Hands in Tank???

[flames9]

Hello. When cleaning your tank (water change) and moving around the decorations do you put in ur bare hands into the water to do this??? I just dont want to contaminate my tank. Thanks Scott

[Leopardess]

Yes:) Just wash them off with water only (no soap). Best to avoid using lotions or other products that get on your hands if you know you'll be fiddling with the tank later.

[d0nuT]

I do the same, just wash with water and then use soap afterwards :)

[Beeker]

I use my bare hands, but because my hands get very dirty from work I wash with soap and rinse very, very well.

[Kasakato]

I give my hand a quick wash. And put on my trusty arm gloves. I was the gloves and go into the tank. Once Im done I wash off the gloves, and let them dry. My hands get soap and water. i have to use gloves or else my hands get super dry.

[daveedka]

I genrally just wash mine, and more importantly think real hard about what might be on them from an hour ago. If you are worried about it use fast orange (or similar citrus based) hand cleaner. these citric acid cleaners rinse very well.
Dave

[StreetCypher]

I genrally just wash mine, and more importantly think real hard about what might be on them from an hour ago. If you are worried about it use fast orange (or similar citrus based) hand cleaner. these citric acid cleaners rinse very well.
Dave
I do that exactly! If i've just done an oil change, worked with glue/paint/ paint thinners or like a week ago helped redo our roof i'll generally wait until the next day or so to stick my hands in.

[anonapersona]

I try to do all tank work before I shower and do my hair so there is not hair products or hand lotions that may get in the tank.

[JosephMCorbett]

I do everything with my feet. Just kidding. I just rinse really well with hot water and dry with paper towels. No dish towels! The day before I make sure not to get anything on my hands - lotions, gasoline, oil, whatever. If I do, I wait another day. I have some arm length rubber gloves, but I don't like the fact that I can't feel anything. 4 years, no probs. yet.....

[chefkeith]

I rarely put my bare hands in the tank water. I wear Aquagloves. Bought them at BigAls.com for about $15.

It's good to have them IMO. No worries about having dirty hands.

http://www.bigalsonline.com/catalog/category.xml?pcid1=3347;category_id=2935

[flames9]

Thanks for the great info. Scott

[ashdavid]

Just to throw a spanner in the works I thought I would would mention this. Fish TB MYCOBACTERIUM MARINUM, also called fish tuberculosis, fish tank granuloma in my oppinon is the main reason why you should not stick your bare hands in your aquarium. I have some knowledge on this through my work,although I have never seen it first hand . Very nasty bacteria, if you ever have any cuts on your hand,I dont recomend you put them in your tank. Even though your fish tank is not the only place you can get this bacteria it is a prime breeding ground. Our tanks, you may not like to admit , are little cesspools ,no matter how clean you keep your tank, you are keeping an unnatural bio load in a very small volume of water , and this results in diseases prolifrating. In general this disease is very rare so I would not panic, but I will say if you have sick fish and the disease is unknow I would show a little caution. All that said I generaly put my bare hands in my tank after I have thoughly washed them to get body oils off and then I thoughly rinse them. As Daveedka said citric acid cleaners do rinse very well.

[MrAquarium]

ashdavid, can you repost that in English? :sim:
Anyway, Take it from me, I bet my hands have been in my tanks more then half the posters to this thread put together, Hardly a couple days go by I don't stick my hand in here for some reason or other, although I did make a wire picker as I call it for picking straglers of java moss and moving hornwort around in my tnak, so I don't have to get my hand wet just for that.
If I havn't done anything for awhile that would have anything on my hands, I don;t bother washing them off, have my hands in tanks with open wounds before to, never seen a fish die from that. Unless you are always putting your hands in there, I would be more appet to worry about the stress on the fish.....

[Swimfins]

If your putting bare hands in the tank they should be clean (no soap, no perfume, no hand lotions) afterwards, wash with ordinary soap. Hand sanitizers are a good thing. I use those antibacterial towellettes after fiddling in the tank.
If you have a cut or abrasion on your hand, buy the ordinary playtex rubber glove. Tie it securely around the wrist with a broad elastic band.
(I did this after I scraped my hand when I jerked it up and hit it on the lip of the tank after my meanie red rainbow bit my arm.)

Tanks are fish toilets. Think about how you'd like to clean your own toilet with your bare hands.
Ewwwwwwwieeeee

[Boohoo]

What about those people that start a siphon with their mouth? I have even seen them do this at the LFS.

[Swimfins]

What about those people that start a siphon with their mouth? I have even seen them do this at the LFS.

