Brown Bubbly Snot Isn't Always Dinos

[timeconsumer]

Just sharing some microscope photos. I had this guy hanging off my gorgonian:

Which at first glance certainly appears very dino-ish. But under the scope we can see it's mostly made of diatoms

 

[ichthyoid]

So, the question is, what made diatoms bloom?

Some nice microscope photos too, thx!

 

[timeconsumer]

Oh that answer is easy. I was intentionally encouraging diatom growth through silicate and phosphate dosing to combat a problem with Large Cell Amphidinium dinos that I had been dealing with for a while. The dinos have been gone for some time but blind dosing silicate without testing can result in some funky diatom growth. No big deal, they're very easy to get back under control.