Help me identify organism in this microscope picture i just took

twinturbo11

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Hey guys
new here. have a 350 gallon (250 display) mixed reef system. About 2 years old. Recently been battling some browning of the sand and green thin algae on the rocks. I bought a $15 USB microscope, and got the below image. Some of these circle move around. This is from a few clustered grains of sand that green/brown on them. Thoughts if this is dino, cyano, phyto, or something else? Much thanks for your help

Also here is a video of these moving around:

Capture.JPG
 
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Beardo

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With the lower magnification level it is difficult to give a positive ID, but based on shape and movement I am pretty confident they are dinos.
There is one just below dead center that swings around as if tethered on one end which is classic ostreopsis movement. The larger that look to slowly crawl look to be large cell amphidinium.
There are a couple quick moving ones that could be something different.
Higher magnification images would help alot though as I'm only taking a stab based on movement.
 

andrewey

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I see at least two Ostreopsis dinos. The others could be amphidinium, but it's too difficult to tell at this magnification confidently. I would treat for ostreopsis first unless you can get better images.
 
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twinturbo11

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I see at least two Ostreopsis dinos. The others could be amphidinium, but it's too difficult to tell at this magnification confidently. I would treat for ostreopsis first unless you can get better images.

Thank you so much Andrewey and Beardo. To fight ostreopsis dinos, would Vibrant or Dinos-X be good solutions? In addition to turning down lights + vacuum + UV ?

Much thanks
 

Beardo

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I didn't find vibrant or dino-x effective.
Dino-x also.caused negative impacts to my corals.
A proper sized UV is what worked for ostreopsis and some other species for me. But UV doesn't work on large cell amphidinium.
 

andrewey

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@Beardo nailed it. I personally wouldn't use dino-x or vibrant in this situation, but that's not to say they do/don't work. I would run a properly sized UV, make sure nitrates and phosphates were at appropriate levels, and discontinue water changes. There hasn't been much success with siphoning or blackouts alone, although you're free to employ them as part of a multi pronged approach! Best of luck!
 
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twinturbo11

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@Beardo nailed it. I personally wouldn't use dino-x or vibrant in this situation, but that's not to say they do/don't work. I would run a properly sized UV, make sure nitrates and phosphates were at appropriate levels, and discontinue water changes. There hasn't been much success with siphoning or blackouts alone, although you're free to employ them as part of a multi pronged approach! Best of luck!

So I run a 55w UV for 8 hours a day on my 350 gallon (total volume) - as of today i started to run it 24 hours a day. Maybe I need a second unit to get the job done? My Nitrates/Phosphate were very low/zero, which is what i think cause this. So today i started dosing Potassium Nitrates (little jar from Green Leaf Aqua), and brought them up to 1.5ppm - target is to rise steadily to 5ppm. For phosphates, my crappy seachem test kit is unreliable - i will buy a Hanna ULR checker tomorrow, and aim to raise to 0.05-0.10. I dont have GFO, but I stopped carbon. I have huge fuge (50 gallons or so), so I emptied half my cheato. Dunno what else to do!
 

andrewey

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You will likely need a second UV unit- the usual suggestion is 1 watt for every 2-3 gallons for ostreopsis. You're doing good raising your nutrients- I would target a nitrate of 10ppm and your phosphate level looks to be heading in the right direction. I would continue to run carbon (but not carbon dose). They are pretty toxic and can harm the tank's inhabitants. Otherwise, it looks like you're taking all the right steps!
 

Beardo

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I agree you need a second or larger unit. I tried a 57 watt on my 240 when I first started dealing with dinos and then on my 270g and it did not work. Once I upgraded to a 114 watt unit, ostreopsis were taken care of quickly.
Run them 24 hours a day. Ostreopsis enter the water column readily so UV is very effective. You can add a couple days of lights out and blowing off the rocks when lights are off to help as well.
As @andrewey said ostreopsis are toxic when dieing so utilizing GAC is important.

Also, as a note, ostreopsis are cyst forming. After a move a year after defeating them, I had them show back up because of the system being upset and conditions being right for them to "hatch" from their cysts. Pretty interesting little creatures.
 
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twinturbo11

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After vacuuming yesterday, the sand bed was still very pristine this morning. By 2pm it started getting a bit of brown/green here and there. I took a bit under microscope (see pic below) - what was suprising was that hardly anything moved. Everything was static, except for the odd round thing moving.


WIN_20200605_14_00_33_Pro.jpg
WIN_20200605_13_56_08_Pro.jpg
 
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twinturbo11

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I agree you need a second or larger unit. I tried a 57 watt on my 240 when I first started dealing with dinos and then on my 270g and it did not work. Once I upgraded to a 114 watt unit, ostreopsis were taken care of quickly.
Run them 24 hours a day. Ostreopsis enter the water column readily so UV is very effective. You can add a couple days of lights out and blowing off the rocks when lights are off to help as well.
As @andrewey said ostreopsis are toxic when dieing so utilizing GAC is important.

Also, as a note, ostreopsis are cyst forming. After a move a year after defeating them, I had them show back up because of the system being upset and conditions being right for them to "hatch" from their cysts. Pretty interesting little creatures.

Thoughts on these day time pictures?

Btw, I might be confused due to the lights being turned off, but I think there is less of this brown/green stuff on my sand at night vs midday. Is that a characteristic of a specific type of algae?
 

Beardo

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I'm sorry but I can't tell anything from those pictures. The magnification isn't high enough.

As far as it seeming to go away with lights out, that is normal for dinos. Many species of dinos, such as ostreopsis, enter the water column at night (or when lights are out). That is what makes the UV effective against them.
Others, such as large cell amphidinium, will migrate deeper into the sand bed during lights out.
 

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