Fauna Marin Balling Light VS 2 Part 2 ESSENTIAL+

[nirshalom]

Hay Every one,
I am a kind of new reefer, I add a tank at the long past and now start again, with a full apex system.
I am holding 1400 Liter Tank for about 8 Months half full of mainly lps and a few fishs.

ALk=8.19-8.5,
Ca-380-390,
Mg-1300-1330.

Until Today I Used 2 Part ESSENTIAL+ its 2.7 liter each cost about 70$ in My country.
At the beginning it was fine, but today I allready dosing 140ml Per Day each, it means 70$ for 19.2 Days. not to talk about the rulles, amino and others, it become subtential amount. I am out of usa so Using bulk reef solution is impossible.
I am Thinking of Switching to Fauna Marin Balling Light. (a Set cost 136.5$)
First does it better ?
Second, does it more economical (cost less)?
Thank you

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I’m not familiar with 2 part Essential +, but there are many ways to add calcium and alkalinity the work well.

 

[ReneReef]

Hay Every one,
I am a kind of new reefer, I add a tank at the long past and now start again, with a full apex system.
I am holding 1400 Liter Tank for about 8 Months half full of mainly lps and a few fishs.

ALk=8.19-8.5,
Ca-380-390,
Mg-1300-1330.

Until Today I Used 2 Part ESSENTIAL+ its 2.7 liter each cost about 70$ in My country.
At the beginning it was fine, but today I allready dosing 140ml Per Day each, it means 70$ for 19.2 Days. not to talk about the rulles, amino and others, it become subtential amount. I am out of usa so Using bulk reef solution is impossible.
I am Thinking of Switching to Fauna Marin Balling Light. (a Set cost 136.5$)
First does it better ?
Second, does it more economical (cost less)?
Thank you

I've used both for extended periods in the past. Both work fine.
Bear in mind, regular waterchanges are an absolutely must with Balling Light. FM recommends a minimum of 10% per week.

Balling Light is bicarbonate based. Essentials+ is carbonate based.
Therefore, switching to Balling Light will drop your pH slightly.

A Balling Light set does not contain the parts in ratio of use. So, a cost comparison is harder to make.
If you use 140 mL a day of Essentials+, you will need about 425 mL of Balling Light KH a day.

Where I live, Balling Light and Essentials+ are about the same price per KH.

 

[nirshalom]

Balling Light is bicarbonate based. Essentials+ is carbonate based.
Therefore, switching to Balling Light will drop your pH slightly.

A Balling Light set does not contain the parts in ratio of use. So, a cost comparison is harder to make.
If you use 140 mL a day of Essentials+, you will need about 425 mL of Balling Light KH a day.

Where I live, Balling Light and Essentials+ are about the same price per KH.

Thank you very much for your answer
You hit exactly the right points to consider

Right now I'm at a stage where the parameters are pretty stable
ALK: 8.7-8.9
CAL: 440-460
MAG: 1305-1320
PH = 7.7-7.9

1) Consideration of what is better for my tank:
At the moment with Essentials+, my corals looks Happy, Finally I managed to achieve stability in parameters. I am doing Testing every 3 days.
So i'm telling myself, if everything is fine why to change things. Wyh again go back testing everyday.

On the other hand, from what I've learned so far, it seems that the Balling method also has Trace Elements Which today I don't add to the Tank (Only Amino). With Balling it may be possible to be even more successful than today. I've also seen FAUNA's explanations, according to which they claim to add in a 2-part method and assume that the salinity always remains the same, with time, the salt (sudium) in the soultion dilutes the Trace elements.
I am Not fully sure its corect, Becouse Essentials+ also Has Trace and Major elements (https://atiaquaristik.com/en/?page_id=2241)

2) Space and equipment consideration:
In addition to the fact that we need 3 pumps instead of 2 (I don't have a problem with it). I did the calculation (as you did) and saw that Balling needs to add about 240 ml per day (instead of 120 per day of Essentials+). You reached even higher result of 425 ml. With 5-liter canisters (I don't have room for larger canisters) I will have to fill the canisters every 20 days, unlike Essentials+, which has a full canister that lasts more than 40 days. Since I'm away from home a lot, this is an important consideration for me.

Essentials+ has 1dkh in 10ml/100Liter compering Balling 1Dkh in 20ml/100Liter (twice as much) meaning if i dos 120ml Essentials, i am going to need 240ml with Balling)

3) The financial consideration:
In terms of the financial consideration, I did a calculation, the calculation is illustrative of course because the quantities have not yet been tested in practice. With the Balling method, it comes out to $2.4 per day (assuming I add 25 miles of each Trace elements.
Compared to Essentials+, which costs $3.25 per day.
That's about $25 per month.

Attached some Pictures of my system.

 

[Pod_01]

I've also seen FAUNA's explanations, according to which they claim to add in a 2-part method and assume that the salinity always remains the same, with time, the salt (sudium) in the soultion dilutes the Trace elements.

That doesn’t sound correct, all 2/3 part systems will raise salinity and over time you need to adjust salinity. FM system doesn’t have special elements to deal with salinity creep…

Fauna Marin 2 part also does not maintain ionic balance, so you need to do 10 or 20% water changes to maintain ionic balance.
I used the system and because I didn’t do sufficient water changes some of the ions went out of whack. For example S was depressed etc…

From my experience Tropic Marin Original Balling with TM A and K elements is easier to use. Ionic Ballance is maintained and user only needs to adjust creep in salinity over time. TM A and K can be added to Part A and Part B to account for trace element consumption.