Gloves: When to use them and when to skip them?

[thermoJoe]

I've had the same many times.. Handling live rock bare handed and cleaning filters. Several days of swelling and similar breakouts on my hands and wrists. Over 10yrs ago and still happens if I get lazy. Now I wear gloves for handling live rock or deep maintenance. I think it's similar to other allergies. Some people have no reaction to Poison Ivy..I have no chance after slightly brushing against Poison Ivy.

ya, i get some irritation and a bit of swelling if I hit a bunch of bristle worms, but this time it was different and the first time in 10+ years. Something definitely punctured my finger at three locations and the infection it induced was not messing around.

 

[Ippyroy]

I have a set of shorter gloves for working in the Fuge, I have a ton of bristleworms in it. I have shoulder length gloves that I use for working in the DT. I am a strong proponent of not putting my hands in the tank. I can't glue my fingers together and I can't add bad things to my tanks from my hands if I wear gloves. I do it more to protect my tank and it's inhabitants than for myself.

 

[Sarcazian]

I don’t have any leaks; I do have issues with dexterity though. It drives me mad when I can’t feel what I’m doing. I have both of these pairs from Amazon. The red and blue pair have been in use for two years. The yellow is new and fit my hands better.

I like the Atlas gloves, but they only go on for really dirty jobs. Still going strong for about 11 years... according to Amazon I purchased on Ordered on March 7, 2011.

I put on disposables when touching corals and that's about it, but I hate that water gets inside and I will have to try the rubber band trick.

I know that this is not a best practice, but over the years I have had my hands in some nasty tanks. Fragged zoas without gloves, glasses, sipped water (WC) that was as brown as could be, touched BTA's after accidentally swiping them to "see what it feels like", plucked dinos, cyano, and all types of macro, etc.

I guess I feel like my body needs to build up a tolerance to an extent to fight off some of this stuff as I feel that tank off-gassing has to release some of this crap into the air? I know that I can smell my office starting to smell funky if something is amiss and it's time for an early WC.

The only thing I never messed with was my first tank (bought used) had more than a dozen large fireworms and some other types that were never aggressive to my corals/fish. It also had crushed coral substrate so a lot of pods/bristleworms in there, so that's why I picked up the Atlas gloves.

Good responses guys!

 

[Charlie C]

I typically don’t wear gloves but after reading the comments plan to get a box of nitrile disposable gloves. I don’t put my hands in the tank very often.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

I use two pairs of very flexible shoulder length rubber gloves from Japan. One pair is very thin but very durable. The other pair is thicker and has a fleece like texture inside. They are very flexible as well. I hate those blue and orange gloves sold for aquariums.

 

[lukesnc]

I never do but my wife does we have a clown fish that likes to nip just her

 

[Therinx]

Atlas gloves, all the time. I’d rather be called names by total strangers on the internet than risk the tank or myself. Too many stories, from reefers AND nurses i know.

 

[vanpire]

I dive and usually no issues. Until recently, I never used gloves. About six months ago, my skins would crack and not heal at the finger tips for several weeks after working on my tank or fragging. Now, I use the orange arm length gloves sold on Amazon for $13. Annoying but better than pain.

 

[fryman]

I've heard of the dangers but honestly I wear gloves primarily to avoid contamination with my phyto/roti/copepod cultures, not as a personal safety measure.

I think it's a good idea to wear gloves when fragging palys and zoas but admittedly I never did and I fragged alot. It's a risk assessment thing, I think it's more dangerous in general getting into my car every day but yes I could be safer and I recommend everyone take whatever precautions they can.

 

[t5Nitro]

Do you guys try to clean the shoulder length gloves or replace them with a new pair after a while? I just took a look inside at the finger areas on mine.... gross haha. Seems like you need to pour some bleach in there once in a while! Black mold.

 

[Proteus Meep]

Do you guys try to clean the shoulder length gloves or replace them with a new pair after a while? I just took a look inside at the finger areas on mine.... gross haha. Seems like you need to pour some bleach in there once in a while! Black mold.

Not had my pair do that yet but only use them occasionally, i get away with 12" nitrile gloves with an elastic band around the cuff to keep water out for most maintenance , but would replace the shoulder length's for sure if they had become and ecosystem in their own right like your pair