Is this dinoflagellates?

natas

New member
http://youtu.be/M06K22dUHZs

Lighting is 14k but in person I would say it's more brown then anything. I thought it was cyano but I am now thinking it is dino. I tried lights out for three days and the stuff came back a day after the lights out.
 
Forgot to mention. This stuff right now is only on the sand. It has tried to get on my rock but I blow it off when I see it on rock.
 
BTW the video defaults to low quality. Change it to 720p for better quality.

Also some more information. At night this stuff only appears to be like dust on the sandbed and smaller. When the lights come on it quickly turns into what you see in the video. Very slimy with about 1/4 to 1/2 of it with bubbles at the top.

I wish I had a microscope but unfortunently I do not.
 
Ok I had two people come by and person and tell me that this is dino. Here is a better video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hxLRw9Hghk

If this video doesn't change your mind then I am completely confused.

Btw I vacuumed the sandboxed tonight and am starting another round of lights out. My nitrates currently are 0.75 and phosphates are 0.02.
 
looks like diatoms to me. Live phytoplankton and zoo plankton are supposed to feed on it. Its better than green algae if you ask me. The diatoms oxygenate the water. They are common in new tanks, mini cycles and there is a place that actually sells a nano silicate that creates diatom blooms to support other lower life that corals feed on. They out compete nuicence algae. Sometimes they wont go away for awhile if you have phosphates or if you used a high silicate substrate. Until they suck all of it up. Maybe toss in some live phytoplankton to get a good population going?
 
I highly doubt this is diatoms. My tank is almost 2 years old and this stuff has been in my tank for more than 3 months now.

Also I have seen diatoms in my tank (when it was a few months old) and this stuff is much different.
 
My tank is just finishing cycling. I started out with the same goopy brown stuff. Then it turned like a powder. I used all base rock that was from an old system, but dried back out for about a year and a half. then caribea sea live sand. I don't know if it was just a bit of cycle gunk, or dust from drilling holes in my DIY stand. lol We are in kinda the same boat. There is some new product called nualgi and many of the reviews show. What is reported as diatoms, but very similar to your pics and what I have mine has been going away slowly.
 
looks like diatoms to me. Live phytoplankton and zoo plankton are supposed to feed on it. Its better than green algae if you ask me. The diatoms oxygenate the water. They are common in new tanks, mini cycles and there is a place that actually sells a nano silicate that creates diatom blooms to support other lower life that corals feed on. They out compete nuicence algae. Sometimes they wont go away for awhile if you have phosphates or if you used a high silicate substrate. Until they suck all of it up. Maybe toss in some live phytoplankton to get a good population going?

Phytoplankton does not feed on diatoms, in fact some diatoms are phytoplankton. Some diatoms can also cause toxicity issues. Like with other broad categories of algae, can't simply call one whole huge category good or bad.
 
Yeah. I always thought of them as a hinder. Until that place I mentioned said some can be good. might have been zooplankton they said instead of phyto. can't really remember. If parameters are good. Maybe the lights. The place might have been saying the nano silcates that entrap minerals get eaten. something like that. lol
 
In your video it looks like there are bubbles on the brown "strings". I believe this is one distinct sign of dinoflagellates.
 
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