I am guilty as charged. Yes. This is absolutely the worst...... I ended up once with a mouthful of tank water. OMG Ick!
Now I have bought a bulb to start the siphon. Its a matter of ignorance, I think.
I clean my tubing in a mix of mild bleach and water occasionally and the soak it in declhloinator an clean water.

[Leopardess]

The odds of you getting a disease from your tank are phenominally low. It could happen, yes, but you can also get it from swimming in any body of water, even swimming pools. And yes, fishtanks are "cess pools" but so is all of the water on this Earth, more or less. :)

The odds are much higher for you making your fish sick.

For anyone interested:
http://edcp.org/factsheets/mycobacterium.html

[ashdavid]

ashdavid, can you repost that in English? :sim:
I don;t bother washing them off, have my hands in tanks with open wounds before to, never seen a fish die from that. Unless you are always putting your hands in there, I would be more appet to worry about the stress on the fish.....

Putting your hands in the tank with open wounds to my knowledge will not harm your fish, what I am talking about is the fish bacteria(Mycobacterium marinum) this can be transfered to humans through open cuts. If you are unfortunate enough to be inflicted by this bacteria, the time taken to heal can take 6 mounths or more and also can result in surgery. The areas affected are usually hands, knees and elbows , if you want to know more about this just do a google Mycobacterium marinum, there should be plenty of information on it. Like I said before the aquarium is not the only place you can contract it(lakes , swimming pools ect), but if your fish have this bacteria you are much more likely to be infected especialy if you have open wounds and definately do not put your hands in your tank until things are rectified. People who siphon with their mouth are in the same boat, but the way I understand it is that fresh open wounds is the most likely way to be affected(But siphoning with your is still a risk) . But like I said before dont panic if your immune system is fuctioning well your are more than likely to be fine.

[ergo sum]

As an aside:
I have been trying to remember something I read many years ago. It was a book or an article or something written by a guy who ran a fish store in NYC. Anyway, the part that stuck in my head was a story about a rather large fish tank that he had to clean. After thinking about the problem for a while he just decided the easiest thing was to get in the tank and clean it.

I don't remember the details.

[TommyR]

I use bare hands and rinse them and my arms off when done.

I do suck start the siphon by mouth too, you can do it without getting much if any in your mouth.

People swallow or inhale worse stuff. I guess it depends on how anal you are.

Tom

[Swimfins]

Putting your hands in the tank with open wounds to my knowledge will not harm your fish, what I am talking about is the fish bacteria(Mycobacterium marinum) this can be transfered to humans through open cuts. If you are unfortunate enough to be inflicted by this bacteria, the time taken to heal can take 6 mounths or more and also can result in surgery. The areas affected are usually hands, knees and elbows , if you want to know more about this just do a google Mycobacterium marinum, there should be plenty of information on it. Like I said before the aquarium is not the only place you can contract it(lakes , swimming pools ect), but if your fish have this bacteria you are much more likely to be infected especialy if you have open wounds and definately do not put your hands in your tank until things are rectified. People who siphon with their mouth are in the same boat, but the way I understand it is that fresh open wounds is the most likely way to be affected(But siphoning with your is still a risk) . But like I said before dont panic if your immune system is fuctioning well your are more than likely to be fine.

Bravo!
I work in a health institution. We are dealing with several strains of bacterial infection, (I'm not talking about viruses, new ones everyday) that don't respond to antibiotics. Researchers are racing against time to find drugs that will work. Many bugs developing ways of mutating so that antibiotics are no longer effective.

I personally will be more careful in future.

[ashdavid]

The odds of you getting a disease from your tank are phenominally low. It could happen, yes, but you can also get it from swimming in any body of water, even swimming pools. And yes, fishtanks are "cess pools" but so is all of the water on this Earth, more or less. :)

The odds are much higher for you making your fish sick.

]

I agree Leopardess the odds are very slim, but if your fish have this bacteria (symptoms can be eaisly reserched by entering Fish TB,I am not going to go into details) and you have open wounds the chances of contracting this bacteria go way up. Many people have been infected wiyh this bacteria and some are from fish tanks with sick fish, so what I am saying is that if you have sick fish I would show some caution.
All of this earth is a cess pool as you say, but the bio-load is no-where near what we have in our tanks, it has been argued before, this bio-load is unnatural so this then makes for perfect breeding grounds for disease and bacteria, that was the point I was trying to make. But I think everybody already knows this.

