- 95% of hobbyists don't understand The Balling Method.
And hence they don't understand 2-part dosing.
Whenever I make a video about science,
I always do enough research
until I feel comfortable with the topic.
But you know how sometimes there are things in life
you don't know you don't know
because you think you know them?
You know what I'm talking about?
I made this video on 2-part dosing.
It's a good video.
And you guys seemed to really like it.
And then I got a Slack from my colleague, Josh.
Hey Matthew, you got a second or 10?
The phone rings.
Hey Josh, what's up?
Josh's opening salvo, "First off,
great work on this video, Matthew."
Oh man, it must be really bad
if Josh is starting off with a compliment.
Josh continued "But Lou Ekus
has some comments for this video."
Yep, Lou fricking Ekus.
Mr.Tropic Marin USA himself.
So Lou and I set up a call for the next morning
and I went back to watch the video
to see what mistakes I could have made.
And you know what I found zip, zero, nada, zilch.
I didn't find a single mistake.
But do you remember how I said
that sometimes you just don't know what you don't know?
I Zoomed with Lou the next morning for well over an hour.
And I would say half the time
I was doing a lot of forehead and temple rubbing
because I'm just not bright enough to understand science.
But Lou being an absolute saint of a man
dumbed it down for me and repeated himself constantly
until the light bulb went off.
So before I forget everything he told me,
I'm making this video for you.
And honestly, I'm making it for me
because I guarantee you that in one month
I will have forgotten it all.
So at least I can come back and watch this video
to fully understand it.
Oh, and by the way, the scientific explanations
in this video have been Lou Ekus approved.
Here are two statements,
and I want you to tell me which one is wrong.
Statement number one,
regular water changes replenish trace elements.
Statement number two,
The Balling Method replenishes trace elements.
Do you know which one is wrong?
Because these are two actual statements
that I made in my previous two part video.
Two statements mind you, that I knew were correct.
It's a trick question actually,
because both statements are false.
And the fact that nobody corrected me
in the comments of that previous video
leads me to believe that a lot of you
also think those statements are true.
Part one, let's start with seawater, ocean water.
These aren't exact numbers, but they're relatively close
and they'll illustrate the point.
When talking about salinity,
70% of the mineral composition of sea water
is made up of one ion, sodium chloride or table salt.
The remaining 30% are a whole bunch of other
major, minor, and trace elements.
So when we test for salinity in our tanks,
it could be 70% sodium chloride and 30% everything else,
or it could be 100% sodium chloride.
Both of those would still read 35 parts per thousand.
So we don't know the exact chemical makeup of our sea water.
Even though it would read 35 parts per thousand,
if you tried to keep corals in an aquarium
made up of 100% sodium chloride, or table salt,
all of your corals would die.
First off, there would be little to no calcium
and alkalinity for skeletal growth.
And secondly, it would be missing
all the other major, minor, and trace elements
that are absolutely essential for coral health.
So obviously, we use ocean water or sea water mix
that contains 70% sodium chloride
and 30% all of those other major, minor, and trace elements
that are crucial for coral health and growth.
That wasn't too hard to understand,
so I think we're probably all on the same page.
So let's throw the first problem into the mix.
The problem with 2-part dosing.
Corals consume calcium, alkalinity,
magnesium and other major, minor, and trace elements
to form their skeletons.
This is why we frequently test for calcium and alkalinity.
When we know how much is being depleted
and how often, then we can add it back
with something like traditional 2-part dosing.
Corals build calcium carbonate skeletons.
They take the calcium from calcium chloride
and they take the carbonate
from sodium carbonate or bicarbonate.
So what happens from the leftover chloride
in the calcium chloride and the left over sodium
from the sodium carbonate?
Well they actually join together
and form sodium chloride, table salt.
As corals consume calcium and carbonate,
we need to replenish it.
Traditional 2-part accomplishes this
by dosing calcium chloride
and sodium carbonate or bicarbonate.
The more calcium and carbonate our corals consume,
the more we have to add back in
calcium chloride and sodium carbonate,
and also, the more sodium chloride,
table salt, they produce.
Over time, this traditional 2-part dosing
will increase the concentration of sodium chloride
when compared to all of the other major, minor,
and trace elements found in seawater.
Since the salinity of seawater
is roughly 70% sodium chloride
and 30% other major, minor, and trace elements,
That means as the concentration of sodium chloride goes up,
there's less space for the other major
and minor and trace elements.
