# OK to mix fertilizers?



## fishbone (Jan 15, 2007)

I'm going on vacation. In order to make fertilizing my tank easier for the caretaker, am I OK to mix them? What I am refering to is just the Fluorish line. I have Fluorish, Fluorish Excel, Fluorish Potassium. Figured I'd throw the right dose of each in the same container, keep it in the fridge (for the Fluorish) and have the caretaker dump the whole thing, rather than have 3 separate containers.


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

might be a little late by now. But no don't mix them, they will not work properly. Keep the carbon, traces, and macro ferts seperate. That is what is suggested. Mixing them often causes them to react with each other, the products are harmless to the fish, but unusable to the plants and sometimes completely insoluble.


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## fishbone (Jan 15, 2007)

Not late at all, in fact timely 
I have sent an e-mail to Seachem about this but in the meantime this is what I have been able to find on their website:


> *I am cycling through a new 150 gallon tank and I would like to have the plant supplements added automatically with a dosing pump. Can I safely mix Flourish, Excel, Trace, Iron and Potassium in a six day quantity of "soup" that will be dosed equally in six days? I have concerns about portions of it precipitating out in the container?*
> 
> Those supplements will mix together just fine. You may want to dilute it with some distilled water to prevent any precipitations from being overconcentrated.


http://www.seachem.com/support/FAQs/Planted.html
However, I think I am going to keep them separate, in the fridge. I haven't decided yet. I will be gone for 2 weeks and during this time there will be 4 dosings. Come to think of it, I don't even have enough recipients for all the separate solutions.


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## Mikaila31 (Nov 29, 2009)

I honestly can not believe their claim that they will not react together. The EI system uses the base compounds for fertilizers, powders like K2SO4, KNO3, CSM+B, ect. We know when mixed that these fertilizers tend to react and it degrades their effectiveness. Thats one of the reasons traces are not dosed the same day macro ferts are. Seachem's claim makes no sense unless they are using less reactive compounds in their fertlizers, but this would require more energy on the plants part to uptake and use the fertilizer.....


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## fishbone (Jan 15, 2007)

Looks like you were right!
Their response


> Thank you for your question. We do not recommend mixing
> the Flourish supplements. Doing so can degrade the
> products. It would be best to have your caretaker dose
> each product individually as recommended in the
> ...


I have separated out the chemicals and the caretaker will dose each individually.


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