Another dino ID if possible.

[thatsruff]

Only able to get the microscope to focus at 10x at the moment (just phone camera looking through eye piece as well, sorry):


Seems mostly sand based but potentially on some rocks as well. These pictures are just a couple hours after siphoning the sand. It is worse than before actually.

Tank is about 3 months old, 12ish gallons total volume, started with dry cured rock, dry sand, and live sand activator with wonder mud from IPSF. Also dosed zeovit through the cycle.

My phosphates have been at okay levels, I have needed to over feed fish and coral to keep them from bottoming out. Currently between 0.1 and 0.2.

Nitrates have been the problem, kept dropping from 5. Thought I had it pegged at 1 to 2 and didn't test for about a week. Zero. Tried more extra feeding but was unsuccessful in raising the levels.

Added stump remover after siphoning the sand to try to get the levels up. Waiting on sodium nitrate and will switch to that to prevent phosphates from spiking too high.

Depending on ID (I suspect amphidinium so it might not be useful) I will get a uv on order.

 

[thatsruff]

I have an observation tank in the basement with live sand and rock from the same cycle so I might do a full sand bed swap if it gets significantly worse after raising the nitrate levels.

 

[Jimbo662]

I'm having this same issue. Tank is 5 months old. It covered the rocks and sand. I would use a toothbrush to clean the rocks and siphon the sand with the water running into felt socks. Within 2 days it returns. About a month and half ago I got 20 astrea snails. Within a week the rocks were almost spotless. The snails continue to keep the rocks clean. They don't touch the sand. I try siphoning the sand twice a week but it seems like an endless battle. I tested the water on Saturday just before cleaning the tank:
Sal - 1.026
Ph - 7.8
Alk - 8.9
Cal - 440
Mag - 1350
Phos - .04 (.1 the previous week)
Nitrate - 10

I just ordered an ICP test. I had this issue on my previous tank and had the water tested. The only thing that was high was silicate. If it's feeding off the silicate I wonder how long it'll take to deplete it. I also run a UV 24/7.

I feed a mix of Marin S and Seaweed Extreme pellets twice a day in an autofeeder and two cubes of frozen late afternoon.

 

[thatsruff]

A couple more shots:

 

[dwest]

I don’t know. Maybe Coolia ? Maybe not dinos. see this

Dinoflagellate Identification Guide

I've had this laying around for a while. Had some recent interest, so I tweaked it a bit and am posting it. Not really about cures just ID pictures, videos, and a few short facts. Hope it can be helpful.

www.reef2reef.com