Allergic reaction to my saltwater aquarium

[roadking05]

I have notice that whenever I do my waterchange and put my arm inside the tank for maintenance, I have runny nose and my arm break out with hives. Does this ever happend to any other reefers?

 

[Brian]

Not to that extent, but my arm gets a little itchy sometimes. What size tank do you have? If it's not that deep you can try those Aqua Gloves, they go past your elbows.

 

[roadking05]

I have 90G With high stand. I do have those gloves, but my arms get so sweaty in them I could get another week off with pay from work if I just dive in, LOL

 

[Candi]

Besides my fear of bristleworms and other things I always wear gloves as I also got all itchy, minor hives, working in the tanks... I hated those orange/purple gloves (really to big for me anyways) but couldn't feel anything and was to hard to work with. I ordered the nerite (?) yellow ones from DFS and I love them.... I don't find them as warm either but a sprinkle of baking soda helps inside as well.

 

[roadking05]

Maybe my wife could start doing some tank maintenance :-X

 

[mladencovic]

Very interesting. Out of curiosity, does that ever happen to you in the "real" seawater (beach), and what is your tank stocked with in terms of corals: heavily softies, LPS or SPS? Are you detecting any serious battle between any two corals? Do you have any zoas/palys that are stressed in any way?

From my personal experience, I often feel jolts of pain on small cuts I might have on my skin when they were submersed. I also think that once I might have been very slightly affected by some type of toxin released by some softies I was handling - slight prickling and weird sensation in several areas of my body and skin.

 

[Phyl]

I'm also interested in hearing your coral list. Anthonly Calfo did a talk at MACNA this past weekend about the toxins in our tank. Euphyllia was one that caught me off guard as inducing reactions when some people touch them. Lots of others have toxins that can make you have a reaction. Be sure to watch the reactions though and guage their intensity. If they are getting worse as exposures go on... I'd be VERY careful.

 

[AnDom1]

Hi,

I echo Phyl's advice. Be very careful. Whenever I handle live rock, I feel a pinch and in very short order, the area reddens and develops a mini localized inflammation that takes several days to heal. Same goes for corals. The only time I had a problem handling a coral without getting pinched was with a "Fire Coral" (sorry I've forgotten its scientific name). I touched it briefly to move it and a few moments later developed a rash that burned/stung like heck. Very unpleasant and as I later found out, very dangerous.

Dom

 

[AngelPete]

I have notice that whenever I do my waterchange and put my arm inside the tank for maintenance, I have runny nose and my arm break out with hives. Does this ever happend to any other reefers?

Danny
over the last two months I've been getting similar symptoms and i thought it was allergies from when i cut the lawn or did landscaping. But i just realized recently that it only happens when I've been messing with the tank. I never used gloves but just started recently. I have a fowlr tank. Could the reactions be due to the salt mix? I just switched over to tropic marin from IO this summer .

 

[Carlo]

I'm one of the lucky ones I guess as I've got "tough skin". Maybe from so many years of working with chemicals and such. Not to much ever bothers me in the tank. I've occasionally had itchy skin but I think that's just from the salt drying.

mladencovic, those little jolts of pain on the cuts could also be from an electrical leak. That used to happen to me and somebody else mentioned it to me. My ground wire had came out of the tank. Check your ground wires or add one to the sump and tank and see if the problem goes away. I've got one or more in each body of water.

Carlo

 

[roadking05]

I don't think I'm allergic to natural saltwater. I don't get the same reaction. I started to notice it when I move 72gallon to 90gallon last week. My list of corals are:
10 different Zoos
3 different POLYS
leather
2 GBTA
devilhand
birdsnest
orange digi
7 different mushrooms
4 ricordias
yellow gorgarians
toadstool
plate coral
frogspawn
hammer corals
cult coral
Kenya trees
GSP
PSP
candycane(neon green)
xenias 2 kinds
featherdusters
someother things that looks like fuzzy fingers
2 braincoral open and close

 

[mladencovic]

... I move 72gallon to 90gallon last week. My list of corals are: ...

OK, very clear - your corals are stressed from the move, so they are releasing toxins. Do you see all those leather and other softies shedding their mucus? And, the the whole thing will be a bit prolongated since each coral's stress will annoy other corals, which will fight it with their own toxins or sheddings etc. Do very aggressive skimming, specially if you see a lot of relatively clear skimate. Are you using active carbon? It should help break the toxins.

 

[roadking05]

Maybe I don't see any mucus from corals. I saw my foxface lo shead his mucus...Thanks for all your info