Microscope pics, but of what?

[coachb9]

put my daughters microscope to use tonite on the wisdom of someone smarter than me. I can’t figure out what I’m dealing with. Thought it was cyano but chemiclean didn’t work.
Let me know if you can identify what I have here. I scraped it off a rock. Thanks

 

[Fudsey]

#reefsquad

 

[saltyhog]

Looks like dinos to me. Post this in the stickies thread in the algae forum.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/d...tling-altogether.293318/page-178#post-4574491

Are your PO4 and NO3 low?

 

[coachb9]

Looks like dinos to me. Post this in the stickies thread in the algae forum.

Are your PO4 and NO3 low?

I don’t know how to do that
Nitrate appears to be about 5.
Phosphate is 0.16

 

[saltyhog]

I don’t know how to do that
Nitrate appears to be about 5.
Phosphate is 0.16

Interesting. Just click on the link in my post and post the pictures in that thread just like you did in this one. Identifying the species is important as there are some differences in their life cycles (such as how much time they spend in the water column). Do you have stringy looking "snot"and bubbles?

 

[coachb9]

Interesting. Just click on the link in my post and post the pictures in that thread just like you did in this one. Identifying the species is important as there are some differences in their life cycles (such as how much time they spend in the water column). Do you have stringy looking "snot"and bubbles?

I didn’t have stringy but I do have bubbles on the surface of the sand in some parts, but not all

 

[tupes]

Can you post a photo of the situation?

 

[coachb9]

Can you post a photo of the situation?

Here you go

 

[tupes]

Diatoms.

 

[tupes]

If it gets worse. Itll start getting a stringy snot look to it.

 

[coachb9]

Can diatoms have bubbles?

 

[tupes]

It's not the algae that has the bubbles. It's the bubbles coming from the sand that forms under the film of algae and they get trapped

 

[coachb9]

that makes sense.
So I did a water change Thursday morning and siphoned the sand during that process, making the brown stuff nearly disappear. Friday, the brown was back in full force.
Can diatoms show back up that quickly?
If it is diatoms, is it just a waiting game? Tank is about 6+ months old. Using an ro-di wig silicate and chloramine buster.
Thanks for the intel

 

[tupes]

What are all of your tank parameters? I see you have an anemone, what other livestock do you have?

 

[CHI-Mark]

Wow having the exact same problem here tried the chemiclean as well with no luck. The guys at my LFS said to remove some of the sand which cleaned it up a lot but it came back. In the mornings it’s not that bad but by mid afternoon you can see it again

 

[Kennyw43]

 

[Kennyw43]

It’s Dino’s I’m currently suffering it too

 

[Reef Jeff]

He’s right. Those are definitely Dino’s based on the microscope picture. Not diatoms and not Cyano.

 

[rkpetersen]

Images are definitely dinoflagellates, likely ostreopsis. In real time, you may even see them spinning about as if they were a ball on the end of a tether.

http://www.algaeid.com/identification/

 

[Hans-Werner]

Your photographs definitely show dinoflagellates. I think it is Prorocentrum lima, a toxic dinoflagellate.