marine poisons: or "Wear gloves!" Serious stuff.

[Sk8r]

This is a link to a thread in a club forum. This is why I urge everyone to wear latex gloves when dealing with their tank, particularly if you are handling rock, which can puncture or cut your fingers. Wear gloves if you have a wound, a hangnail or skin lesion. Wear gloves in general.
This is very serious stuff. Many ERs are slow to recognize it.

Note: a marine sting can be treated with hot water to remove the pain. Vinegar will dissolve bristleworm and urchin spines.

It does nothing about bacteria.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...readid=1285725

[auntynatal]

Thanks for the heads up, I do always wear gloves, even before I read here I did (I don't like the feel of squishy things at the best of times!) My worst problems is light burns lol

[rsw686]

I think it all depends on the person and how susceptible you are to certain infections.

I've never had an issue and I've stuck my hand in the tank numerous times with cuts or scrapes on it. Then again I've read stories of others who have had major infections.

I'm not saying to not be careful. I'm not going to rub zoos in my open cut. Then again I'm not going to worry about it all the time. I find gloves are a hassle and make it harder to rearrange rocks, etc.

[Sk8r]

Those superthin, short medical 'examination gloves' are enough, the sort you see doctors wear in a clinic, and are flexible enough you can pick up a dime. They are actually kinder to corals and other life in the tank, because their prickly bits don't get lodged in our finger-ridges that way, to be jerked out by the roots, like worm bristles and coral nematocysts.
You can usually buy them at your supermarket: use once, throw away.

[leoslizards]

Isn't the powder in those type of latex gloves bad for your aquarium? Could I use those common yellow kitchen, dish washing gloves instead?

[dsn112]

They make powdered and un-powedered gloves

[Sk8r]

dsn is right. The type at your supermarket is unpowdered, as a rule. Just swipe your finger across the inside: if powder is on your finger, you have powdered gloves: use em in the kitchen. The powder is perfectly easy to detect. It's added as a way to make the gloves faster to go on, and actually makes them more expensive.

The kitchen yellow ones are too clumsy for the tank. Go for the examination gloves.

You'll find 10,000 uses for those examination gloves: got a hot date, need to mess with the car, don't want to smell like gasoline? Bingo!
Got to clean up after the pet?
Got to clean up the pet?
Got to use some cleaner guaranteed to take calluses off a warthog?
Got 'em. They're chemically inert, throwaway and a real nice thing: we keep a jar full of 'em in the kitchen.

[NYIntensity]

Got to use some cleaner guaranteed to take calluses off a warthog?

[hugodboss]

I went thru the same thing with using or not using gloves and I also went with the throw away type its easy and fast. I used the rubber kitchen ones and if you didnt have a rubber band to seal then you pulled out half a gallon of your water all over the place if not careful. laters

[ToxicPoison]

Originally posted by Sk8r
dsn is right. The type at your supermarket is unpowdered, as a rule. Just swipe your finger across the inside: if powder is on your finger, you have powdered gloves: use em in the kitchen. The powder is perfectly easy to detect. It's added as a way to make the gloves faster to go on, and actually makes them more expensive.

The kitchen yellow ones are too clumsy for the tank. Go for the examination gloves.

You'll find 10,000 uses for those examination gloves: got a hot date,

Uhm...I dunno about you sk8r, but for me, a hot date doesn't require the use of rubber gloves, but to each his own I suppose

In all seriousness, good advice =)

[tabman2]

I use yellow dishwashing gloves with an elastic

Just make sure you get a tighter fit for mobility.

[Chago09]

Originally posted by Sk8r
dsn is right. The type at your supermarket is unpowdered, as a rule. Just swipe your finger across the inside: if powder is on your finger, you have powdered gloves: use em in the kitchen. The powder is perfectly easy to detect. It's added as a way to make the gloves faster to go on, and actually makes them more expensive.

The kitchen yellow ones are too clumsy for the tank. Go for the examination gloves.

You'll find 10,000 uses for those examination gloves: got a hot date, need to mess with the car, don't want to smell like gasoline? Bingo!
Got to clean up after the pet?
Got to clean up the pet?
Got to use some cleaner guaranteed to take calluses off a warthog?
Got 'em. They're chemically inert, throwaway and a real nice thing: we keep a jar full of 'em in the kitchen.

Is this site X-rated ???? lol the hot date joke.... I am a lot younger so my imagination is crazy LOL I may be taking your joke to far ahahah

In all seriousness I had no idea about any of this so maybe I should start wearing gloves.

[madreefer14]

Ahh the joys of latex.... practicaly speaking of course BTW the powder that they use on the gloves is corn starch

[Lotus99]

I got a box of gloves from the drugstore for about $4 (unpowdered).

It's a good idea to wear gloves if you're moving live rock around, too.

Definitely wear gloves and eye protection if you're messing with or fragging zoanthids/palythoas.

[iwishtofish]

Originally posted by leoslizards
Isn't the powder in those type of latex gloves bad for your aquarium? Could I use those common yellow kitchen, dish washing gloves instead?

Beware the kitchen gloves. I've used them - until I read that the ones I used were treated with an antibacterial agent. Now they scare me.

[leoslizards]

Originally posted by Lotus99
Definitely wear gloves and eye protection if you're messing with or fragging zoanthids/palythoas.

Eye protection? why?

I was thinking of getting those Corallife shoulder length gloves that go for about $25 a pair. I'm tired of washing my whole arm every time I go digging into my tank.

[stevelkaneval]

haha, finally my fiance has been looking at me like theres no light on upstairs. every time we leave the gyno office (for her not me, shes prego) she ask's why im filling my pockets with the blue latex gloves. then an even weirder look when im messing around in the tank. i wasnt wearing them becouse of poisons i just dont like all the creepy crawlys that are in my tank. oh yea and i justify lifting the gloves by paying over 300$ per visit(and theres a lot of them) by getting 3$ worth of gloves.

A small word of advise, use a ziptie for the wrist area or every time you take your hand out the gloves fill up with water and run down your arms or on the floor.

[Sk8r]

They squirt when messed with, sometimes quite far, and the eyes are quite capable of absorbtion.

The big gloves float while you're trying to work, and the fingers are so large it's hard to grip anything. I believe there is actually an over the elbow latex/plastic type, very thin. But I don't know a source.

One more caution: use eye protection when working to frag a stony coral, especially using a dremel. Coral has been considered as a medical grafting material, and live coral reproduces from small cells: keep it out of your eyes...not to mention the nematocysts [mini-harpoonlike cells that sting.]

[stevelkaneval]

and the eye protection is for the stuff that might squirt or splash off.