Is this dinos?

JonJonJonJon · Mar 22, 2019

My tank is just shy of 7 months old. Over the past 3 weeks this brown stuff has started growing on almost exclusively he sand bed. I'll get some brown film on the glass and back wall as well. This is about the extent of the coverage and I've never seen any bubbles in the mats.

Tonight's testing showed
Nitrates: 5ppm
Phosphate: 0.05ppm (was trying to raise this to 0.1 in case this was dinos)

Any help ID'ing this would be appreciated. Thanks!

chinw76 · Mar 22, 2019

I was having this problem off and on whenever I would use phytoplankton or other coral food. Are you feeding your corals with anything? I found out my tank can not handle any coral food. Although, my corals are thriving without being feed.

AZG · Mar 22, 2019

Looks like it. Noticing any brown strings coming from it?

JonJonJonJon · Mar 22, 2019

chinw76 said:
I was having this problem off and on whenever I would use phytoplankton or other coral food. Are you feeding your corals with anything? I found out my tank can not handle any coral food. Although, my corals are thriving without being feed.

I feed Benereef once a week and phyto 2-3 times a week.

AZG said:
Looks like it. Noticing any brown strings coming from it?

A few short ones mostly in the darkest patches.

saltyhog · Mar 22, 2019

Microscope picture would say for sure. That looks like it might be diatoms though.

JonJonJonJon · Mar 23, 2019

saltyhog said:
Microscope picture would say for sure. That looks like it might be diatoms though.

No microscope currently. Is there another way to confirm it's diatoms and not dinos?

chinw76 · Mar 25, 2019

JonJonJonJon said:
I feed Benereef once a week and phyto 2-3 times a week. A few short ones mostly in the darkest patches.

I would stop feeding all together. It is most likely diatoms. It will take a month or so to go away most likely, don't feed during that time. I have read that some phytoplankton is a form of diatom. I have also read that if it made using F2 fertilizer, the fertilizer itself may contain silicants which would promote the growth of the phyotoplankton. I have spent alot of money chasing my tail on this issue.