[RHINO13]

Hello guys, I was wondering if it is ok to stick my hands in my tank to clean glass and powerheads etc...I

Im thinking it might mess with my water quality,should I not worry so much?

If it is bad for the water,is it ok to use latex gloves,(new) the kind for washing dishes?

[wozza]

well i dont know if this is the correct advice or not......but i allways stick my bare hand in the tank and i have never had any problems....yet anyway.
but i just make sure i wash my hands with just plain hot water and then dry with a clean towel before and after.
obviously dont go sticking your hands in if you have just been useing any kind of chemicals like bleach or polish(spelling?) actually i never put my hands in if i have done the washing up that day....i might over cautious but it doesnt hurt to be in this hobby

hope this helps, james

[kosys]

Ryan you should have no problems putting your hands in the tank so long as thier clean ( no toxic residue of some kind ), some people find salt water itchy on skin, but should not affect water quality.

Ken

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by RHINO13

Hello guys, I was wondering if it is ok to stick my hands in my tank to clean glass and powerheads etc...I

You should never allow your bare skin to come into contact with tankwater.

Im thinking it might mess with my water quality,should I not worry so much?

It wouldn't mess with water quality unless you had recently washed your hands with soap or used some sort of hand lotion on them.

If it is bad for the water,is it ok to use latex gloves,(new) the kind for washing dishes?

It's OK to use whatever you can find that will give you complete protection from contact with the water provided it doesn't contain any harmful bactericides or algaecides or any other harmful chemicals that might leach out into the water.

Remember, it's not just your hands that must be covered, it's your entire arm as far up as necessary. They make gloves that go all the way up to your armpit. Those are the kind you should use. The better ones that are sold in the hobby don't last long before they split at the seam and the cheapy clear vinyl ones that you can buy by the hundred don't last long at all before they come apart. I have used these by doubling them up and then throwing them away after one use. The seams come unstuck very easily. The expensive pair of hobby gloves with orange hands and navy blue arm covering split at the seam between the orange and the navy blue the third or fourth time I used them.

I sometimes cheated and used regular yellow latex gloves that I would tape closed with hospital tape to keep the water from getting into the gloves and then I just left my elbow and upper arm exposed to the water. That's a very risky thing to do but I have done that on occasion. I would NEVER do it if I had a scratch or anything on my arm.

I have to admit that I stuck my bare hands in the tank quite a few times in the beginning. I wouldn't do it if there was a cut or scratch on my hands but I did do it a lot. I guess I'm just lucky nothing bad ever came of it.

Think of it this way. Sticking your hands in the tank without protection is about the same as engaging in unprotected sex with someone known to have a sexually-transmitted disease. You may be lucky and not catch it, but why take a chance?

So, what could I catch from my tank?

Glad you asked. Try Mycobacterium marinum for starters. That's just one of many different nasties that could attack you. And you had better read up on the possibilities so that you can advise the hospital's emergency room staff what you think it might be because they will not be familiar with your problem. It's not every day that they see a case of M. marinum infection. If you would like to see what it looks like, check out this Reef Central thread started by Sean Tobin.

Steven Pro wrote an article on M. marinum for the July 2003 edition of Reefkeeping magazine.

[wozza]

hahaha oh man knew ide be wrong!!

but i didnt know why.
I think im gonna invest in some gloves, that is a seriously nasty looking infection that guy had, ive cut my self loads a times from handeling my live rock, its thoes peskey encrusting snails that make razor sharp tubes like hyperderms.

james

[RHINO13]

Wow thanks guys! Glad I asked

[reggiepe]

I am just recovering from an infection that was assumed started from having my hands in the tank. I am careful of not placing my hands in the tank when I have open sores, but I wasn't thinking when I had a hang nail on my left hand. Two days later it was big and fat and one of the reddest reds you could imagine. It never got to the point of having the red streaks run up my arm but I did feel terrible from it and had a fever for days on end. I finally went to see the doctor and he gave me some antibiotics and a tetanus shot. The next day I could feel the pressure in my finger reducing. So, let that be a lesson learned to be very careful when working on the fish tank.

Rich

[OceanLuv]

Wow - that is scary! I always use my bare (clean) hands... They always get itchy and red after doing much work though ... guess I will be buying gloves tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!!

[kosys]

wow I never knew that either I was always worried about me contaminating tank, I've had fresh water fish too for 20 plus years and I always put my hands in tank. Now, my foxface has been a prob for me he stuck me twice now, both times my hand swelled up, like really bad bee sting. But never had problem with infections or soars from water.

Guess I've been lucky.

Ken

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by kosys

Now, my foxface has been a prob for me he stuck me twice now, both times my hand swelled up, like really bad bee sting.

