Help me identify: Dino? Cyano? or Ditatoms?

[Staggs]

@Scubabum When you get this on rocks can you blow it off with a turkey baster? I have similar that I'm trying to decide if it's dino's or cyano and it looks similar to yours. No bubbles what so ever.

 

[Scubabum]

@Scubabum When you get this on rocks can you blow it off with a turkey baster? I have similar that I'm trying to decide if it's dino's or cyano and it looks similar to yours. No bubbles what so ever.

It's not on my rock at all. Only on the sandbed.

 

[reeferfoxx]

So I purchased a cheap toy microscope and posted the best pic I could get below. Can anyone help ID??? I'm guessing its round two of the Dino's. Thanks in advance.

Its sort of blury. If you can post this pic in the main Dinoflagellates: Are you tired of battling? thread with shape and movement description. Some dinos are almost completely round, some oval, egg shaped, rice, some look flat. Movement can be spiral, spin and burst, move straight, spin on a needle, etc.


My first round I beat dinos with just nutrients but gained a lot of hair algae. I screwed up and went for gfo for a day or two to help and round 2 happened.

Added UV and live rock and let the tank rebalance the natural route(might be a theory?). Natural route is no WC, no dosing anything, feeding fish a little more, letting detritus build. Took 30 days then a water change. Alk naturally fell from 8.5 dkh to 6.6 dkh in that 30 days. No sps or other coral losses. Since bioload was low, i added more fish too.

 

[Scubabum]

Its sort of blury. If you can post this pic in the main Dinoflagellates: Are you tired of battling? thread with shape and movement description. Some dinos are almost completely round, some oval, egg shaped, rice, some look flat. Movement can be spiral, spin and burst, move straight, spin on a needle, etc.


My first round I beat dinos with just nutrients but gained a lot of hair algae. I screwed up and went for gfo for a day or two to help and round 2 happened.

Added UV and live rock and let the tank rebalance the natural route(might be a theory?). Natural route is no WC, no dosing anything, feeding fish a little more, letting detritus build. Took 30 days then a water change. Alk naturally fell from 8.5 dkh to 6.6 dkh in that 30 days. No sps or other coral losses. Since bioload was low, i added more fish too.

What's up reeferfoxx, been seeing you on the live streams. On Youtube I'm Reefkpr or Phil. Yeah this is the best picture I could get with this cheap $12 toy microscope. They are completely oval in shape and I'm not seeing any movement. My first round I beat by dosing Nitrate and Phos. Once I let the nutrients fall they are back again but only on my sandbed. I was thinking of trying UV but might just start by getting nutrients up again. This is the first time I've started a tank with DRY rock and I've had nothing but problems. Always have used live rock in the past. Went dry this time due to a huge colonial hydroid problem I had with my last live rock. Thanks for your response.

 

[reeferfoxx]

What's up reeferfoxx, been seeing you on the live streams. On Youtube I'm Reefkpr or Phil. Yeah this is the best picture I could get with this cheap $12 toy microscope. They are completely oval in shape and I'm not seeing any movement. My first round I beat by dosing Nitrate and Phos. Once I let the nutrients fall they are back again but only on my sandbed. I was thinking of trying UV but might just start by getting nutrients up again. This is the first time I've started a tank with DRY rock and I've had nothing but problems. Always have used live rock in the past. Went dry this time due to a huge colonial hydroid problem I had with my last live rock. Thanks for your response.

Awesome! I recognize your icon.

Yeah, this my first dry rock tank as well, coming from live rock. I gave up on live rock after an endless bryopsis, vermited, aiptasia, asterina, and pyramid snail infestation. Really it was the bryopsis and it was before flucon.

Yeah so, even the N and P method has its draw back. The end game still hasn't been refined. Honeslty, I gave up after round 2 of dino. Inadvertently took the "natural route" and its been working great for me lmbo!

 

[BigJohnny]

Honestly regardless of what it is, it's just a dusting on the sandbed of a maturing tank. If it were mine I'd let it be, maybe stir up the top of sand every now and then. It will probably cycle out on its own. If not or it consistently gets worse, then you can try some other stuff, but me personally id let it ride. 8 months is still very new in a dry rock tank.

 

[Scubabum]

Honestly regardless of what it is, it's just a dusting on the sandbed of a maturing tank. If it were mine I'd let it be, maybe stir up the top of sand every now and then. It will probably cycle out on its own. If not or it consistently gets worse, then you can try some other stuff, but me personally id let it ride. 8 months is still very new in a dry rock tank.

Thanks for bringing me back to reality BigJohnny. It's really not causing any problems to my coral it's just an ugly sandbed. Hardest part of this hobby is being patient. I WANT it NOW. I gotta keep telling myself this is a brand new tank. It's very hard when coming from my older tank that has been running for over 20 years. Cheers!!

 

[reeferfoxx]

Thanks for bringing me back to reality BigJohnny. It's really not causing any problems to my coral it's just an ugly sandbed. Hardest part of this hobby is being patient. I WANT it NOW. I gotta keep telling myself this is a brand new tank. It's very hard when coming from my older tank that has been running for over 20 years. Cheers!!

Exactly. Its a phase. A phase not everyone gets but... Unfortunate as my tank is turning 2 in Feb. *shrugs*... I started a 10 gallon to keep myself occupied while the DT fixes itself.

I will say, and I cant prove it ,because I didn't totally turn this tank into an experiment but dosing ca and alk seemed to prolong progress. I want to attribute it to coral taking up nutrients during its fixing stage. Seems logical just may not be correct. Wanted to throw that out there.