Dinoflagellates!!!!!!

I also increased water flow I added A Koralia 1050gph. I feel like my Vortech Mp10's ain't quiet doing it for me.

 

Lol no. I'll assume your tank is okay. Toxic materials build up in there. For example, the nitrogen cycle takes place down there. Ammonia gets in there, and gets converted to nitrite, then nitrate by bacteria. It then gets converted to N2 and N2O, which gets released as gases. By stirring the sandbed, you are releasing the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate intermediates in your water column. Even scarier, there can be hydrogen sulfide pockets down there. From what I heard, that is not a happy story if you release one. Even disturbing it by moving your rocks can do this. A deep sand bed is even more hazardous, but dont assume that your shallow sand bed is harmless.

Anyway, didn't mean to hijack the thread there. Just thought you should know this immediately before you go and do some serious damage

 

Thx for the tip Gabby. Bare with me as I am new to the hobby, i still have much to learn. Is it okay for me to siphon the surface of my sand bed?

 

Yes, just the surface.

I found it easier to take a turkey baster, blow off all the rock and substrate, turn off the pumps, let it settle for about 5-10 min and then siphon it off the bottom. Turn pumps back on let the mechanical filtration remove the suspended particles and then clean that.

 

In the original pictures posted, this looked like a clear case of diatoms. I have diatom blooms a few times now (tank cycles, adding new sand, etc.), and they aren't anything to be concerned about. However, when I saw the picture showing the hair-like structures with bubbles, I was convinced that this was not diatoms. After looking at other pictures of dino, I'm gonna have to stick with corallines ID here. Also, I noticed that the stuff is not on the glass. Maybe its just the picture. Whenever I see diatoms in my tank, I always notice it sticking to the glass (even more so than the sand/rock/equipment). Are you cleaning the glass? Have you noticed it sticking to the glass?

Coralline, in your experience, do dinos attach to the glass like diatoms do?

You know, this would be much easier if you had a microscope (or access to one). There is a very clear cut difference in cellular structure between dino
and diatoms. IMO, reefers should start investing in microscopes (a basic light microscope) to ID things lol. I have access to one at work. Lol cyano looks awesome under the scope.

Also

Hey we were all new once! And even for the non-newbies, we all still are learning new things everyday. I am currently learning about dinos. One thing at a time! The ultimate goal is to learn the basic do's and dont's quickly enough so that you don't go and destroy your tank. The best way to do this is to post what you are going to do to your tank before you do it. This is exactly what you did here.

 

If these are indeed dino's,you will want to cut flow to a minimum while treating, (blackout with raised ph) and as like Corailline mentioned about water changes,flow helps feed dinos as well.I used a kalk drip to elevated my ph to 8.4 with my 4 day blackout along with reduced flow.Problem resolved on my first attempt.

 

Hey, sorry to hear about your Dino.

I honestly think what everyone has said above is right, IF these steps don't work you can look into H2O2 dosing to get rid of Dinos. BUT this is a last resort method before tearing down your tank.

If you decide to try H2O2 to rid Dino make sure to do a lot of research but from what I have read it can help in most cases after every last measure has been taken.

Check out this thread (Once again, last resort)
Dinoflagellates my experience......h2o2 reefing tool!!!!!

 

I dont get much of it on the glass just around sand level a stain of it and the crazy thing is that I've noticed my corals contracting if it comes in contact with it. My open brain turns into a funny shape trying to stay of sand. My rocks are clean from it, no Dino's whatsoever just my sand. I completely siphoned my top surface of sand and I did a hell of a job there wasn't any left at all and I lowered my photo period. I really wanna see where this takes me if this fails I'll then ill do the black out. And my water is extra clean real shiny no signs of nutrients.

 

Also I've been loosing snails

 

And the zoos that touched it