White Spirals

[divecj5]

My tank has been cycling with live rock and base rock for about 2 1/2 weeks now. The live rock was fully cured at the LFS and I have started seeing an increase in purple, blue, and greenish coralline growth on the live pieces. Today, when I was looking closely at the rock, I noticed on a couple of pieces what looked like teeny tiny white spirals. These are really small and unfortunately I wasn't able to get a picture of them because of this. They are currently about the size of a pin head and have a hole in the middle with what looks to be a spiral starting.

Any idea of what these might be? Is it something that I need to be concerned about? I just checked my params and they were:
1.026 salinity
NH3: 0
NO2: .1
NO3: 3.0
Ca: 440 ppm
Alk: 6.0 meq/L
pH: 8.0

I know that the alkalinity is a little high but I was reading that once I start adding some corals, this should gradually make it's way toward the 4-5 meq/L range.

Let me know if anyone has any suggestions on what these spirals might be. Thanks in advance.

Adam

 

[serpentman]

The white spots are actually the tubes made by small featherduster worms. They won't get much bigger and are a sign your tank is doing well.

 

[divecj5]

Phew....glad to hear that. Everything has just been going great with my tank thus far (I've been a little retentive with testing and everything) so I was hoping it was nothing major.

Lately my rock has just COME ALIVE with all the growth and cool stuff growing on and out of it. Who ever said live rock couldn't be cool to watch while things cycle. Just the other day I saw a small translucent shrimp looking thing swimming around at night. Good stuff I guess it must be my marine science background coming out.

Adam

 

[BurntOutReefer]

wait till you see the night life......

 

[divecj5]

I hear ya BurntOut....I just took the flashlight out the other night and looked in my tank and just about cra**ed myself The snails, hermits, and all sorts of other creatures were moving around like it was rush hour.

I didn't expect to see things come alive like they have. It's been amazing...and I don't even have a single fish or coral. I don't think I'll be able to stand myself when I get something in there like that.

 

[sir_dudeguy]

ya those white spirals are something like spirobid worms...thats not it tho...but something similar. They're just harmless filter feeders...they're just there more than anything.

and dont be freeked out if you see any red worms with little spikey/bristles all over...just bristle worms, but they come in a couple other colors. They will also mostly just come out at night

 

[divecj5]

Thanks sir_dudeguy. I appreciate the "id" help.