Identification Help Needed

[GGwoe]

Hey all,
Need some ID help with this brown junk all over my sand bed.
Background - Tank is about a year old. This junk started spreading all over my sand bed about 3 weeks ago. I think its Dinos, but it could be diatoms or even cyano, so I came here for help haha.

Generally, tank nitrates and phosphates run a tad high nitrate 15-25ppm phosphate 0.07-0.09ppm. I never saw them bottom out, and they currently test within this range. I do run UV, so if it is dinos it must be the kind that stick to the sand. Usually, at night they do lessen a bit.

It *could* be diatoms. I added a new bag of 20# live sand 3-4 months ago along with some new dry rock. Maybe the diatoms finally met the right conditions to use the silicates from that. I really hope it's diatoms lol.

Maybe it's cyano? I just don't think so because it is not red. Maybe there is some other colors of cyano I am not familiar with. I do have Chemiclean that I could try, but figured I would get identification help first.

Thanks!!

 

[scotty333]

Likely dinoflagellates

 

[Sophie"s mom]

I second the dino thought!

 

[Rigoberto]

Suggest you pursue the question of dinos. You will need a test microscope, and a (phone) camera.

You can see my recent dino thread for reference (and a host of other threads with copious information on the topic). I had dinos appear at about the 1 year mark on tank started with no live rock, no live sand and with PO4/NO3 bottomed to 0.

I fooled around with them for almost a year before sorting it out whilst making no progress.

How you treat depends upon what variety. You need to shift the biome to a more desirable state which will take some time (not a year, but maybe 2-3 months).