Piscesgirl

I really am not much of a fertilizer -- the times I think to add ferts are during water changes. Are there any that shouldn't be added on the same day/same time? Generally I just use Flourish, and some Potassium Sulfate (have Potassium Nitrate and Potassium Phosphate as well but usually use the Sulfate). I have a number of liquid ferts (such at Kent Botanica Grow) that I add on occasion. No method to my madness.

Anyway, any that are NOT recommended to be added at the same time?

Thank you

John P.

Dose macros & micros on different days.

Piscesgirl

Is that just a rule of thumb or are there some that interfere with each other?

John P.

May cause cloudiness ... I don't recall the explanation/reason why.

bharada

You may experience a white haze in the water if you does phosphate (PO4) and iron on the same day. It takes several hours to clear. I haven't experienced any issues other than that .

dennis

Recent readings for another topic have made me realize that many of th nutrients we add have different charges. Many of the trace nutrients: Fe, K, Mg, Ca, etc all have positive+ charges while many of the macros, NO3, SO4 have negative charges-. I am not sure about PO4 but hazard a guess that it is negative also. Add opposites together, like magnets, and - may attract +. I know PO4 and Fe, especially in higher light, can bind to form FePO4, a fairly stable and insoluble compound that the plants can't use. I believe that bacteria, fungi and some chemical situations that happen in the substrate can break the bond and allow the nutrients to be used by the plants.

I may be wrong with some/all of this as I am just regurgitating info I recently read. Please correct me if I am wrong.

BigFoot

Just my experience . I got hard water when i dose the flourish i would get the white haze also. Sense then i switch to dry ferts and no more white haze.I think the hard water and the ferrous iron to don't get along for what reason i have no clue of. Now its great to be able to put all ferts in everyday and not get the white devil.

Piscesgirl

Thanks folks -- so it really just seems to be the Fe that causes problems?

titan97

Iron tends to form many insoluble compounds in the pH range we normally keep our aquariums. Some of them are completely insoluble, others are semi-soluble. The lower the pH, generally, the less problems you will have with Fe compounds. By lower pH, I am referring to pH's of less than 5 or so. I realize this is unacceptable to most fish (and perhaps plants). Dennis is right that cations (positive) and anions (negative) will combine and precipitate (the white haze you see), but only if the product is insoluble or semi-soluble in water. All nitrates are soluble, so FeNO3 is not your culprit for white hazy water. I would imagine that any white haze you see is due to FeSO4, FeSO4, or perhaps even FeCO3/FeHCO3. I don't have my solubility table in front of me, and I'm too lazy too Google it right now.
If you have hard water or high nutrient concentrations, you may want to slowly add any Fe-containing ferts. If this doesn't work, we can then look at whatever else is in your fert solution.
Also, please excuse my unbalanced compounds. I know that NO3 is -1, PO4 is -3, Fe is normally +2 or +3, etc. For clarity's sake, I've omitted the correct subscripts for the compounds.

-Dustin

Piscesgirl

I actually don't have any haziness, but I also don't add Fe. I was only looking for recommendations as to what things I shouldn't add together, a kind of general recommendation to use as a guideline.