Diatoms or Dinos? I'm lost

[NewReefer455]

I'm currently getting past my first salt water tank's 8th week (my build-thread is linked). From the many stickies regarding cycling I was led to believe that this ugly brown sludge was simply diatoms and part of the tank's natural course, up until this morning at least. I went to feed the tank as usual and found a dead nassarius snail. Up until now this is the first death that has occurred in the tank so I wasn't too worried. I looked it up to see if any of the tank inhabitants could kill the snails, but what I found were endless threads on dinos and now I'm not sure what I have.
It is definitely gooey and comes off in random strings that eventually make their way down the overflow; it also seems to hold small air pockets within the sludge as well, which makes me think dinos. It is also focused primarily on the sandbed, but is also slowly beginning to cover the rockwork as well. It does not seem to grow anywhere where there is no light, under the rock 'cave' the sand is absolutely spotless (also pointing me to dinos). The nail in the coffin is that my nitrates and phosphates are undetectable on salifert kits. I assumed that the diatoms/algae/coral frags were just sucking up the nutrients and all was well, but now I have no idea.
The one thing that makes me think diatoms is I am certain there is a whole lot of silica in the water. There are small tube sponges and pineapple sponges growing absolutely everywhere they can on the rockwork in the display even under direct lighting, but that is the only reasoning I have. I started with dry marco and live sand and I am topping off with rodi out of a 5 stage system. I just ordered salifert silica tests today, so I'll know for sure once they show up. I've included pictures under white and mixed lighting for reference. I also have ordered a cheap microscope on amazon so I can take a look and see for sure.

 

[Wes10C]

Maybe chrysophytes

 

[NewReefer455]

I checked last night after lights out and this morning before lights on, and whatever it is doesn't leave the sandbed or rocks like some species of dinos can.

 

[0utworld]

Neither, looks like golden algae

 

[AZMSGT]

the easiest way to start narrowing down if it’s Dinos or Diatoms is to check your nitrates. If you have zero nitrates I would lean to Dinos. If you have 5 Nitrates or higher Diatoms or algae.

 

[NewReefer455]

Even going off of the suggestions of golden algae and chrysophytes, I can't find anything that looks exactly similar. Nitrates and phosphates are absolutely unreadable though. My snails, porcelain crab, and tuxedo urchin do seem to be eating whatever it is. The urchin, added recently, is eating it off the rocks especially, while the crab seems to like to grab and sift it out of the sand occasionally.

Today I decided to try to get as much of it out as possible. I lightly vacuumed the sand and, with a glove on, rubbed all over the rocks to get as much of the jelly stuff water borne as possibly. I ended up changing and cleaning filter socks 4x throughout the day today. The sandbed is now mostly clear, with the exception of a few goo-piles of the stuff here and there. Removing the goo from the rocks, however, seemed to expose a whole lot of small hairs all over the rocks, although I am unsure if this is just another form of algae or not. I have attached pictures of the 'hairs' below.

And here are some pictures of some type of algae growth on the back glass

 

[NewReefer455]

Since I am seeing absolutely no nitrate or phosphate in the water I am going to err on the side of caution and assume dinos until I find otherwise. I'm going to begin heavier feedings as well as cut my skimmer of and turn my whites all the way down to try to combat it for now.

 

[Lithoman]

my bet its dinos.. Get a cheap microscope and then post back pics..

see my thread, it should help you
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/another-dino-or-cyan-id-please.689363/

 

[Wes10C]

Even going off of the suggestions of golden algae and chrysophytes, I can't find anything that looks exactly similar. Nitrates and phosphates are absolutely unreadable though. My snails, porcelain crab, and tuxedo urchin do seem to be eating whatever it is. The urchin, added recently, is eating it off the rocks especially, while the crab seems to like to grab and sift it out of the sand occasionally.

Today I decided to try to get as much of it out as possible. I lightly vacuumed the sand and, with a glove on, rubbed all over the rocks to get as much of the jelly stuff water borne as possibly. I ended up changing and cleaning filter socks 4x throughout the day today. The sandbed is now mostly clear, with the exception of a few goo-piles of the stuff here and there. Removing the goo from the rocks, however, seemed to expose a whole lot of small hairs all over the rocks, although I am unsure if this is just another form of algae or not. I have attached pictures of the 'hairs' below.

And here are some pictures of some type of algae growth on the back glass

I had something somewhat similar to this clear stringy stuff on the back glass. It was as kinda hard to scrub off. I feel like reducing my lights by alot for a few days helped the problem go away.

 

[NewReefer455]

Well, it is indeed dinos, I just cannot seem to get a good picture under the scope with my phone. Five days ago I vacuumed the sand and got as much as I could off of the rocks as well. I removed the skimmer and have been feeding like crazy. I also cut the white light on my display, finally added some macros to my refugium, and am changing the filter socks every morning right before lights on.

So far there is almost no regrowth on the sand, and it seems to be cutting back on the rockwork. My nitrates also are finally starting to rise. The addition of the macros also brought a significant amount of pods which are flourishing in the sump. I am also starting to see small amount of cyano taking over some small portions of rock. I'm not out of the woods yet, but things are starting to look a lot better. My corals are also looking much better as well.