Dinos or diatoms?

[Kirschy17]

hey guys, ive got a pretty clean tank but cant seem to get rid of what i used to think were diatoms. I have 2 return pumps for circulation aswell as a small wavemaker. In the sand bed it seems like i only get in in lower flow areas. Also most of my backwall is covered in it. Im kinda dealing with high temperatures at the moment and was a bit off schedule about my waterchanges. Ive read so many horrorstorys and how hard it is to get rid of dinos that i wanted to clarify this now. My tank is understocked as i recently lost fish to a brook outbreak but i kept feeding corals and inverts heavily during a fallow period. For nutrient export i have a skimmer aswell as a tiny refugium with chaeto. Also i run activated carbon.

Last but not least i have less than .1 phosphate(not an exact test kit) and about 0-2 nitrate.

Also i heard dinos would kill snails and inverts that ate them. I havnt had a snail die for a really long time. I have trochus, turbos,cerith,conch and a seastar aswell as 2 urchins.

Any advice appreciated

 

[ihavecrabs]

Can you turn on the whites lights for a less blue picture? Will help with visual diagnosis; however, a lot of the time you'll likely need to do the H2o2 test or check under a microscope to be certain.

 

[mcarroll]

maybe #chrysophytes but need a better closeup to be sure.

 

[Kirschy17]

Hope this helps

 

[piehunter]

Green cyano I think

Diatoms and dinos are always brown

 

[Kirschy17]

Cyano is only a flow issue right? I felt like theres plenty but i gotta look at that again. Anything else i can do about it?

Thanks btw guys!

 

[Kirschy17]

Can i have another oppinion? Check out the white pics i took. Thanks!!

 

[mcarroll]

Last but not least i have less than .1 phosphate(not an exact test kit) and about 0-2 nitrate.

Is it fuzzy or slimy?

Probably either way the cause is gonna be imbalanced nutrients. Bring nitrate up (or stop taking them down) and you should see progress – probably green hair algae first, then coraline.