Dinos or Diatoms need ID

[4sylvester]

2 year old reefer 525 was doing great. nitrates were mid 20's so decided to dose nopox about same time my LPS were showing signs of stress. Long story short NOPOX was working but some LPS were slowly dying over weeks. Turns out my RODI was 0 TDS but my carbon and membrane were spent and i started to suspect chlorine breakthough so i dosed alpha. It worked and corals started to perk up. So i did two 30% water changes and voila... corals that were still alive came back strong so my RODI was contaminated.. i can only assume chlorine. Continued to nopox dose and then i had an ugly outbreak of something in my sand bed. I reduced NOPOX for a week and no luck. The lowest i got with nopox was 8 nitrate and i had to dose some phosphate on occassion but never bottomed out. I thought is was cyano so i tried chemiclean and didn't touch it. Now i am afraid its dinos . Before i buy a microscope was wondering if this was an easy ID? I am afraid i did a lot of damage to my bacterial population with bad rodi. I stopped NOPOX and have now been dosing microbacter7 every day for a week hoping to restore my bacterial population.

 

[twilliard]

A scope shot is the best for what I see. Looks like a combination of cyano/spirulina possible dinoflagellates.

 

[taricha]

Before i buy a microscope was wondering if this was an easy ID?

It's not an easy ID, that presentation could be dinos or diatoms. Some slightly redder patches could mean there's cyano mix in there as well.
Is that cerith snail grazing on the brown sand, and do I see a lighter path where he's been?
If so, I'd watch the snails for signs of die-off (dino toxins), or continued grazing (probably diatoms).

 

[waleedreef]

it looks like Diatoms for me.

 

[Kellie in CA]

My dinos looked just like that. On the sand only and would mix away easily, only to be back within hours.

The good news is, I got rid of it really easy with a cheap UV Sterilizer.

 

[4sylvester]

Finally got a microscope. I am having trouble getting a sample. this stuff isn't slimy and it seems to break apart. I pulled some sand and tried to pull some "stuff" with a tweezers but only got water droplets. Here is what i saw. Does this look like dinos? i don't see a tail.

 

[4sylvester]

so after doing some research it looks like amphidinium because is has a "foot". It's behavior is a perfect match to what i see. No bubbles, no strings, no snot, and only in the sandbad. It disappears at night and corals continue to do well. It's not a very toxic strain. So, since this has been an eye sore more than anything else i am going to the "do nothing" approach. I have been daily dosing MB7 for 10 days now but i am stopping that now.