Soapy hands

[jeffreyliu838]

I was rearranging my coral, and mid process, I realized that I had soapy hands. I quickly finished up. Am I being too worried, or is the soap on my hands negligible? The reason I'm being so paranoid is because I have a 20 gallon, and you can never be too careful.

Thanks.

[poppin_fresh]

Residues from soaps and cleaning products have been known to cause issues in some cases. I would observe the tank closely and be ready to administer some carbon and a water change if things dont look happy.

[jeffreyliu838]

Should I be looking for anything specifically, or just the general symptoms that accompany unhappiness?

[poppin_fresh]

If everything closes up... time to move! Other wise I would just do a small, normal water change tomorrow if you can.

[vanmo92]

It is definitely not good for the tank, but I would think that the foamy stuff (soap) would be taken out by the skimmer pretty well, and if it was just the residue on your hands then it is probably alright. Now if you had soap on your hands, like didn't rinse it off, then it would probably kill everything.

[Gdevine]

You know I often this about soap residue and tank water. In fact, most soaps today have a fair amount of anti bacteria agents which for a tank is not good at all.

But how much is too much?

I wash my hands with a mild soap before I frag or move corals almost every weekend BUT I make sure to rinse, rinse some more, rinse, then rinse again.

I'd rather have clean hands go into the tank then residue say from cologne i put on in the morning or something I touched in the garage that is toxic to the tank.

I doubt a bit of foam when diluted in a 20g would do much harm the parts per billion would be minuscule.

Just keep your eye in the tank and it won't take long. If you do see signs of distress water changes and carbon are your best friend!