Reef tank causing bad rash

[pelicansreef]

I have this issue

I switched salts and sometime will get it with nems and euphylia and mushrooms

But after I switch from brightwell to Red Sea the issue cleared up quickly

I was talking to my wife today and said I may try a different salt to see if it made a difference. What I find Odd is I have been around saltwater tanks for 25 years and never had an issue. This occurred out of the blue around Christmas

 

[pelicansreef]

UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been about 5 weeks since I started having an issue with breaking out with a really bad rash every time I worked on my aquarium. If you have been reading my posts, you know I have been to the dermatologist and tried a number of things to find a solution.

End result, the rash slowed down to where it is no longer an issue. Although it is still a small rash once in a while. As I reviewed what occurred I realized that I had been sick since Christmas and as it turns out I had contracted COVID somewhere in my travels while Christmas shopping and having family over for the holidays. Fortunately, I had all my shots and boosters and had relatively mild symptoms. I did not even know I had COVID until a follow up exam with my Dr. He told me that the rash was likely an after effect of COVID

The primary take away is that what you perceive as a problem with your tank may not be an aquarium issue or a husbandry issue. it may be an outside influence that "seems" to be aquarium related.

I feel very lucky to be able to tell everyone that I did everything you should do to prevent getting covid and still ended up infected. Fortunately, my wife didn't get it and I stayed away from everyone for almost a month afterward. The rash is slowly going away, and my new tank is at the LFS. I will start posting to my build thread as soon as they bring it to the house.

 

[bruno3047]

UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been about 5 weeks since I started having an issue with breaking out with a really bad rash every time I worked on my aquarium. If you have been reading my posts, you know I have been to the dermatologist and tried a number of things to find a solution.

End result, the rash slowed down to where it is no longer an issue. Although it is still a small rash once in a while. As I reviewed what occurred I realized that I had been sick since Christmas and as it turns out I had contracted COVID somewhere in my travels while Christmas shopping and having family over for the holidays. Fortunately, I had all my shots and boosters and had relatively mild symptoms. I did not even know I had COVID until a follow up exam with my Dr. He told me that the rash was likely an after effect of COVID

The primary take away is that what you perceive as a problem with your tank may not be an aquarium issue or a husbandry issue. it may be an outside influence that "seems" to be aquarium related.

I feel very lucky to be able to tell everyone that I did everything you should do to prevent getting covid and still ended up infected. Fortunately, my wife didn't get it and I stayed away from everyone for almost a month afterward. The rash is slowly going away, and my new tank is at the LFS. I will start posting to my build thread as soon as they bring it to the house.

Glad to hear you got everything straightened out and you were ready for the virus when it came. Good luck going forward.

 

[Karen00]

UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It has been about 5 weeks since I started having an issue with breaking out with a really bad rash every time I worked on my aquarium. If you have been reading my posts, you know I have been to the dermatologist and tried a number of things to find a solution.

End result, the rash slowed down to where it is no longer an issue. Although it is still a small rash once in a while. As I reviewed what occurred I realized that I had been sick since Christmas and as it turns out I had contracted COVID somewhere in my travels while Christmas shopping and having family over for the holidays. Fortunately, I had all my shots and boosters and had relatively mild symptoms. I did not even know I had COVID until a follow up exam with my Dr. He told me that the rash was likely an after effect of COVID

The primary take away is that what you perceive as a problem with your tank may not be an aquarium issue or a husbandry issue. it may be an outside influence that "seems" to be aquarium related.

I feel very lucky to be able to tell everyone that I did everything you should do to prevent getting covid and still ended up infected. Fortunately, my wife didn't get it and I stayed away from everyone for almost a month afterward. The rash is slowly going away, and my new tank is at the LFS. I will start posting to my build thread as soon as they bring it to the house.

Wow!! That is crazy! I think I got Covid at the clinic where I got my second shot because I got fairly sick a few days after (not hospital sick but more than mild symptoms). A rash was one of the symptoms. A horrible burning, itching rash that covered my feet, legs (up to the waist), arms and hands but my torso and face were spared. It was awful. I wanted to rip my skin off. At first I thought I was having a reaction to the shot but when I mentioned my symptoms and the rash to my friend she said "that's Covid, not a vaccine reaction". I never did get tested. I know exactly what you went through. So glad you're better and you found the cause and thankfully it's not your tank!

