Yeah I suppose. I don't quite understand this common response if I'm being honest. Lack of other inhabitants that could occupy that niche is more of the way I see it... I mean I get the concept but idk if it automatically means dinos... In general... In your case it does look like dinos. Sorry didnt mean to derail
I think the common response is just on the data from this site, showing that the bottoming out of either or both N/P was a common thread for almost every case of dinos.
First step is to make sure you have measurable N/P, this is required to attack all dinos.
www.reef2reef.com
What test kits have you got? If you trust your test kit they may be photosynthetic dinoflagellates that are fairly easy to deal with as a black out should work on them.
Zero nutrients is more to do with a “niche” as you say I normally refer to it as redirection of nutrients from the nitrifying heterotrophic bacteria into the first nuisance available due to a limitation in nitrate or phosphates.
In a way, heterotrophic bacteria is in most systems the main bacteria responsible in oxidise ammonia, if they become limited by any of the 3 nutrients this bacteria goes dormant allowing for a rapid increase in ammonia although ammonia is never available really as soon as ammonia rises there is many species that can start to use it straight away dinoflagellates, algae and Cyanobacteria are just some of the species that can assimilate ammonia fairly efficiently.
