sublunary Posted March 2, 2021 Share Posted March 2, 2021 Doesn't look like dinos to me. Do they move? What magnification is that at? Some diatoms can look spiky like that. I'm seeing a couple of pictures on google of suspected chrysophytes that look similar. But nothing definitive. Curious to see what other people think. What does it look like on a macro level? Quote Link to comment
jarviz Posted March 2, 2021 Author Share Posted March 2, 2021 They don't move. They look like the beginning stages of basic diatoms, but there are some hair-like strands coming from them here and there. nothing too crazy yet. Quote Link to comment
jarviz Posted March 3, 2021 Author Share Posted March 3, 2021 1 hour ago, paulsz said: it's diatoms (phew!). how do you know? i've been stressing and researching over this for the longest time lol Quote Link to comment
mcarroll Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 Diatoms always have some kind of bilaterally symmetrical geometric shape. Check this out: http://cfb.unh.edu/phycokey/Choices/Bacillariophyceae/Bacillario_page/bacillario_key.html. 2 Quote Link to comment
paulsz Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 12 hours ago, jarviz said: how do you know? check out the pics of the link mcarroll sent. Could also be an algae of another kind, but i know for sure it's not dinos. For dinos, go on google images and type in "dinoflagellates reef microscope" and you'll see pics of what they are. Either circular or almond shaped and golden brown. Can be moving, or can be still. But either way, when looking at them, you can tell they have "life". They're not just little pins cluttered together. Awful explanation (sorry), but you'll get what i mean if you ever see dinos under the microscope. 2 Quote Link to comment
jarviz Posted March 3, 2021 Author Share Posted March 3, 2021 2 hours ago, paulsz said: check out the pics of the link mcarroll sent. Could also be an algae of another kind, but i know for sure it's not dinos. For dinos, go on google images and type in "dinoflagellates reef microscope" and you'll see pics of what they are. Either circular or almond shaped and golden brown. Can be moving, or can be still. But either way, when looking at them, you can tell they have "life". They're not just little pins cluttered together. Awful explanation (sorry), but you'll get what i mean if you ever see dinos under the microscope. Yes... Dinos under a microscope is pretty obvious. but this is my first time looking at them under and wasn't very confident. I also didn't "break apart" the algae. I basically took a strand and zoomed in on the edges. I'm going to try that to see if it paints a clearer picture. Quote Link to comment
jarviz Posted March 3, 2021 Author Share Posted March 3, 2021 alright, i took a vid of the "hair" filament coming from the brown algae... hopefully somone can help me ID this thing so i know what to do next with my tank. 2 Quote Link to comment
paulsz Posted March 3, 2021 Share Posted March 3, 2021 how old is your tank? looks like some diatoms and other algaes. Nothing to worry about in my opinion. Just let the tank be and see if it goes away in a couple of weeks. Quote Link to comment
jarviz Posted March 3, 2021 Author Share Posted March 3, 2021 12 minutes ago, paulsz said: how old is your tank? looks like some diatoms and other algaes. Nothing to worry about in my opinion. Just let the tank be and see if it goes away in a couple of weeks. coming up on two months... thanks for the reassurance. i'll just let it be and do some usual cleaning and water changes than. 1 Quote Link to comment
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