What type of hand soap?

Sure, it's a risk. But it's very hard to get. How many if us know people who gave contracted it?

I once started siphons twice a day for something like 3 months with my mouth (and a very cracked wisdom tooth) on a tank with 2 seahorses loaded with myco.

Everything we do has a risk to it.

 

yeah i did that a few times and then i read up on it. NO reason to take a risk if you dont have to.

 

of course. But we are in control of lowering the risk.

Bottom line is, if you don't wrap it "hand/arm" with rubber you risk getting sick. Sometimes you get too excited or in too much of a rush and you can't protect yourself, it's understandable, but you have to clean up afterwards. You could do it without protection 100 times, but it only takes that one time to catch something that is very painful, makes you itch, or gives you a rash. Just put a rubber on before you go and touch anything that's wet.

 

but on another note I am going hand gliding in Brazil tomorrow so that might be considered a risk that is also avoidable.... oh well all i can say is be careful...... and happy reefing

 

For me the gloves are not user friendly. Pruning macro, picking up frags, handling your fish..... It's not easy with those thick gloves. The thin ones often leak, so what's the point there. I use "pick up sticks" when feasible.

 

I agree the thicker gloves are harder to handle, but I use them to move rock & other such tasks that I can do with them. I use thin gloves for delicate work. I could care less if my thin gloves leak, if they even do. The thin gloves I use are a tight fit & the added water pressure seals them up pretty good. I want protection on my hands from direct contact.

That's like not wearing eye protection, because you can't see as good. We all have common sense. Some of us choose to ignore it at times. We just hope it's not a time that we hurt or kill ourselves or others.

 

wow a lot o great info in this thread. Aside of the risk of contamination to the tank the water itself makes my arms itch like mad so I'm just go use whatever I can as often as I can just to avoid that.

 

Yes it is a dangerous hobby but I think that using those gloves cause me more problems with coral breakage and stuff than they are worth.

I also do not wash my hands with any kind of soap before sticking them in the tank. I have a tub of tank salt sitting on the sink and I scrub my hands and arms with that and a little water and go for it.

I do how ever use a really good anti bacterial soap when done, I scrub my arms and hands with that and a small scrub brush, after drying I use some corn-huskers lotion to keep my hands from drying out and cracking.

Eye protection is a give when working with any kind of coral outside of the water, I also use a good quality latex free glove when fragging corals, especially Zoa's and Palys, anyone that doesn't needs to search on line for an article called "Hawaiian Death Spear" and I will bet that they will be wearing both gloves and glasses.

 

But if you are worried about risk and being safe, why wouldn't you care about the water going in the glove? It's probably even riskier to have water trapped up inside there next to a cut or whatever. It's not only an issue of touch, but one of bacteria such as myco, being present in the water and now swimming in your wet glove.

I used the the hobby grade thin gloves you buy at the fish store and online. I tried them on more than one occasion thinking the first batch was faulty. They all pretty much leaked.

I'm not encouraging people not to wear gloves, but the risk of contracting some horrible ailment is about as likely as a heart attack after inhaling a dinner from The Cheese Cake factory. It happens.... and yet I still line up like a junkie for my Chicken Marsala. Have you seen the fat in those meals SHEESH!