Hey there guys, I’m usually pretty good at telling these apart. That being said, I’m not sure this time. Nitrates and phosphates both are 0, so I’m thinking dino.
Dino or diatoms?
- Thread starter Tanster2
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How old is the tank?
It’s about 8 months. I ordered a new TDS meter, and I’m testing for silicates in a minute. Not sure where this came from all of a sudden. It’s a IM 3L. I run a skimmer, a fuge, and GFO, and also carbon every now and again.
It looks like diatoms but honestly its tough to tell by eye if its dinos. There are multiple types of dinos and thats why most will say to get a microscope to get a positive ID. The treatment will depend on the type
How's you circulation? Any water movement on the sand bed?
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Looks like diatoms at this point. Dinos are very slimy and you see a lot of air bubbles.
I see a few tiny bubbles but it doesn't like like dinos to me either, at least not yet. Silicate test came up <5ppm.
The fuge could have stripped out some nutrients from the water, you mentioned nitrate and phosphate level being zero, you could try reducing the amount of macro algae and/or adjusting the lighting schedule on the fuge. A reading of zero is not necessarily a good thing if you keep coral.
It was always my understanding that there is a healthy ratio of nitrates to phosphates for ideal coral growth, and that 0 can be bad. I'm going to remove some chaoto and cut the lighting schedule tonight, and run a few more tests.
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It looks like classic diatoms to me. In which case look for possible silicates getting into your system from your RO or Salt water. Or possibly if any sponges died off recently that would cause a small bloom as well.
Thanks for chiming in. I have a huge population of pineapple sponges, possibly the culprit. Also just got a new TDS meter to make sure my readings are accurate on my water. I'm determined to get to the bottom of this!
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What tests are you using to get your zero readings? In my experience when I hit zeros, bad thing happen fairly quickly. Also what's your throughput like? If you are feeding a ton, but also filtering well enough to match, zeros aren't as bad.
I spot feed pretty good. Almost everything I put into my tank gets gobbled up pretty fast.
I'm getting 0s on NO3, Phosphates, and according to my Salifert test kit, silicates are below 5ppm. I don't know how accurate silicate tests are, but I'll have accurate numbers with a new TDS tonight.
I have an IM 30L, so there are two intakes. One Intake I run a Tunze comline skimmer, which works fabulously, with biomedia a carbon, and the other intake contains filter floss, my fuge, ceramic media, and CFO.
I'm getting 0s on NO3, Phosphates, and according to my Salifert test kit, silicates are below 5ppm. I don't know how accurate silicate tests are, but I'll have accurate numbers with a new TDS tonight.
I have an IM 30L, so there are two intakes. One Intake I run a Tunze comline skimmer, which works fabulously, with biomedia a carbon, and the other intake contains filter floss, my fuge, ceramic media, and CFO.
