alk kalk and balling method

[GSnake]

hello,

I started using kalk through a doser again this week. I still find myself dosing soda ash - alk, to maintain a 9 dkh. my question is about continual additions of sodium from alk and how to maintain ionic balance using balling method.

from what i understand about balling method is that (using mineral salt from Aquaforest to mix into a calcium solution), the balance is maintained whenever you dose calcium, because it offsets the binding of sodium from alk to chloride from calcium (2 part recipe). But what about just dosing alk? is there not an imbalance of sodium in the water if your just continually dosing alk all the time? or is it non detrimental unless bound to chloride to form salt?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

There's not a perfect solution if you are just dosing alkalinity, but I'll also note the boost to sodium cannot be very large if you never need to add calcium chloride.

I think I'd just ignore any small imbalance until you start to need to also dose calcium chloride.