Balancing Redox Reactions

[kpreet]

I understand how to balance the half reactions and that you have to balance the oxygens by using water and then the hydrogens by H+ in an acidic equation but do you use also use the H+ (or the OH- in basic solution) to balance the charges of the ions on both sides of the final equation at the end as the final step or am I making this up?

Thanks! I don't know if I make sense.

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[diene]

You use OH- in a basic solution. Adding OH- turns the H+ in the solution to turn into H2O.

For example:

if you have:
16H+ + xxxx --> xxxx + 8H2O
In base:
16OH- + 16 H+ + xxxxx --> xxxx + 8H2O + 16OH-
16H2O + xxxx --> xxxx + 8H2O + 16OH-
8H2O + xxxx-> xxxx + 8H2O + 16OH'