It is not conflicting with what @ScottB said. It has affect against some strains can be forced to water column. Even works somewhat with small cell Amphidinium but the process is slow based on the few hundred posts I have gone trough and based on my own fight.
Great photos and I like your process so far. There are tons of diatom species, but those rectangular ones look "special". But I see typical ones as well.Welp, I have dinos. Been battling them for about 3 months now and I'm onto the third method. UV had done wonders for me in the past when I had coolia, but I believe I have amphidinium now because they're strictly in the sand. Even though they fade at night, they bloom during the day so I assume they're hiding instead of going waterborne.
Sand is still covered with a brown mat but the good news is that I THINK I'm seeing more diatoms. I've always recognized them as the long strands but I'm seeing different varieties. Slowly seeing less dinos in the sample taken.
- UV not effective. On a 120g system I'm running a 55w Lifegard UV with a 700gph pump directly pulling from the display tank
- Did daily vacuuming of sand running the water through a sock, then pumped back through a UV sterilizer. This kept them at bay but if I skipped a couple days they would be back at full coverage.
- I'm now trying silica dosing. Dosing .4ppm of Spongexcel daily for about a week now and barely registering anything with the Salifert test.
Identified in August
Thick mats of dinos last week
Today I'm seeing a better diatom to dino ratio so I can only assume the diatoms are growing and hopefully outcompete them. Really hard to tell with the naked eye since the sand is just covered in brown.
I'm seeing a lot of shapes. from the long strand type, footballs, rectangles. Can anyone confirm if this is a diatom? I usually distinguish them by the distinct dots/sections but this one looks more singular. There is a large number of these guys.
Yes, I think you are correct. The bottom one in first pic does look like LC Amphid. Good pics, but lets look for a Like from @taricha on Proro and LC Amphids. I think he would enjoy seeing your variety of diatoms and sand critters.I had suspicion that prorocentrum was in the mix but wasn't sure since the dinos have been exclusively in the sand. Thanks for confirming. Nitrates have always been in the 8-12ppm range and phosphate consistently at .12 even before dinos. I'll try cutting back the UV pump's flow rate and a longer blackout to hopefully trigger them to migrate into the water.
I "splurged" on a $70 microscope instead of a $20 toy one and its been fascinating as hell. First pic do I see procentrum and amphidinium? Second one is from last night which had quite the variety of diatoms I've never seen before. Silicate dosing is bringing out some cool stuff.
Well sorry about that but glad I tagged taricha. No need for a blackout then, and the UV isn't really going to do much against those sand-hugging amphids.I had suspicion that prorocentrum was in the mix but wasn't sure since the dinos have been exclusively in the sand. Thanks for confirming. Nitrates have always been in the 8-12ppm range and phosphate consistently at .12 even before dinos. I'll try cutting back the UV pump's flow rate and a longer blackout to hopefully trigger them to migrate into the water.
I "splurged" on a $70 microscope instead of a $20 toy one and its been fascinating as hell. First pic do I see procentrum and amphidinium? Second one is from last night which had quite the variety of diatoms I've never seen before. Silicate dosing is bringing out some cool stuff.
Hard to tell from that still pic. Here is a link to the DINO ID Guide. Check the linked pics and videos for matching shape and movement.I posted in a separate thread but this might get more traction from all the people following it. Can someone identify? They move around, look like ladybugs.
www.reef2reef.com
I think you are correct to deal with the bryopsis first. That treatment process will add some amount of nutrient "noise" to the system; I cannot say whether it will add or subtract from your dino population.
Feeding heavier doesn't always help rising po4.
I agree, I prefer dose Po4 and Dose No3 than feed, then try the approach of Dr. Tim's, turn skimmer on and off some times of the day to remove the bacteria with organics.... so no food for dino's.
