"Balling Method" for supplementing

[hma]

Originally Posted by Dentoid

I wonder if we can dose vodka with this method!

Without any problem Scott. To dose vodka impairs the Balling method in no way. We have tested this everything in our study very intensely. Even a strong vodka dosage has no influence on the Balling method. Merely the PH can drop a little bit, but one can compensate (approx. 0.1 - 0.2 PH) this by a light rise of the dosage from Balling Can II (NA approx. 5ml).

BTW .... I am dosing Sodium Hydrogen Carbonate (Can II) exclusively in the early morning (6.00-7.00h am), in this time the PH is low and then it make sense.

[Dentoid]

[Craig Manoukian]

Rock on Dr. Heinz, Captian Woody, and the rest of the crew!

[hma]

Originally Posted by Craig Manoukian

Rock on Dr. Heinz, Captian Woody, and the rest of the crew!

Dipl. Inf. please LoL

[Woodstock]

I emailed Ralf Prehn to ask about dosing pumps. You can view his site here: cashh.de

Here is his response to my question asking about the LiterMeter III, the Aquamedic, and the GroTech TECH III dosing pumps.

Hi Doni Marie,
thank you very much for your kind words.

Please stay away from the Aquamedic ones, I've had one and threw it away.
The working principle of all those pumps is, that the hose inside the pump is squeezed with some small, rotating wheels. That moves the liquid.
The Aquamedic ones have only 2 wheels and not 3 like the more expensive ones.
This makes, that it is possible, that the wheels stop in a position, that does not close the hose fully, so liquid will poor back and there is no dosing accuracy, or water may flow out of the tank. Aquamedic ships a one-way valve with the pump to prevent this, but these valves are not chemical proof :-(.
They really should have designed the pumps more carefully.

The Grotech one (TECH III), maybe with extention module, if u need more than 3 pumps, seems the right one to me. Its relatively easy to programm (simply enter the volume) and very reliable. It does not use the one way valves, because it does not have to ;-).

I use it only for my trace elements and not for balling, because I need more than the maximum of 1.9 liters a day, that a Grotech channel supports as max.
volume.

Unfortunately I don't know the LiterMeter III personally.
You might give it a chance, if it has at lease 3 of the mentioned wheels and no one-way valves.

Hopefully I could make myself understand, English is (as you already guessed ;-) not my native language.
Best,
Ralf

[Dentoid]

That's is great to know! Thanks Doni!

[hma]

Originally Posted by Woodstock

I emailed Ralf Prehn to ask about dosing pumps. You can view his site here: cashh.de

Here is his response to my question asking about the LiterMeter III, the Aquamedic, and the GroTech TECH III dosing pumps.

Tut mir Leid Ralf aber da muss ich widersprechen!

I am so sorry but there I must contradict Ralf. Indeed, the AquaMedic has really only two wheels, but if you use 2 check valves (no return valves) on each end, one run back from liquid is absolutely impossible therefore and the dosing accuracy is guaranteed absolutely.

[RalfP]

Hi all,
please excuse me, for not introducing myself in the proper way.
But as I agreed in quoting me, I guess it's only fair to reply on
replys on that ;-).

Originally Posted by hma

Tut mir Leid Ralf aber da muss ich widersprechen!

I am so sorry but there I must contradict Ralf. Indeed, the AquaMedic has really only two wheels, but if you use 2 check valves (no return valves) on each end, one run back from liquid is absolutely impossible therefore and the dosing accuracy is guaranteed absolutely.