So over time, with traditional 2-part dosing,
the ratio of sodium chloride to everything else
gets totally out of whack.
Instead of that 70/30, we could get 75/25,
80/20, 90/10, or even worse.
And since corals absolutely need that other 30%
for their health and growth,
the greater the concentration of sodium chloride,
the less of everything else they have to survive and thrive.
While your typical water change
can definitely help alleviate this issue,
only a 100% water change can reset the balance to 70/30.
And let's be honest, that's not feasible for most of us
for a whole host of reasons.
Water changes do not replenish trace elements.
I've written this section three times now,
and I keep getting it wrong by over complicating it.
It's actually quite simple.
If you do a 10% water change,
you replenish 10% of everything you need.
So if your corals consumed 100 calcium carbonate ions,
you replace 10% of that or 10 calcium carbonate ions.
The same is true for trace elements.
If your corals consume 10 parts of various trace elements,
a 10% water change only adds back in one part.
So yes, doing a water change is helpful
in adding back some trace elements,
but you're never gonna be able to keep up
with the level of depletion,
unless you're always doing 100% water changes.
Common misconceptions about The Balling Method.
It's time to move on to my second incorrect statement,
that The Balling Method replenishes trace elements.
It does not.
The problem that The Balling Method actually solves
is the buildup of sodium chloride
found in traditional 2-part dosing.
Remember that with traditional 2-part dosing,
over time you'll still be able to keep your tank
at 35 parts per thousand salinity,
but the concentration of sodium chloride will go up.
And the concentration of every other major,
minor, and trace element will go down.
With The Balling Method,
you're able to keep that 70/30 ratio.
You will still need to dilute your tank with water
because both traditional 2-part dosing
and The Balling Method are adding salts back into your tank.
But now, when you dilute your tank,
you have 70% sodium chloride and 30% everything else.
But Matthew, how does it work?
The Balling Method contains three parts.
Part A is calcium chloride.
And Part B is sodium bicarbonate,
which are the exact same two things
found in traditional 2-part dosing.
Part C of The Balling Method contains everything else
found in sea water except for sodium chloride,
calcium and carbonates.
Part C is the solution to the problem
found in traditional 2-part dosing.
Here's why.
As we already said, corals take the calcium
from calcium chloride and the carbonate
from sodium carbonate.
And the leftover chloride and sodium ions
join forces to form sodium chloride, table salt.
Part C then adds just enough of every other
major, minor and trace element
to balance out the newly created sodium chloride,
keeping that salinity ratio
at 70% sodium chloride and 30% everything else.
This part is absolutely crucial to understand,
and it was, by far, the most confusing part for me.
The Balling Method does not replenish
all of the trace elements that the corals consume.
It merely replaces just enough of the trace elements
to balance out the creation of sodium chloride.
The goal of The Balling Method is to keep your salt water
in a perfect balance of 70% sodium chloride
to 30% every other major, minor, and trace element.
Over time, your corals are going to consume
a whole bunch of other major, minor, and trace elements.
And with The Balling Method,
you're still gonna have to replenish those.
And you can't just up the dose of Balling Part C
because the concentration of trace elements in Part C
is minuscule, so it would take a whole bunch
to replenish those elements.
I hope this makes sense.
And if it doesn't, it's not your fault.
I just didn't do a good enough job of explaining it.
Even if you didn't understand
my explanation of The Balling Method,
you can remember the moral of the story.
The Balling Method does not replenish
the trace elements that your corals consume.
What The Balling Method does accomplish
is it solves the problem of sodium chloride buildup
found in traditional 2-part dosing.
Even when using The Balling Method,
you will still need to replenish
other major, minor, and trace elements
as they get consumed by your corals.
Luckily just like traditional 2-part,
parts A and B will replenish
your calcium and your carbonates.
So you'll just have to dose everything else.
If you want to try The Balling Method,
you can purchase the Tropic Marin Balling Method
and then pick up A and K elements for your trace dosing.
Or you can purchase the BRS Balling Method Hybrid
which accomplishes the exact same thing.
But listen closely.
Seriously, you don't wanna miss this.
What if I told you there was a product that was inexpensive,
that dosed all major, minor and trace elements
in one solution and that solved the problem
of calcium chloride buildup.
Would you believe me?
Well, you should, because it exists.
Click all right over here to learn all about it.
And as always everybody, thank you for watching.
Happy reefing, be well.
We'll see you next time.