[Leopardess]

Well yes, if your fish are sick and you stick open wounds into the tank you may just be asking for it. My point was not to scare people off and have them freaked out about simply cleaning their tank. You have the same odds, presumably, of catching the disease any time you go swimming anywhere...its not as if fish tanks are the "cause" of it. Re: the cess pool comment, that is true, but Earth is also a closed system, whose water supply must also support the wastes and needs of every animal on it, aquatic or not:) But we're digressing here quite a bit:)

[rich311k]

I always start my siphon with my mouth. If you are quick enough you won't get any water in your mouth. I would watch the open wounds however I have a friend who got a bad infection in his hand after cleaning his SW tank.

[Kasakato]

I always start my siphon with my mouth. If you are quick enough you won't get any water in your mouth. I would watch the open wounds however I have a friend who got a bad infection in his hand after cleaning his SW tank.

:puke:

[sublime1184]

Just a tip for everyone "stealing gas",


Fill the small hose with water and plug with finger, when you are ready just put vaccuum in the water and remove finger over bucket....this will start the syphoning process automatically, no mess, no stress :cool: works everytime and its simple

[Kasakato]

Using a Python: Priceless!

[Boohoo]

And to buy a python...there's Mastercard

[Kasakato]

And to buy a python...there's Mastercard
Yaa. :clap:

[SCU33ZE]

i use my mouth to start a siphon,,those other pansy methods are messy and hard. It never hurts to catch some AQ water sometimes,,i just spit it out. If u eat your finger nails its 10X worse so i dont think tank water is gross at all.
Im cautiuos though since i dont wan tapeworms in my belly or some other stuff

and about my hands. I dont use gloves since it inhibits "feeling" but then again have never had an open wound in there.

[Kasakato]

Again:

:puke:

[FisheyLisa]

siphoning: I use mouth (I'm rought tough.), my tube is long enough, and I have noticed having the water in starting the suction thing (as mentioned in refrence to free gass). I have also used a turkey baster, though it takes patience.

I put my bare hands in, but if I need coverage I have used dish gloves or unpowdered latex with an elastic to prevent water entering it. don't know how fish safe that was, though I figured my hands were only in for a short time, as I try not to get too wet if I am injured. I also use nu-skin for bandaids every so often, to block cuts. I would just not put my hands in for a bit let the chemical scent leave. again, don't know if it is fish healthy.

there's my 2cents

[cyberbeer65]

My gravel vac has a one way valve,all I have to do is shake it up and down to get a siphon started.

And also I use my bare hands in my tank,never had any problems.

[schigara]

George Carlin said it best but we have an immune system for a reason and if we try to live a totally sterile life, our immune systems won't be up to par and will be more prone to getting diseases. No gloves for me!

[ashdavid]

Well yes, if your fish are sick and you stick open wounds into the tank you may just be asking for it. My point was not to scare people off and have them freaked out about simply cleaning their tank. You have the same odds, presumably, of catching the disease any time you go swimming anywhere...its not as if fish tanks are the "cause" of it. Re: the cess pool comment, that is true, but Earth is also a closed system, whose water supply must also support the wastes and needs of every animal on it, aquatic or not:) But we're digressing here quite a bit:)

We are digressing here quite a bit here and I dont want to sound like I am going for an argument, I am not. :) I am not trying to scare people and maybe this informayion dose not belong here, if so I appologise. But you talk of the earth being a closed system, I agree and so I assume you are refering to our fish tanks as closed systems which I totaly disagree with.You speak as though our tanks are holding only a lttle more bio-load than what the earth supports,eg. even if you kept one neon tetra in a 1000g tank that would still not come close to bio-load/water volume that the rivers and lakes are supporting(taking into account terrestrial animals). If you are not calling our tanks closed systems then you must agree that higher bio-load means more wastes and more wastes mean more disease. So in actual fact I am saying that the fish we keep in our tanks can be, under certain circumstances ,more prone to disease which translates into more risk for us. So yes I believe that you are more likley to be affected if you have sick fish and you have cuts on your hand, that being said M marinum is an uncommon infection. In the United States, studies report an approximate annual incidence of 0.27 confirmed cases per 100,000 patients ,so it is very unlikely that you will be infected by this.

