Balancing Red-ox Reactions

What are the steps to balancing a red-ox reaction?

1. Assign oxidation numbers to identify reducing and oxidizing players.
2. Separate oxidizing reactants from reducing reactants into two half reactions and ignore spectator ions, i.e. ions not involved in the oxidation or reduction of the key players.
3. Balance the atoms in each half reaction.
4. Choose between balancing under acidic conditions or basic conditions:
   • Under acidic conditions, use H$^{+}$ to balance charges on the necessary side to bring total charges to zero.
   • Under basic conditions, use OH$^{-}$ to balance charges on the necessary side to bring total charges to zero.
5. Balance each half reaction with water and electrons as necessary.
6. Combine both half reactions and cancel out extra molecules as necessary.