I should also say again, that if I leave them there long enough then when you look at the tank it looks like water spots ALL OVER. Even at this stage they would be too small to get a picture of.
Sounds like hydra colonies. I have hydra in my tank; they get in your system by hitching a ride on live plants. They're not harmful to adult fish, and they reproduce really fast. I have to clean them off the glass every week at WC time.
Cleaning the glass is part of routine maintenance.
When they're balled up, I could see how they would look like water spots.