ID please, no microscope yet

[bkwonnn]

Hi guys.

Batteling with this for a while.
It’s powdery when I blow it with turkey paster.

Water parameters were all over the place but now
Phosphate 0.05
Nitrate 10
Kh 8
Salinity 1.025
Calcium 450
Magnesium 1250

Dosing all for reef.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[TX_REEF]

maybe dinoflagellates, I'm not an expert though. When I had dinos I was able to baste them off like dust (they grew back until I raised Nitrate and Phosphate, though

 

[bkwonnn]

Bought a microscope and uv! See what that will bring

 

[brandon429]

How many gallons is the tank

That matters in fixing your issue more than species ID.

 

[UMALUM]

Your numbers are fine, what your seeing is likely diatom. If the tank is established and this isn't your first bought with them your likely introducing silicate either through food or your water source. If you've added anything recently like sand or dry rock that's the culprit.

 

[bkwonnn]

How many gallons is the tank

That matters in fixing your issue more than species ID.

25

 

[bkwonnn]

Your numbers are fine, what you’re seeing is likely diatom. If the tank is established and this isn't your first bought with them your likely introducing silicate either through food or your water source. If you've added anything recently like sand or dry rock that's the culprit.

I tested 0 for silicate funny enough. I expected that also

 

[bkwonnn]

I expected silicates I mean

 

[brandon429]

Excellent. At that size, it's easy to simply clean your reef into compliance using a special way i have documented with several hundred examples from this board. If you need it, you'll know because the tank starts to get worse with more invasions over time no matter what you do vs looking like you want it to.

When that time comes, send me a message and we'll fix your reef in the way my examples show that I will send to you for prep reading. You're lucky the tank is that small, big tanks are hard to manage and nanos are easy due to this option. It allows you to simply clean your reef into compliance vs turn it into a green algae field or cyano, what you see in the stickies at the top of this forum.

ID and tank params play no role at all in fixing that reef when you're ready. It's a type of cleaning you have not seen before.

 

[brandon429]

If your alternate options work, the tank will look great in a few days and you won't need any other action.

 

[bkwonnn]

Green killing machine is hamering it!