This however is very concerning. This is an extract from this web page.
"Over the pass decade it would appear that mycobacteriosis (Fish Tuberculosis) has slowly developed a stranglehold on the rainbowfish hobby in Australia. Information from international sources would indicate that it is also commonplace among rainbowfishes in both Europe and North America. I believe that it is now so widely circulated in the hobby that it is almost impossible not to be beset by it at some time. In fact, it may be bordering on an epidemic. Most cases of mycobacteriosis are not reported or more often, are simply misdiagnosed. Mycobacterial infections of fish can only be confirmed by positive laboratory findings. " This is a scary thing ,most of M marinum cases are not reported or misdiagnosed and can only be indentified through scientic methods. This could mean that one of us may have already had this disease in our tanks. And let me ask you this if you knew you fish were infected by this and you had an open wound on your hand would you knowingly put your hand in the water? I know I wouldn't.

http://members.optushome.com.au/chelmon/Myco.htm

Don't you agree that this information should be passed around, and not informing people just because it may scare some of them is no reason to not pass it around.
But I will say again dont panic ,it is very unlikely that you will be affected, that being said if your fish are sick I would show a little caution putting your hands in the water if they have cuts on them. :)

Btw I have always put my bare hands in my tank and I will continue doing so, in fact as ergo sum said in his post with big tanks sometimes you have to get inside them to clean them and my tank is no exception.

[valleyvampiress]

Just a tip for everyone "stealing gas",


Fill the small hose with water and plug with finger, when you are ready just put vaccuum in the water and remove finger over bucket....this will start the syphoning process automatically, no mess, no stress :cool: works everytime and its simple

What I would do is just put the whole tubing and everything in the tank, plug the hole with my finger and let 'er rip in the bucket. Today, after using a new gravel vac with a little flat part at the end, all I have to do is plug the tube with my finger and stick the thing in. Then I just release my finger and voila! Out pops the water. I don't know what brand it is, but it isn't a Python.

*This new way I should explain more properly. I don't get my hands wet ever because it used gravity to start the suction. I put one finger at the hole end, and with the gravel vacuum part, I stick it in the water. When I release my finger, the air preasure is what causes the water to start coming out.

[valleyvampiress]

This is the vacuum I bought and used today:
http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=84552444178 0038&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302030123&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023693&bmUID=1115624665472

[pugmonkey]

i used to be able to start my syphon without sucking on it but now i have a huge syphon tube thats almost 25 to 30 inches long because my tank is 31 inches deep, so theres no way for me to get the darn thing started other then to suck. if i get a mouthful of fish water, no biggie, ive had worse

[nursie]

I have a cheapo python that doesn't hook to the sink to start it that I use on my smaller tank at work. I just fill the tubing with water and close off both ends and carry it to the tank...put one end in the tank...and the other in the waste bucket, and it willl start it's own siphon.

As far as transmission of disease to our fish...there is any number of bacteria that humans can have on their hands that could make fish ill.

[Debra Mark]

Anyway, the part that stuck in my head was a story about a rather large fish tank that he had to clean. After thinking about the problem for a while he just decided the easiest thing was to get in the tank and clean it.

My policy is that I NEVER stick my hands in the tanks....the water creeps me out.....but my husband has to physically get in to clean the glass and do maintenance..... :D

[PumaWard]

To be honest, I hardly ever wash my hands before or after tank cleaning... unless I have rinsed the filter pad and needed to rub it or if I have recently used scented hand lotion, cleaner or other chemicals. Unscented lotion (even recently applied) has never caused problems with my fish.


As for the siphon tube, I have a 40ft long tube (basically, a simpler, DIY python... but, I might add, about 4X cheaper) and sometimes I need to suck on one end to get it started... but most the time, I use the same method that sublime does. I put about a 1.5 ft section in the tank and let it fill with water, crimp one end and put my finger over the other, pull most the tubing out until it's about 1'' below the surface, remove my finger from the tip, then release the crimp... and away the water flows.

[judgemax]

i use a python that hooks right to the sink turn on the sink and whala!its started on its own ...i also put my whole arms (lol) in the tank ...i do rinse but i dont go overboard and i have never lost a fish from it! and for those of you who syphon by mouth to a bucket ..check out kerosene syphones ...they are extremely cheap and have a bulb that starts the syphon my dad and i modified a brand new one of these and it works as well as my python ..we added hoses and all and when i finnaly kill my python i will be going this route as well..it actually empties a tank twice as fast ...the only downfall is that it doesn't fill my tank ...owning a fish tank 300$-1000$
buying fish food 20$
buying fish 50$
getting a mouth full of fish crap---priceless...i agree puke!

[cyberbeer65]

This is the vacuum I bought and used today:
http://www.petsmart.com/global/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=84552444178 0038&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302030123&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=2534374302023693&bmUID=1115624665472

That is the same vacuum i have,and I got it at the same place.

[FishSeller]

Sometimes you swallow fish water when you start a siphon. Done it. Try moving 2,000 lbs. of live rock around bare-handed. You get all kinds of abrasions, irritants, and critters in you hands. I wear gloves for the live rock now.