Hi hma, great to meet you here.
Well, this is only my opinion, but I think, that a hosepump, that does
not hold the hose tight, is a missdesigned product.
Shipping the workaround for that together with the produkt does not make it any better IMHO. It does only say, that the manufacturer already know the problem but does not do anything against it.
Maybe I should have used different valves from another manufacturer.
Dosing about 2 liters per Balling solutions a day resultet in:
- the NaHCO3 valve got stuck after 1 month
- the CaCl2 valve got a "run through" after 2 month and due to the fact, that the hose unfortunately endet half a cm under the watersurface, about 100 liter reefwater got on my floor.
That, together with the same experience from a guy on reefcentral brought me to my judgement. I tossed the pumps, not willing to sell it to another person on e***.
Seems, that you're happy with the pumps. Great, but I cannot share that experience ;-)

Thanks, best,
Ralf

[Woodstock]

Welcome Ralf! Thanks for chiming in here!.... and for all of the lengthy, patient, informative emails to me

[Dentoid]

Welcome Ralp to Balling America! We're novices over here and as usual have to lean on our forward thinking European friends for advice. You're tank is beautiful (I visited your web site)!

[hma]

Originally Posted by RalfP

Hi all,
please excuse me, for not introducing myself in the proper way.
But as I agreed in quoting me, I guess it's only fair to reply on
replys on that ;-).





Hi hma, great to meet you here.
Well, this is only my opinion, but I think, that a hosepump, that does
not hold the hose tight, is a missdesigned product.
Shipping the workaround for that together with the produkt does not make it any better IMHO. It does only say, that the manufacturer already know the problem but does not do anything against it.
Maybe I should have used different valves from another manufacturer.
Dosing about 2 liters per Balling solutions a day resultet in:
- the NaHCO3 valve got stuck after 1 month
- the CaCl2 valve got a "run through" after 2 month and due to the fact, that the hose unfortunately endet half a cm under the watersurface, about 100 liter reefwater got on my floor.
That, together with the same experience from a guy on reefcentral brought me to my judgement. I tossed the pumps, not willing to sell it to another person on e***.
Seems, that you're happy with the pumps. Great, but I cannot share that experience ;-)

Thanks, best,
Ralf

Hello Ralf, nice to meat you here on RS. You are right certainly if you write the AquaMedic pump is a missdesigned product. I did not want to deny this. I wanted to show merely a workaround for that. I am use a GroTech III NG too, but some of my friends use the AquaMedic with the quite described modification and are contented with it.

[RalfP]

Woodstock,
always welcome, thanks.

Originally Posted by Dentoid

Welcome Ralp to Balling America! We're novices over here and as usual have to lean on our forward thinking European friends for advice. You're tank is beautiful (I visited your web site)!

Thank you very much.
Well, I think that Randy, with "Randy's 2-part method" was even earlier than Hans Werner Balling and his method differs only partially.
Personally I think that all these methods are really not new.
15years ago I used baking-soda to raise the Carbon-hardness.
This and also a lot of the $$ commercial KH+ products are nothing, than the NaHCO3 that is used with Balling.
New with Balling is IMHO the planned, Ion-balanced way of regular addition.
Together with the Traceelement addition. But well, most people I personally know don't use the Traceelement part of Balling and adds them as usual.

Ralf

[RalfP]

Originally Posted by hma

Hello Ralf, nice to meat you here on RS. You are right certainly if you write the AquaMedic pump is a missdesigned product. I did not want to deny this. I wanted to show merely a workaround for that. I am use a GroTech III NG too, but some of my friends use the AquaMedic with the quite described modification and are contented with it.

You're also right :-), at least it's the cheaper product, I guess.

I gave it a try, because with my tank I have a big volume to dose.
The Grotech is limited to a maxium volume of 1.9 liters a day and with
my dosage of about 4.2 liters of the maximum concentrated NaHCO3 solution a day, that took 3 channels on the Grotech :-(.
I replaced the AM one with some industrial grade pumps from Harton, a German manufacturer. (one of them costs as much, as the quaddro (4 pumps) from AM :-().
The Grotech is still in use for I,Sr,elements

Ralf

[RalfP]

Hmm, me again.
Some time ago, I wrote a somewhat longish text, about what I wanted to tell in a certain situation about "Balling Method" (to get started somewere) and how I arrived at the chemical concentrations etc. that I use.
Maybe it's only confusing, because it partly conflicts with the avail "easy howtos".
Should I post that here?
Ralf

[Dentoid]

Yes, we'd like that!