diatoms or dinoflagellates???

SalteeDogg

Reefing newb
Have been battling for the past week. For what I thought was diatoms at first, now I am thinking I have dino's because I had a large turbo snail drop dead yesterday. The algae produces bubbles during the day and is a dark brown color. It is NOT stringy like some people say. Mine almost looks like diatoms that I have had in the past but since a snail death, and the other snails are looking sluggish (LITERALLY) now im thinking dino's. Is there a distinct way to distinguish one another from the other? Also my refugium is spotless, no algae what so ever in the sump. I even leave the sump light on 24/7 thinking that it will move to the sump. Any ideals? I will post pics when my batteries recharge.
 
Do they get all caught up in your powerheads? When you turn off your powerheads do little brown particles all start to line up froming almost like a translucent net? Also, do you notice they are not bad in the morning but then get worse into the day? Look on the rocks, does it looke like little brown hairs growing? If that's the case then you probably have dinoflagalates.
 
yeah im thinking its dino's. I have had them before and THEY ARE BACK AGAIN!!! Up close it does look like a little hair growing. Also I notice little brown dots floating on the surface with air bubbles. My circulation is really good so most of the brown spots are in the corners. Is this something maybe algaefix can slow down? Im trying to keep my ph up but my sebae anemone isn''t liking me dosing buffer 2-3 times a day. Everytime I dose he curls up in a tiny ball. Also im wet skimming and trying to net the bottom clean before I turn lights off every night cause they get so bad by the time the lights go off. Every day when the lights first come on I think they are gone cause my sand looks clean but a couple hours in the brown starts forming. I WILL CONQUER :helm2:
 
Right now I have those too but mine are not toxic I am trying to keep them back by keeping the ph elevated with calcium hydroxide.
 
Well dino's are finally up and gone today!!! :D...Now I can see a little hair algae trying to develop :frustrat: which is usually the stages of algae (brown, green, red, purple) Hopefully with my new bulbs the algae will have a hard time growing since my bulbs are 15k spectrum. We'll see what happens :sfish:
 
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