ScottR
Surfing....
Preface: Many of us have problems with our reef and fish. (Can’t forget the inverts!). Here’s a non sequitur for us: our hands!!!!
I’ve got a good friend that I visit frequently. He’s got a rather large display. He’s a seasoned reefer and yet he has had trouble keeping and growing corals; specifically SPS. We’ve tested his water, his maintenance regimen, lighting, flow and so forth. I couldn’t ever come up with an idea why his skills were inept until I observed that he repeatedly stuck his hands and arms in his tank after touching every and anything. He’d come home and wash his hands with antibacterial soap and the next minute have his hands in the tank. He wasn’t aware and didn’t care what he had touched before putting his hands in. For me, I’m always cautious about what I touch before sticking my hands in the tank. I used to RODI rinse my hands but there are times you’ll have an emergency and just need your hands in. I’ll usually wash my hands with tap water without soap and let them dry before going near my water. I even smell my hands to make sure there’s nothing obvious that will inevitably end up in my tank. You can do an ICP test to see what could be troubling you but an ICP test is very limited and won’t give us the full breakdown of everything in our tank.
For those that wear deodorant, it’s also important to make sure you don’t get that portion of your arm in your tank. Some contain antibacterials like triclosan and also the metal aluminum. Both of which can wreak havoc in your tank, especially with repeated exposure. Deodorant is just one example of what we can introduce into our tank. Even wearing sunscreen for example and touching your tank. The ingredients in many sunscreens can block the zooxanthellae in our corals from getting light for photosynthesis. Hand sanitizers, essential oils, lotions, to name a few more, are some others to be aware of. You may not see an immediate negative response but they can build up over time.
In conclusion, we post parameters and such when we have problems, all of which are typically in the green zone. Just be careful when sticking your hands into the tank and know where they’ve been. There are even gloves for reefing that cover your hands up past your elbows.
I’ve got a good friend that I visit frequently. He’s got a rather large display. He’s a seasoned reefer and yet he has had trouble keeping and growing corals; specifically SPS. We’ve tested his water, his maintenance regimen, lighting, flow and so forth. I couldn’t ever come up with an idea why his skills were inept until I observed that he repeatedly stuck his hands and arms in his tank after touching every and anything. He’d come home and wash his hands with antibacterial soap and the next minute have his hands in the tank. He wasn’t aware and didn’t care what he had touched before putting his hands in. For me, I’m always cautious about what I touch before sticking my hands in the tank. I used to RODI rinse my hands but there are times you’ll have an emergency and just need your hands in. I’ll usually wash my hands with tap water without soap and let them dry before going near my water. I even smell my hands to make sure there’s nothing obvious that will inevitably end up in my tank. You can do an ICP test to see what could be troubling you but an ICP test is very limited and won’t give us the full breakdown of everything in our tank.
For those that wear deodorant, it’s also important to make sure you don’t get that portion of your arm in your tank. Some contain antibacterials like triclosan and also the metal aluminum. Both of which can wreak havoc in your tank, especially with repeated exposure. Deodorant is just one example of what we can introduce into our tank. Even wearing sunscreen for example and touching your tank. The ingredients in many sunscreens can block the zooxanthellae in our corals from getting light for photosynthesis. Hand sanitizers, essential oils, lotions, to name a few more, are some others to be aware of. You may not see an immediate negative response but they can build up over time.
In conclusion, we post parameters and such when we have problems, all of which are typically in the green zone. Just be careful when sticking your hands into the tank and know where they’ve been. There are even gloves for reefing that cover your hands up past your elbows.
