little white bugs in my nano

I am extremely new to this saltwater thing so I bought a 3 gal nano to start off--I have a feather duster, a clam (stuck to the live rock I bought), an anemone, 1 clownfish and of course like I said the live rock and live sand--I have had it for about 3 weeks--I feed my fish flakes and briney shrimp-the others I put the phytoplankton in--
Now--every night I turn out the light and turn it back on in the morn.--this morning I turned on the light and about 100 or so little, teeny-weeny (I mean tiny!) white bug like things were all over the inside of the glass!
Well, of course, I assume this is a bad thing--I was hoping someone could tell me what they might be, where they have come from and hopfully they are a good thing!--if not, what do I need to do to get rid of them--after about 10 min. of the light being on they dissappeared--
this is the first time I have ever seen them in my tank--

thanks for your time

 

Most likely copepods which are little tiny crustaceans. Very beneficial to your tank. They will eat the uneaten food.

 

they are copepods. they are good, they eat phytoplankton and detrus.
to reduce the amount you see of them on the glass, you can wipe the thin layer of phytoplankton that has probably started to accumulate on your glass

 

welcome to 3reef lucky. yes they would be copepods and are beneficial to your system . how long has your tank been running for? reason i ask is because of the anenome. if your tank isnt established , roughly a year old , it could cause problems. but congrats on your pods and keeep up the good work

 

I am soooo happy to hear that these are copepods--I guess they came from the live sand--my tank is only about 3 weeks old--when I bought the tank it came with rock, sand, 2 crabs, 2 snails, 2 fish--I have since added the anemone and the feather duster--my snails and crabs have since died--the folks at the store did not hesitate to sell them to me knowing that my tank was brand new (since I was carrying it around new in the box!)
I only took 1 fish being a 3 gal tank I did not think it would be enough room for 2--they never questioned me about purchasing the anemone--he looks really good and stretches out and eats good--I will get some pics up soon--
glad to hear that those little bugs are good things--now what to do about this green hairy stuff and brown yuck growing and spreading onto everything in its path--again--no one ever told me of these things to look for--I guess its in my ignorance and spontaneous purchase and to no one to blame but me--good thing I only have this little tank and no larger--
thanks so much for your responses!
I wonder if my tank is now ready for some snails or something to eat the yuck--

 

How much light is on the tank???

 

I dont know the specs of the light--it is an telescoping overhanging one that you can put close to the water or farther away--it has a white and blue bulb side by side--it came with the tank kit I bought

 

Thats a small tank you got there ... also a young one. I reckon u take the anemone back, just keep the single fish. Don't worry about crabs and snails in that size tank - your going to have enough work trying to keep the fish alive.
Although saying that, a fish in a 3gal tank doesn't sound right. Perhaps take all the live stock back and make it a nice freshwater setup with a couple of neons and a nice plant.

 

these tanks are small--the LFS that I go to has these exact tanks set up all over the store--they are well established and ongoing--they have all kinds of different fish and other species thriving very well in these tanks or I would not have bought one--I am very pleased with what I have

 

fair enough.

just be careful with that anemone, they are hardcore. If your heart is set on this sized tank then theres a few things you should be familiar with.
check out the articles section on www.nano-reef.com. There's good advice on keeping small tanks, and the do's and dont's.