Seesaw relationship of acids and bases?

[Guadalupe_Diaz_Garcia_1L]

Can someone clarify, how an equilibrium equation would change if instead of using NH4(+), NH4CL? Since based on what he said the CL would act as an acid when it disassociates. Is it simply that it would make the CL an acid?

[Caitlin Pan 1J]

The equilibrium equation technically would not change(same as the equation for just using NH4+). NH4Cl is a salt, which would essentially dissociate in water, creating NH4+ and Cl- in solution. When writing out the equation with NH4Cl, writing it in the net ionic equation would cancel out the Cl- on both sides (Cl- is essentially a spectator ion in the reaction). Contrary to Cl- being an acid, Cl- is actually a very very weak base when dissociated in water so it does not affect the overall pH of the solution. [A little tangent but another explanation for Cl- being a very weak base is if you look at a hypothetical HCl molecule (Cl- is the conjugate base of HCl). HCl is a very strong acid, and hence Cl- would be very weak in nature.] Instead, the most significant molecule that would affect the pH would be the NH4+ and since NH4+ is a weak acid, this would make the entire solution acidic.