 

[pelicansreef]

Yea the rash is one of the worst I have ever had. My luck has been kind of on the bad side since Christmas. Two weeks ago, I took a fall off the garage steps and hit a cast iron table saw. cracked 2 ribs and bruised my kidney

At 70 years old I don't need this kind of aggravation....LOL

 

[MinnieMouse2]

You need a lot of caution in this hobby because it does have its dangers. I have had to use long gloves that go up to the shoulders. I have colony hydroids in the tank that will never go away unless I pull the entire tank down and bleach it or use hydrogen peroxide, the cells have gone everywhere. They have been taking over the rocks. I scraped and pulled many of them out. Within hours my arms were itchy and burning. One week of hell. No sleep because at night you just want to scratch your skin off. Hydroids are of the jellyfish family. It left me feeling really sick. I thought they looked pretty under the lights. They glow a nice emerald green. I never knew what they were. A local reefer told me hydroids and that they should not be considered pretty.

 

[KylasReef]

I have been in the hobby for about 9 years. I recently started a new tank after about a 3 year break. I have never had any issues until this set up. Salt does dry out the skin but this is definitely more than that.


I'm experiencing the exact same thing pelicansreef is describing. It starts out red and spotty, and very itchy. Like hives kinda. But add burning and stinging to the itching. About a week later, your skin starts to resemble reptile scales (see photos).

I know the pics look like cracked skin due to dryness. But this is 2 weeks after the problem started. At first, it was not dry skin at all. It was like tiny microscopic stings or cuts all over the front of my hands and up to my elbows in some places.

Mind you, I'm 32 years old and have no wrinkles anywhere in my body so the creases and wrinkles on my hands in the pics are not my normal skin at all.



I think i figured out the culprit. And I know there are a lot of much more knowledgeable folks here to correct me if I'm wrong....but in my case, I had a serious hydroid infestation arise about a week after the stings appeared on my hands. So I'm guessing the free floating hydroids (since they hadn't yet attached....which is why they weren't noticed yet at that point in time) stung me the whole time my hands were in the water. And the worst part is on my hands because I cleaned my canister filter media (wringing sponges out and all that mess)....so I'm sure they were full of tiny hydroids.

Now I have the Medusa ones and the deligate ones in every inch of my tank. And that's what I'm battling.


It's interesting you said you had a small cyno outbreak because that's what I noticed shortly before the hydroids appeared. Very small isolated cyno bloom. Then cyno and hydroids invaded the whole tank overnight as a team.


I'm not sure if the two are related or not but I've never had hydroids before and I have only dealt with cyno once a long time ago and it was minimal. I had my hands in the water for the last 2 months and nothing happened. This just happened and the only new additions were coral that I got from a well known reefer. I would hate to think that these devils came from his tanks. My set up is just too new to balance them out I think.



Anyway... Hopefully something I rambled about will help you with your situation. I seriously doubt covid is the cause. Good luck!

 

[KylasReef]

Yea the rash is one of the worst I have ever had. My luck has been kind of on the bad side since Christmas. Two weeks ago, I took a fall off the garage steps and hit a cast iron table saw. cracked 2 ribs and bruised my kidney

At 70 years old I don't need this kind of aggravation....LOL

I have a 5 week old baby and a 2 year old and can't use my hands ‍. I'm right there with you!

 

[KylasReef]

Let us know if the UV helps please.

I have a 5 week old baby and a 2 year old and can't use my hands ‍. I'm right there with you!

 

[pelicansreef]

Fortunately, the rash finally went away. I went thru several months of issues including the rash. At the end of the day turned out to be symptoms of "long COVID" after several months of absolute fatigue, rash and difficulty breathing I can say I have recovered and am doing well. The odd part of the rash was that it only happened when I put my hands or arms in the tank which made me think it was aquarium related. The skin Dr. gave me a steroid-based cream that did help with the pain of the rash but didn't really help the actual rash.

I really didn't realize I had COVID until afterward. It took me several months to fully recover and one of the issues was a loss of balance and coordination which caused me to slip and fall down the stairs. I ended up breaking several ribs and bruised my Kidney which took several months to recover from. While I was recovering, I really cut down on the number of times I had my hands in the tank.