List

22 Feb 2019

The Balling Method

Posted By : Guest

Named after Hans-Werner Balling, the Balling Method solves the difficult problem of maintaining Calcium, Carbonate, Magnesium, and Trace Element levels in reef aquariums. The largest benefit of the Balling Method over other supplementation methods is control. Even the highest calcium and carbonate demands can be met, without the PH issues associated with Calcium Reactors. Because each additive is added independently from a container it allows the aquarist to fine tune their water chemistry.

The purpose of the balling Method is to sustain the aquarium parameters as follows:

Calcium: 380 – 420 mg/Liter
Magnesium: 1200 – 1350 mg/Liter
Alkalinity: 6,5 – 8 dkH
Salinity: 33 – 35 Promille

The Balling Method is the most commonly used supplementation method for reef aquariums in Europe because it does not require any special skills. One only needs an accurate scale, liquid measuring container and water. It is best to use distilled, or at the very least RO water.

To use the Balling method, you require the following components:

Test kit for calcium and magnesium, as well as a KH test kit
A refractometer or a spindle to determine density and/or salinity
A scale with 1-2 gram precision
Food-safe canister for the solutions. 5-10 liter cans have proven to be useful.
A calculator that can determine the necessary quantity of the salts.

Dosing (peristaltic) pumps are ideal to feed nutrients, additives or foods into an aquarium in a measured amount using a programmable pump. The Balling method uses dosing pumps to add elements to the aquarium. These dosing pumps also provide the option to spread the dosing of the solutions slowly throughout the day.

The solutions should be added at separate times, so that they do not react with each other and cause precipitation. It is recommended to add carbonates in the mornings following by magnesium and calcium at night. The application should take place in small doses. In the Balling method all 3 liquids should be given daily and always in such quantities that the water values in the sea water aquarium are kept at a constant level.

We recommend the Kamoer X4 PLUS WiFi controllable dosing pump. It comes equipped with powerful rust-proof pump heads with longer lifetime and improved accuracy. The Kamoer X4 Plus offers flexible and precise control (0.1 - 9,999.9ml) of Balling liquids to your aquarium with four channels each with different colours to differentiate dosing liquid. The easy to use mobile interface make setup a breeze.

The core of the Balling Method consists of:

Calcium Chloride Di-Hydrate
Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate
Magnesium Chloride-Hexahydrate & Magnesium Sulfate-Heptahydrate

Oceanlife in Italy has Ready Balling solutons available with pharmaceutical, high purity grade purty. There is also the option of buying the powders separately, if you wish to mix your own solutions at home. There are five Oceanlife Ready Balling products available which are extremely simple to use and cost effective.

The Oceanlife balling system is based on replenishing calcium, carbonates and many other elements with the use of liquid solutions instead of a calcium reactor. This system is much simpler compared to the calcium reactor regarding the settings and allows to keep ionic equilibrium between calcium and carbonates by simply adjusting the dosage of the two main products.

The online calculation software on Oceanlife website helps you to fine tune the dosage and makes this system one of the simplest and reliable solution to replenish all elements using dosing pumps. By using all five Oceanlife Ready Balling products including trace elements, you will replenish all the following elements in your reef aquarium: Calcium, Carbonates, Magnesium, Potassium, Boron, Strontium, Sulfur, Iodine, Fluorine, Lithium, Zinc, Molybdenum, Manganese, Bromine.

We recommend measuring salinity from time to time (at least a couple of times per month). It's generally a good practice and, moreover, when using the Balling system to observe a slight increase in salinity. If you find a salinity higher than normal, remove a little of salt water and replace it with RO water to restore the right salinity. Perform regular water changes as usual.