[skallywag85]

Good afternoon, This is my second 60 USG FOWLR My wife and I are Establishing. and are currently in the middle of its initial cycle. We used sand for our DSB Right from our local beach (Wrightsville Bch. NC) and added about 45 pounds of LR, Current Water Peramiters are as follows :

Temp 77-80
Ph 7.9
SG 1.021
NH3 0.30
NO2 0.00
NO3 0.00

We have been testing and really havent seen a huge amonia spike in the cycle but now it seems to be going down, still no measurable nitrite or nitrate. we only have one small snail which was hiding on a LR chunk when we added it in. NOW.... with peramiters noted we have started to see alot of TINY things on our LR and also on the parts of tubing and etc. they are hard to spot untill you really focus and they move quite fast, kinda looks like clear to white lice or something of that nature, they are not afloat just on the LR and Equpment and now our snail has moved off the LR and onto the glass? for the first 2 weeks he stayed on the LR. did they bother him? what are they?

[pyromaniac398]

More than likely Copepods or amphipods . Nothing to worry about. Fish like scooter blennies and mandarin gobys use these for food. Here is what they look like:
http://www.hudsonregional.org/mosqui...es/copepod.jpg

[skallywag85]

Cool, thats kind of what I realized after searching on a link I found in the Identification section of RB. thank you for the reply!