Diatom, cyano, or dinos?

[Bitcoin Reefer]

I’ve been searching like crazy online but can’t seem to make an ID so coming to you all for help.

About 2 months ago we finally beat our GHA and turf algae issues with tangs snails and I believe amphipods are helping because GHA even in refugium is gone and no tangs or snails there, but I digress.

When we beat those, which were growing on sand and rock insanely, I think maybe we left a void of space and now we’ve been getting this brown film which turns into a sort of mat when it gets thicker. We also have greenish and brownish matty type stuff on rocks which might be same or different? Any help appreciated!!!

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Btw is there a way to post full resolution photos here? It always compresses and lowers quality/resolution

 

[sixty_reefer]

I would be keen to say that it is a mix of Cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates only a microscope could make a positive id in your situation. How’s your phosphates and nitrates?

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Problems been happening since I finally beat GHA and turf about a month ago. Nitrate ranged 0.1-6.4 here is spreadsheet. Never hit 0. Phosphate between 0-.11 only hitting 0 one day that I tested.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

I would be keen to say that it is a mix of Cyanobacteria and dinoflagellates only a microscope could make a positive id in your situation. How’s your phosphates and nitrates?

And thank you for the feedback!

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Additional info:

1. When I use a turkey baster the stuff on rock fly’s off relatively easy. This stuff is combination of green and a little brown
2. The stuff on the sand is more brown but some parts slightly green. This stuff goes away at night and comes back over the day the longer the lights are on.

 

[Lps_lover12]

Additional info:

1. When I use a turkey baster the stuff on rock fly’s off relatively easy. This stuff is combination of green and a little brown
2. The stuff on the sand is more brown but some parts slightly green. This stuff goes away at night and comes back over the day the longer the lights are on.

If it goes away at night and comes back during the day that’s Dino’s. They suspend themselves into the water column at night

 

[DarkReefer]

100% get a cheap microscope.
It's best to ID this stuff as early as possible.
Don't do what I did and procrastinate buying one. I thought I was dealing with cyano at first, then when chemiclean didn't kill it off I thought it must be diatoms because my nutrients were always kinda there and from what I thought, never bottomed out but who knows...
Turns out I have dinos and that was after 1-2 months of fluffing about wasting time, effort and money doing things I didn't have to.

People suggest doing this all the time and I always thought it was excessive to need a microscope... oh boy I was wrong.
Now I'm dealing with the devil... I hope the reef gods favour me in the coming weeks.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

If it goes away at night and comes back during the day that’s Dino’s. They suspend themselves into the water column at night

Thank you. That’s not what I wanted to hear, but I’ll start researching what to do about Dino’s now :/

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

100% get a cheap microscope.
It's best to ID this stuff as early as possible.
Don't do what I did and procrastinate buying one. I thought I was dealing with cyano at first, then when chemiclean didn't kill it off I thought it must be diatoms because my nutrients were always kinda there and from what I thought, never bottomed out but who knows...
Turns out I have dinos and that was after 1-2 months of fluffing about wasting time, effort and money doing things I didn't have to.

People suggest doing this all the time and I always thought it was excessive to need a microscope... oh boy I was wrong.
Now I'm dealing with the devil... I hope the reef gods favour me in the coming weeks.

I actually bought a microscope for my tank but never opened it and gave it to my nephew since I never used it lol. I’ll order one now. Any recommendation?

 

[DarkReefer]

I actually bought a microscope for my tank but never opened it and gave it to my nephew since I never used it lol. I’ll order one now. Any recommendation?

Nothing in particular, mine cost about $100-130 (AUD). Some kids science type thing so nothing super fancy.
People on here often say to even look at cheaper ones. Can't recall the minimum zoom level required, but I'm fairly sure there's a thread on here about it somewhere that would be worth a read.

I really wish I'd done it sooner so I could've ID'd my issues whilst they were much smaller and hit it on the head. Good on you for getting onto it though.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

I’ll get scope to start, then if I can determine it’s strictly Dino’s I’ll fight it as Dino’s, and if I see some cyano I’ll probably chemiclean. I used it once before and it worked great, but my cyano looked different than this. Guy at LFS says from pics he thinks it’s cyano. Hmm. Scope should help I hope

 

[ggNoRe]

Definitely dinoflagellates. A UV sterilizer can go a long way for this. Carbon dosing at night and dosing silicates also seem to be the latest theories in battling them. Best of luck!

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Definitely dinoflagellates. A UV sterilizer can go a long way for this. Carbon dosing at night and dosing silicates also seem to be the latest theories in battling them. Best of luck!

Thank you for the vote for Dino. What would carbon dosing do in this scenario?

 

[ggNoRe]

Thank you for the vote for Dino. What would carbon dosing do in this scenario?

Dinoflagelates. A disruptive treatment

This thread is for the general discussion of the Article Dinoflagelates. A disruptive treatment. Please add to the discussion here.

www.reef2reef.com

This thread goes into detail about carbon dosing for dino.

 

[sixty_reefer]

Your results are in line with most folks battling algae the wrong way, they are too low. Personally I would raise both and add a source of carbon dose like Reef actif at this point.
the problem you have is once you find a way to eradicate the algae ammonia becomes available for other nuisances like dinoflagellates and Cyanobacteria if you have a slow release carbon source you could transfer the available ammonia into bacteria without allowing any nuisances to take its place.

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Nothing in particular, mine cost about $100-130 (AUD). Some kids science type thing so nothing super fancy.
People on here often say to even look at cheaper ones. Can't recall the minimum zoom level required, but I'm fairly sure there's a thread on here about it somewhere that would be worth a read.

I really wish I'd done it sooner so I could've ID'd my issues whilst they were much smaller and hit it on the head. Good on you for getting onto it though.

Ordered this one

*EDIT* It won't post link even when I use the insert hyperlink feature. Weird. Below post was me trying again, and it won't let me even delete the post.

Here is name as per Amazon

AmScope M150C-I 40X-1000X All-Metal Optical Glass Lenses Cordless LED Student Biological Compound Microscope​

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Dinoflagelates. A disruptive treatment

This thread is for the general discussion of the Article Dinoflagelates. A disruptive treatment. Please add to the discussion here.

www.reef2reef.com

This thread goes into detail about carbon dosing for dino.

7 out of 9 pages through reading lol. This sounds very interesting!

 

[Bitcoin Reefer]

Your results are in line with most folks battling algae the wrong way, they are too low. Personally I would raise both and add a source of carbon dose like Reef actif at this point.
the problem you have is once you find a way to eradicate the algae ammonia becomes available for other nuisances like dinoflagellates and Cyanobacteria if you have a slow release carbon source you could transfer the available ammonia into bacteria without allowing any nuisances to take its place.

So basically doing what the article/thread that ggNore linked? I noticed you're active on that thread. Almost done reading through all the comments. So what is difference between Reef actif and Vodka or vinegar which are more readily available?

I've been dropping my refugium light time on over the last week from on 20 hours to on 6 hours as of today. I've been power feeding to get my nitrates and phosphates up, even before I knew these were dinos. I aim for .1 phos, 5+ nitrates, but they've been getting low over last couple of weeks. They weren't too bad I thought during the time the dinos started though. Around .1 phos, 5 nitrates if my timeline is correct (which it might not be lol). I'll try to get my nitrates and phosphates to a decently high number before starting the carbon dosing method I suppose?