Diatoms/brown alage or Dino????

[EvanSPS6]

Ok guys I'm having a bit of trouble trying to figure out if I have brown algae or if it's dinoflagellates. Couldn't get a decent shot but hopefully someone can ID it.

It grows on the glass too. I should also add that my tank has been up and running for almost two months. I have already had my diatoms outbreak a few weeks ago which only lasted several days.

My nitrates atm are below 5ppm and 0.02 phosphates.

[Clown79]

Looks like diatoms

[mcarroll]

13 hours ago, EvanSPS6 said:

My nitrates atm are below 5ppm and 0.02 phosphates.

Those are the kind of conditions that will kick off a dino bloom.  (Both numbers are probably within the uncetainy level of the test kit and may actually be zeros.)

 

Can you put a sample under a microscope to look at it?  Very cool no matter what it turns out to be, and it doesn't take anything more than a toy scope to do it.

 

If not, you can put a sample in a vial with some tank water, shake it up to homogenize it, set it under some lights or in the sun for a while and see if the any of the bits reform a clump of any sort.  Only dino's will be motile enough to do this.  Diatoms and cyano will remain homogenized.

 

If you are doing any extra filtration or excessive maintenance on the tank, I would stop and let it develop more naturally with more available nutrients.  This includes everything from extra bio-media, growing macro algae, using GFO or other chemical media, dosing organic carbon to promote bacteria, etc.