It is Dinoflagellates not diatoms.
Old school conventional methods of reducing no3 and po4 are outdated unless excessive nutrients triggered the dino bloom. In that case,, microscope ID would benefit others for future reference.
No problem. Good luck with the battle!
It can be a fine line. It takes 6 months to year to recover from dinos. Biologically, the tank will have to rebuild what was lost. Keep in mind that organic phosphates can't be tested like orthophosphates. It would take expensive lab grade testing to see results. So as long as you are consistently feeding the tank or at a least a ULN hungry tank a wide array of foods twice a day, you can achieve ULN. It's not impossible, just not always done correctly.
I'm in the same situation as you've described in this post and waiting on a Silicate test kit to come in. I planned to test freshly made RODI water, stored RODI water, and my tank water. I store my RODI water in old salt buckets (Red Sea Coral Pro - Black buckets and one general use Home Depot Orange bucket). I rotate the water used for water changes and ATO so its never more 4-6 weeks old. My theory is that storage buckets could be a source of contamination if they're leaching silicates. Did you check you're stored RODI water?
I know this thread is really old, but what I found out is that my BRS dry rock was leaching silicates slowly into the water due to me only just curing it in plain old salt water for 3 months. I should have done more to the rock in hindsight. Regardless, I think it took a total of about a year for the rock to completely release all of its silicates. After that, I haven't had silicates in the system, double-checked with another Triton test. So if you have dry rock in your system, that may be the culprit. To be honest, I doubt your buckets are the cause of the silicate issue.
