Diatom bloom vs dino

[Red2143]

In all the dino threads people want to trigger a diatom bloom to outcompete dino. What does a diatom bloom look like? From pictures they seem to look similar

 

[Lps_lover12]

They do look similar, only way to truly tell is by looking at it under a microscope

 

[Placenta89]

I had to look under a microscope. I've been dosing silicates to compete and thought it wasn't working but after noticing all the brown algae wasn't getting very stringy / snot like looking I sampled some water and it was in fact diatoms and I couldn't find any trace of dinos (ostreopsis) anymore. Im sure it's still in the tank but I couldn't see any in the couple samples I took.

Honestly it took me forever to get a microscope but now that I have it. It's soooo much easier to diagnose and treat much faster.