Four tests in the Toolbox, and the order you should actually use them in.
Here's the sequence almost every lake community follows when the water turns. Somebody posts a photo. Somebody says it looks like the algae from two summers ago. Somebody else says close the beach. Within a day there are three theories and no evidence, and whatever gets decided is decided by whoever sounded most certain.
These four tests end that conversation faster, and the order matters more than any of them individually.
First: what do you actually have?
The instinct is to jump straight to "is it toxic." That's the wrong first question, because toxin tests are narrow. Each one looks for a single compound, and a clean result for one tells you nothing about the others.
Rapid Bloom ID & Cell Count answers the question underneath: microscopic identification and cell counts of the harmful algal bloom taxa in your sample, back within 24 hours of the lab receiving it. The kit ships with a cooler, ice pack and overnight return label.
It's the one we'd tell you to buy first. A bloom dominated by Microcystis points at one toxin. Dolichospermum points at a different one. And a fair number of blooms turn out not to be cyanobacteria at all. Finding that out in a day is the cheapest good news available.
Then: the targeted toxin test
Once you know the organism, the toxin test stops being a guess. Allow a few extra business days for toxin results, because these assays are run by a specialist lab.
Microcystin: the liver toxin, the most common cyanotoxin in North American fresh water, and the one most state advisory thresholds are written around.
Saxitoxin: a neurotoxin, the same compound behind paralytic shellfish poisoning. This is why a clean microcystin result isn't an all-clear.
Anatoxin-a: the fastest-acting of the three, and the one most often implicated in sudden dog deaths.
Want it in one order?
BloomCheck packages Rapid Bloom ID at three locations into a single self-serve bundle, so you can see how a bloom differs across the lake before deciding which toxin to chase.
The one exception to the order
If an animal has collapsed or died after being in the water, don't wait for an identification. Sample for anatoxin immediately, and contact your local health or environmental agency.
Anatoxin degrades in sunlight and moving water within days. A sample taken after the weekend can come back clean from water that was lethal on Saturday.
What comes before all of this
Every test above is a response. The conditions that produce a bloom develop over weeks: warming surface water, calm weather, nutrients arriving in spring, oxygen falling at depth. None of that is visible from a dock, and all of it is measurable.
The Lake Sentinel Buoy logs chlorophyll-a and phycocyanin continuously and alerts when readings cross a threshold you set. Chlorophyll-a testing tracks algal biomass across a season. A dissolved oxygen sensor catches the pre-dawn minimum a site visit never will.
Every member lake also gets Bloom Season in its portal, showing satellite bloom activity across the summer. And anyone on the lake can tap Report a bloom in the Lake Pulse app to log a photo, location and time, so the next sighting lands in the record instead of the group chat.
Where to start
If there's a bloom in your lake right now, start with Rapid Bloom ID. If there isn't, start with the monitoring that means you see the next one coming. If you're not sure which, ask the Boathouse.
Results can help you make decisions about safe swimming, but they aren't definitive for every place and time, and it's always good practice to check with your local authorities.
Cyanobacteria produce more toxins than these three, including cylindrospermopsin and nodularin. If you need one that isn't in the Lab Testing aisle, contact us and we'll arrange it.
