i dont know what these snails look like exactly but i have these little white specs on my glass that look balled up and i just started seeing them and wanted to know if these are the snails and what to do about them?

No.. they'd not be on glass. They'd be on the Byssus Port on a clam. Do you have clams?

Let me get some piccies to help you.

What you are probably seeing are simple, calcerous, tube worms on your glass.

BRB

Blatanly cut from Wet Web Media

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/cav1i3/Clam_care/image005.jpg
Pyramidellid Snails

These snails are about the size of a grain of rice. Again, they are parasitic and can be found on tridacnid clams. It has been reported that they CAN come into your system on other larger snails too. I've never seen proof of that myself.

Take a look at this article:

Troubles with Tridacnids: a Look at Two Common Problems by James W. Fatherree, M.Sc. - Reefkeeping.com (http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-09/jf/index.php)

What you are probably seeing are these tiny feather duster / tube worms that are often found on the glass of our tanks.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/images/aug2002/Pileolariawidethumb.jpg

They are harmless and their populations will wax and wane with the cycle of your system. They are typically not a problem and are not found in huge populations unless the free floating nutrients/foods in your system are high.

A good article about them here:

Aquarium Invertebrates (http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/aug2002/invert.htm)

Dave

Dave's right...those are Spirobid worms (dusters). Renee has a couple of good macro shots of them. i'll see if she'll regale us with them...

If she says yes...let me use them in the link above.. I HATE hotlinking pictures... if some day that site shuts down or forbids the link, our history here is broken.

Thanks,

Dave

You asked for it :-)

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y248/seahorsedreams/small%20tank%20stuff/serpulia2.jpg

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y248/seahorsedreams/small%20tank%20stuff/serpulia.jpg

Size comparison...

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y248/seahorsedreams/small%20tank%20stuff/comparelens.jpg

sorry for the panic but i plan to keep clams so i didnt want them bothering my clams and killing them. those pics are great that is what i have so i must slow my feeding because there must be too many nutrients though my test say .25 for nh3/4 0 for no2 and no3 so i must be doin something wrong. thanx guy once again

No, you are not doing anything wrong! Those pics are from a tank that runs the best around here. They are actually in a lot of tanks like the little fan worms in the rock. If they grow out of control they can be a pain if they are in an acrylic tank..... they can be hard to scrape off without scraping the acrylic.

Renee, great images! Dadonoflaw, as Renee said, don't panic! I think that you would find them in most everyone's tank. (Although you do need to try to get the ammonia down to 0.)

i know carmie i have been trying to figure out how because no2/3 are both at 0 and i have slowed down on the feeding to every other day but i have had no luck. what am i missing? i only have four fish. yellow tang 2 yellowtail damsels and a coral beauty angel in a 125 that is a pretty reasonable bio load but my coralife superskimmer doesnt always do what it should so... i will likely be upgrading it.

What test kit are you using and how old is it? Maybe you should bring some water to the LFS for them to test just to make sure.

David, I'm still hotlinking the pics I guess by posting them using photoshop. If there is anytime you want to do something with one of my pics... go ahead.... no need to ask ahead of time.

my test kit is 3 months old it is a red sea test kit i bought two of them at one time and used both tests thinking that maybe one was wrong but they were both a yellowish green which is .25

Do you watch how things circulate when you feed? Is there any possibility that there is a place like an eddy that is catching and holding uneaten food? On the other hand, I think that it was Dick who had a tank that tested slightly positive (I don't remember the exact level) for NH3 for a long time and he thought it was just the kit. Then, one day it tested zero.