Strange creature ID and various questions..

[hebbah]

All of you and this board in general have been immensly helpful in setting up our tanks!

We set up a 10G tank about 2 months ago and it is a beautiful little thing...we love it!!!

I have a couple of questions about it though:

1) We have these strange little white bugs on the glass of the back wall. There are a ton of them! They are tiny. Are they good or bad?

2) There are slightly bigger darker colored but still very small bugs on the LR. Same question - will they harm the tank?

3) Lastly, I just noticed on the LR are these things that look like white worms that are somehow baked into the rock. At the front of three of these white worms are these transparent things that look a little like tiny jelly fish. What are these? I might be able to get a picture but these things are tiny and see though...

Here are some questions about the 50G that we are setting up right now. (10G was the "can we really do it?" tank). We set the tank up with about 50lb of live sand, 10lb of argonite and for now about 30lb of live rock. I think it is cycling but it somehow never had an ammonia spike. Ammonia readings are always at 0 but yesterday the Nitrite read at 20 and today it is a little higher than that. Nitrates are at 0.5 and all other parameters such as PH, KH, and SG are perfect. Would that qualify as cycling or are doing something wrong?

Thanks so much for any input!!!!

 

[daugherty]

sounds like copopods or anthripods. they are good for the tank.

 

[XxKnuckleheadxX]

ammonia converts to nitrite. just do water changes to bring it down.

 

[newreefinsc]

With that much LR in a tank that small, you may not see an ammonia spike. I never saw one in my tank.

 

[daugherty]

you are just having a cycle and it is not over until ammonia and nitrite are 0 than the nitrate will rise and then you do a water change the cycle is over. but doing a water change when the nitrite is still there will just prolong the cycle.

 

[hebbah]

Thanks so much for the answers! So, it's still a cycle even though there was no ammonia spike. I had also read to wait until the Nitrite is 0 and the Nitrate spikes and then do the first water change.

 

[XxKnuckleheadxX]

doing a water change will prolong the cycle a little. but it is said you will preserve more of whats on the LR.

 

[reeffreak]

1) and 2) is copepods.Those are beneficial

3)Not sure

Sounds like your in the middle of a cycle.Nitrites still up,ammonia down.When both are at zero then its complete.

 

[yote]

I'm guessing that the awnswer to #3 is some kind of small feather duster.Harmless and cool to have.Check the tube openings at night with a flash light,you may just see them.

 

[daugherty]

I'm guessing that the awnswer to #3 is some kind of small feather duster.Harmless and cool to have.Check the tube openings at night with a flash light,you may just see them.

or hydroyds

 

[yote]

I dont think hydroids live in tubes,do they?At least I've never seen them in tubes.

 

[daugherty]

yes the ones that i have have smll tubes that they are in. this isnt the best pic but you can see them

 

[yote]

Learn something new everyday:D

 

[newreefinsc]

I have a few of those, but no proliferation like that. I just assumed they were small feather dusters.

 

[reeffreak]

Those aren't tubes,they are stalks.I do not bele\ieve hydroids retract back into a tube.At least none of the dozens I've encountered over the years.

 

[daugherty]

Those aren't tubes,they are stalks.I do not bele\ieve hydroids retract back into a tube.At least none of the dozens I've encountered over the years.

when ever i try to kill these thing with something they retract back into the stalks or tubes. the one that i got rid of i pulled all the tube things off the rock

 

[hebbah]

Thanks so much for all of your great answers! Especially about the worm thing...I was really wondering about that. I must say that having a marine tank is really like having Christmas over and over because every couple of days I can spy something new and intriguing in the tank. I love it - this from a person who is terrified of the ocean and everything in it! :)

 

[hebbah]

I searched for pictures of feather dusters and that is exactly what it looks like but they are tiny - only about 1/8 in diameter - if that. Will they grow? Do I need to be feeding them anything?
Also - I don't know what's up with my snail ( I have 3 cerith and 3 conehead (?) snails) but they are making babies like crazy. I have all these itty, bitty baby snails in my tank - will they be alright or do I need to do anything for them?
Thanks!
Hebbah

 

[Bifferwine]

You don't need to feed feather dusters. Some will grow pretty big (and you can find the big ones for sale at your LFS), but some will stay small forever.

There isn't anything you can do about the baby snails either. They will be eaten by pretty much everything in your tank, so they serve as a good live food source. There's a small chance some will survive and grow up, but it's slim.

 

[newreefinsc]

I wondered why my snails never grew. Since we are on this topic, what are the creatures that build a tube, you can see a small head with antennae sticking out, and a few spit out what looks like a spider web? They seem to irritate the corals when the web gets on them, and you can vacuum out the web, and it will come right back.