[Timmain42]

Oi! There's a better way to start a syphon with a gravel vac.

1) Put end of tube in sink, bucket, etc.
2) Take gravel vac tube and place, open-end-down, in tank. Drain tube should be hanging over edge of tank.
3) Holding onto opposite end of tube, point open end up towards water surface. Let it fill with water.
4) Slowly lift open end of vac tube out of water and above the level of the drain tube. Water from vac tube will push water thru drain tube, up and over edge of tank.
5) Before water in vac tube runs out, submerge open end of vac tube again.
6) Point open end of vac tube towards gravel and get ta poop draining!

Learned this my first day as an aquarium tech, works like a charm. I only employ lung-powered vacuum if I'm using a drain tube larger than 3/4" ID. Then the only requsite is to be really really fast at getting your mouth off the tube after water starts to flow.

[Watcher74]

If anyone thinks its gross to suck on a gravel vac in an aquarium, this should really gross you out...

I had a three acre man-made pond in front of my parents house when I was growing up. Not only was it murky brown. Not only was it stocked with catfish, crappie, bass, etc. But my father raised cattle, that would wade into it often on hot summer days. And cows are not known for holding in any of their bodily wastes.

I swam in that pool countless times. Played, partied, gagged, and sputtered for years. So did my friends, my dogs, my brother, and his friends.

The water in my aquariums is clear. And I'm pretty sure it contains no bovine pee and poo.

[Tuolumne]

Ugh, I would never start a siphon with my mouth. My siphon tube is about 3 or 4 feet long, so I just immerse it, cap my thumb over one end and lower it into the bucket. Thank goodness for gravity!

When I worked at Petsmart back in the day, I had a coworker I was not too fond of, as he was a know-it-all kind of guy. Not really all that much more knowledgeable...just cocky. Anyway, he was doing a deep cleaning on the 50 gallon cichlid show tank and so the water was horrible, all stirred up and nasty and he restarted the siphon with his mouth. He got a HUGE mouthful of that nasty brown fish water. I almost gagged watching HIM gag and choke, but then I had to run away before I started laughing. I'm normally a very nice person, but it was very satisfying to see Mr. Expert show us how NOT to do it! :laugh:

As far as getting my hands in tanks, I'm with most of the posters in that I make sure my hands haven't been IN anything recently, and I kinda scrub 'em in plain water before I get in there, then I wash thoroughly with soap and water afterwards. I don't really worry about myself TOO much though. At the various pet stores I worked at in my life, I have spent countless hours in countless tanks scrubbing algae, rearranging tanks, catching fish, doing gravel vacs and water changes. You don't have time for gloves when you've got a fish room full of customers all wanting you to get them fish. I just made sure to wash my hands very thoroughly when I was done. I never EVER had a problem, not one single infection or irritation. Maybe I was lucky? But, I never saw any coworkers have an issue either. Bad idea for people with compromised immume systems though, that's for sure!

[Slappy*McFish]

I've never been squeamish about 'dirt' when cleaning my tanks. Doesn't bother me one bit to stick my hands in the tank and even the gravel for that matter. I clean the filthy filters with my bare hands and start the siphon with my mouth. In 20 yrs I've maybe gotten water in my mouth 5 times. Even so, it didn't really bother me....I just spit it out and carry on the cleaning process. I have a much bigger problem with human waste and refuse to use a public restroom that hasn't been cleaned in awhile. People carry far worse diseases than any of my fish.

[zave2340]

when it comes to the spyhon thing, no need to use your mouth, OR python. I have a self start vac. i bought it at BigAls. IT si great, just move it up and down and the starts its self. It is wicked. Sometimes i do suck if for some reason i am haveing trobles. but i try not to.....


and i wash my hands and let it rip.

[chefkeith]

My skin use to break out in a rash when ever I stuck my hands in the tank water. If I didn't wear gloves I'd be iching all over place. I'm allergic to a heck of alot of stuff though.

I can't live without my Aquagloves and stainless steel tongs.

[Kasakato]

My skin use to break out in a rash when ever I stuck my hands in the tank water. If I didn't wear gloves I'd be iching all over place. I'm allergic to a heck of alot of stuff though.

I can't live without my Aquagloves and stainless steel tongs.

Same here! Glad too see Im not the only one :bowing:

[Swimfins]

I say err on the side of caution. What you can't see can hurt you.
There's no embarrassement about playing safe.
I'd rather prevent and infection than treat one.