Gound balance or ground control is used to tune the detector so it will not be effected by or "see" the minerals in the ground that your are hunting. Your Cibola is pre-set at the factory to be used in average ground. This means that it will work fairly well most of the times but cannot be fine tuned for ground that has more or less minerals than what ever average ground is to the factory. A metal detetor with out ground balance is easier for some one to turn on and go, and will give better results than a detector with manual ground balance that is set wrong. However, the ground minerals can change at every place you hunt and even every few feet in some parts of the country. If your pre-set ground tuning is way off you will loose depth and get false signals. Some detectors have automatic ground balance that will trac the ground and change to meet the conditions without the operator doing a thing. Others are manual, like the Vaquero, and you have to set it as you go. This is very easy once you understand it. If you want a Tesoro that you never have to worry about ground balance get the Lobo Super Trac.
Your Cibola is a good detector and will give good results in most places, but if it had a ground balance knob, you would get better results in most places. Learn to use the Cibola and the hobby and then decide if you want to spend the money to get a detector with the ground balance feature, the Cibola will still be a great back-up detector. I hope this helps a little, I did not go into how to ground balance, it is easy and only takes a few seconds to do. If you get another detector ask again and I will explain further.
Have fun! DC