Twice!?! How did it happen? Did you accidentally bump into him or did he swim up to your hand/arm?

My Foxface (Siganus vulpinus) was always very timid. He would eat out of my hand but he always stayed away whenever I was cleaning the glass or doing anything like that in the tank. And I didn't always wear gloves when working in the tank. Sometimes I did and sometimes I didn't. Then I started wearing gloves whenever I wanted to lift any piece of live rock. That was after two large bristleworms (Eurythoe complanata) exited a piece of live rock as I was lifting it with my bare hand. From then on I wore gloves when moving live rock but not when cleaning the glass. It wasn't until I started reading about Vibrio and Mycobacterium marinum that I started wearing gloves all the time.

[kosys]

Hi Ninong: yes my fault both times, my foxface is also very timid when I put my hand in he will usally go to other side of tank and try to stay clear of me. sometimes he will hide against a rock and I don't notice him and my hand comes really close he will jump to go on other side of tank and my hand in the way. you know how they can blend into rocks. When I put fingers in tank with food he too will eat from my fingers, when he sees my hand though he will most often go hide. My cleaner wrasse will peck at my hand and arm whole time it is the tank, he can drive me crazy sometimes.

Happy New Years to you and yours Ninong!

Ken

[PurePerfection]

if ther clean but do not wash them with saop or enything...

[ereefer]

that is so crazy, I always dip my hands even with cuts, I feel like an idiot now!

[mistermikev]

just thought I'd add the "BEWARE THE IDES OF PALEOTOXIN" to this thread. Got verry verry verry sick from zoos... classic: racing heart, shorness of breath, dizzy, pale. not good at all. ALWAYS use gloves now.

[PurePerfection]

sory to hear that...

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by mistermikev

just thought I'd add the "BEWARE THE IDES OF PALEOTOXIN" to this thread. Got verry verry verry sick from zoos... classic: racing heart, shorness of breath, dizzy, pale. not good at all. ALWAYS use gloves now.

I guess that means you touched them with your bare hands, right? If so, that's risky. Always wear gloves when handling zoanthids and then rinse off the gloves well with running water before removing them.

Did you have any cuts or anything on your hands or did you accidentally touch your eyes or your nose or your mouth after touching the zoanthids?

[mistermikev]

no cuts that I knew of. In fact, I moved the zoos in the morning b4 work after a shower - because they weren't liking the light where they were. Later that day I must have touched my eye/mouth/nose, I instantly new something was wrong... although at the time I had no idea what was happening. I told a coworker "be ready to drive me to a hospitol... something is very wrong". I sat down and tried to calm my heart and just waited-it-out (foolish I know). It lasted about an hour and a half and then I was back to normal. Later that night I started trying to figure out what had happened, and as I came across some info on paleotoxins, and particularily a story of someone who had the exact same symptoms - I remembered having moved my new zoo colony and came to the realization that I had likely been poisoned by it. There is a post somewhere here about a guy who squashed a zoo-eating-nudiranch and had a reaction to the toxin as well. Interesting reading. The real kicker is that the doctors had no idea what paleotoxin was or how to treat it.
I have since read that the toxin is one of the most toxic substances known to man and it is not uncommon for people to "drop dead" from coming into contact with it. DO NOT PLAY AROUND WITH ZOOS UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Do a search for paleotoxin and you will find much info...
If you go to the hospitol and suspect this toxin - tell someone right away!
Happy reefing!

[Ninong]

I know I mentioned Vibrio and Mycobacterium marinum earlier in this thread but I thought I would post the following current news article about a man dying from Vibrio (probably V. vulnifucus) within 48 hours after being pricked by a crab.

Man dies after being pricked by crab

SINGAPORE - A man pricked by a live crab he was preparing for dinner died 48 hours later in a rare case of flesh-eating bacteria infection from seafood, a news report said on Thursday.

Tan Boon Hock, 83, put a bandage on the small cut but began vomiting and suffering diarrhoea hours later. He was rushed to the Accident and Emergency Department of the National University Hospital.

“The doctors told us that he had been infected by a rare flesh- eating bacteria called Vibrio, and ... it was most likely that the crab spread the bacteria to him,” The Straits Times quoted son Tan Aik Cheng as saying.

In a bid to prevent the virulent bacteria from spreading throughout his body, doctors amputated the patient’s arm, but it was too late.

You can read the rest here.

[sihaya]

Ninong gives good, intelligent, prudent advice we should all follow.

That said, I also put my hands in my tank all the time (and even hand feed my fish). I do make sure not to put my hands in the tank if I've used hand lotion or something like that. Then again, I don't quarantine anything either even though I know I should. So as the saying goes "don't do as I do, do as Ninong says."

[wozza]

"don't do as I do, do as Ninong says."

haha i like that one!