Why is there such an aversion to wearing gloves when working in the reef tank? Is it a machismo thing or is it just that people have always worked barehanded in their tanks? It's one thing to put your bare hands in the tank and quite another to put your bare hands in the tank knowing you have an open wound while working with corals known to contain palytoxin.
Gloves keep the bacteria and pathogens in your tank from hurting you, and they also keep any potential contaminants on your hands from entering your tank. It's win-win. Really the only downside is the reduction in finger dexterity from the thicker arm-length gloves, but you can make up for that by using some tweezers or tongs.
I guess I just don't understand why this sort of thing keeps happening, especially with veteran reefers and the knowledge we now have in the hobby. I'm glad he's okay, but this incident was entirely avoidable.
