why wear gloves? for your tank's protection from you [FYI]

[Sk8r]

A lot of people have a machismo attitude toward gloves...oh, I can take the stings. Oh, I don't mind if I get hit with bristles, etc.

Here's a reason you may not have thought of. Our skin has gripping ridges---look at our fingertips under a magnifying glass and they loom like the Grand Canyon. That's why we get bristled by worms, and corals don't. That's how we can actually damage a delicate-skinned fish by it twisting 'against the grain' as it tries to escape. That's how we damage corals...well, that's HALF of how we damage corals. The soap, perfume, natural oils of our skin is the other half. A skimmer flat stops working for a bit after we've had a hand in the tank.

Your big gloves can protect you from serious risk [rabbitfish] only if you wear thick leather gloves underneath the over-the-elbow numbers. They'll stay dry. And you'll stay out of the clinic. BUT...

the big gloves float. And have the sensitivity of a steam shovel.

Go to your grocery or pharmacy and get a box of cheap, throwaway latex or plastic 'examination gloves.' They're like what surgeons use: you can literally pick up a dime, you can feel what you're doing. You can rubber-band the wrists, but even if you're in a hurry and you let them leak, your fingers will stay safe and so will your tank. Corals, in particular, have stinging cells, little harpoons that will NOT be grabbing your skin and ripping delicate coral tissues. It will not be wasting energy trying to kill you. Which is exhausting it of resources. Other bitey things cannot lay a tooth or sting on you.

And repeated exposure to marine stings can so sensitize you to them that you become allergic: I knew an lfs owner who had disregarded this rule for years---and it caught up with him: all of a sudden he found his skin turning red and his joints swelling if he even reached his hand into a tank, because of the chemicals of the corals in the water. This also goes for bristleworm stings: get enough of them, and your fingers will start reacting by swelling up like fenceposts. It's not good for your bristleworms, either: they worked hard growing those spines and they really don't like to lose them. Ruffle a fish's skin, and it can be like a bad case of 'road rash' for it---and bacterial infection can take hold, to the detriment of the whole tank.

So protect your critters from you, protect you from them, and keep your tank happier and your critters healthier. They're cheap, they're throwaway, and if you have mitts like a Red Sox catcher, they stretch, and there are some, a little harder come by, that are a bit larger.

HTH.

[Shooter7]

Make sure you get the non-powdered kind. I pick mine up at walmart and use them all the time.

[Sk8r]

That's absolutely true: powder is used on some medical gloves for ease of putting them on fast, and this is NOT good for your tank. Thank you for that note, Shooter 7. If you accidentally buy the powdered sort, [and you can tell: it leaves a residue on your skin] use them around the kitchen and bath and machine shop, and get the non-powdered. This is a case of "the cheaper, the better."

[FragMan07]

One of the Best Suggestions Sk8r ever gave me.

Just a note to wash your hands WITHOUT SOAP before putting on the latex gloves and then, just for extra precaution, I wash my hands ,WITHOUT SOAP again, with the gloves on so there are no stray chemicals from processing.

great catch phrase: "PROTECT YOUR TANK FROM YOU"

[papagimp]

Sk8r,

what are you're thoughts on using Nitrile gloves vs. latex in a SW aquarium? Better? Worse? , or won't matter one way or the other? I know many people have a sensitivity to latex gloves, and then ya got me, who happens to have all the nitrile type gloves i could want here at work.

fwiw, i use the arm length aqua gloves for tank work, but definatly prefer latex gloves for fragging purposes. more dexterity with them than my bulky yet protecting aquagloves.

[FragMan07]

I have aquagloves as well. But I have a 29 Gallon and find that I knock over more Frags and Corals that the trouble is worth.

[styndall]

Originally posted by Sk8r A lot of people have a machismo attitude toward gloves...oh, I can take the stings. Oh, I don't mind if I get hit with bristles, etc.

Here's a reason you may not have thought of. Our skin has gripping ridges---look at our fingertips under a magnifying glass and they loom like the Grand Canyon. That's why we get bristled by worms, and corals don't.

Is there are data that suggests this claim is true? Fish get bristled all the time, and they don't have fingers, much less fingerprints. I suspect that corals not getting bristled is more a function of the fact that they don't attack bristleworms than the fact that they don't have fingerprints.

[Sk8r]

Bristleworms crawl all over sensitive, fully-expanded lps corals and don't snag their balloon-like flesh. Most fish get bristled when they either try to eat one or when they ram their little faces into a burrow for the night and contest right of way with a worm. I have a firefish that took 4 tries to learn this was not going to work: he has now given up contesting with worms for a sleeping spot and no longer gets a faceful---or hasn't in months. If you press most critters up against a bristleworm with sufficient pressure it will get bristled, and that includes grabbing a rock [and worm] barehanded. But they will not bristle a latex-gloved hand, even if you directly handle them. You've become balloonlike, like the lps coral.

[bellusangel3]

I didn't know it wasn't a good idea to wash your hands with soap. Even if you rinse them in hot water for 30 seconds? I wash my hands and arms all the way to the elbow, before I put my hands in the tank at all. I feel like I am getting ready to preform surgery on my tank every time I have to put my hands in there to rescue a snail that is on its back. So washing my hands with soap is not good??

[Shooter7]

I think the important thing is rinsing thoroughly. I wash my hands and will sometimes have to dip into my tank to right a fallen frag or something and I've never noticed any bad results from it, but I make sure and rinse really well when I wash. Would also probably have more effect on a smaller tank than a larger. Just rinse really, really well and it should be alright.

I would say, as a sidenote, to try and not use perfumey soaps or ones that have a softener or skin lotion included in them.

[Sk8r]

Just be careful to rinse very, very well---and if you can smell soap on your hands, there are still volatiles left. Easy substitutes for snail rescue---a long 'cooking' chopstick, a pair of tongs for reef; or the gloves, which are pretty fast, and throwaway on the cheap. And yep, though I keep gloves under my tank, if I see my 30 head hammer take a dive onto the top of my candycane coral, I'm on that stepstool with my bare hand in the tank...sometimes there's no time for niceity.
But stuff like lavatory soap with perfumes, lanolins, oils, dyes, or detergents, or cosmetics, gals---if you've been touching your made-up face, rubbing your foundation-covered nose or forehead, you're not good for your tank. If you have perfume on your hands. Or the grease from your lunch french fries. All not good. Wash, rinse AND use gloves.

[bellusangel3]

unscented soap? I don't know where to find that. Would vinager and hot water do? I just don't think washing my hands with only water will get my hands clean enough.

[Shooter7]

I use bottles of dial liquid antibacterial soap around the house which you can get unscented. I think plain white bars of dial soap are also unscented. Again, just rinse really well and should be ok.

[Sk8r]

Yep it's a great soap, but RINSE WELL. Antibacterial means killing bacteria, and your tank is full of bacteria that are good guys. So always, always rinse, and preferably wear gloves, too. Gloves are the defense against most anything that could get on your hands.