I was just curious if aquarium water can make you sick. I know if you drink water from a lake or stream you can get giardia. What about from an aquarium? I was just wondering because on a few occasions I have gotten aquarium water in my mouth while starting a syphone for a water change. I didnt actually drink any, I spit it out. Should I worry about it, or would I have to sit there with a straw drinking out of my aquarium in order to get sick?
Aquarium water safety
- Thread starter mikedel
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ew, NASTY. 
well, lets see..... you dechlorinate the water to make it a good place for bacteria to breed. generally those bacteria are breeding too. it's really not a good practice IMO. if all you get is sick to your stomache occasionally you're pretty lucky, i imagine you could get pretty sick from it. in all seriousness it is a good practice to wash your hands before and after handling anything aquarium related. if you don't want it on your hands you definately don't want it in your mouth. you're not exactly going to keel over and die from it tho. but there is even a couple of things like piscene tuberculosis that can be passed to humans in a different form by getting it in cuts. this disease *should* be fairly rare tho......
why do you do that anyway?
if you're using just a plain hose to remove water. take the whole hose and submerse it making sure to get all the air out of it. put your finger over the end of the tube to seal it. remove the end of the tube from the water and position it over your bucket, the end of the hose must be below the water line inside the tank (on the outside). take your finger off the end...... and you should have a siphon........ hopefully i explained this well enuf.... if not, post back.
this should work for most of your siphon needs, including most common gravel vacs. you can also look into some of the fancier gravel vacs that have a valve and actually prime by you "pushing" them into the water several times rapidly. there are also battery operated pumps and gravel vacs that really aren't worth the money IMO. or i cheat on one of my tanks and plug the hose into a canister filters outflow........
hopefully something should work for you.
well, lets see..... you dechlorinate the water to make it a good place for bacteria to breed. generally those bacteria are breeding too. it's really not a good practice IMO. if all you get is sick to your stomache occasionally you're pretty lucky, i imagine you could get pretty sick from it. in all seriousness it is a good practice to wash your hands before and after handling anything aquarium related. if you don't want it on your hands you definately don't want it in your mouth. you're not exactly going to keel over and die from it tho. but there is even a couple of things like piscene tuberculosis that can be passed to humans in a different form by getting it in cuts. this disease *should* be fairly rare tho......
why do you do that anyway?
if you're using just a plain hose to remove water. take the whole hose and submerse it making sure to get all the air out of it. put your finger over the end of the tube to seal it. remove the end of the tube from the water and position it over your bucket, the end of the hose must be below the water line inside the tank (on the outside). take your finger off the end...... and you should have a siphon........ hopefully i explained this well enuf.... if not, post back.
this should work for most of your siphon needs, including most common gravel vacs. you can also look into some of the fancier gravel vacs that have a valve and actually prime by you "pushing" them into the water several times rapidly. there are also battery operated pumps and gravel vacs that really aren't worth the money IMO. or i cheat on one of my tanks and plug the hose into a canister filters outflow........
hopefully something should work for you.
Everything you read suggests that swallowing fish water is a bad thing- it is just too concentrated with bacteria and protozoan nasties.
But I'm part of a long standing tradition of doing it the "old fashioned way"- as long as you are reasonably careful I can't see that it hurts. Light exposures to nasties strengthens my immune system- we can't live in a vacuum.
That said a mouthful of really foul tankwater will make you retch right fast, so your body does not want it in there.
If you must suck, do it swiftly and get it right the first time
But I'm part of a long standing tradition of doing it the "old fashioned way"- as long as you are reasonably careful I can't see that it hurts. Light exposures to nasties strengthens my immune system- we can't live in a vacuum.
That said a mouthful of really foul tankwater will make you retch right fast, so your body does not want it in there.
If you must suck, do it swiftly and get it right the first time
There are bacteria that can live in both your body and your fish tank. Most of them are not pathogenic--meaning they don't make you sick, just as the bacteria that colonize a healthy human digestive track don't make people sick.
The odds are very much against giardia being in your tank--this parasite is released into water from mammal waste--usually beaver. Since it's unlikely that your aquarium contains beaver, you should be safe there. While there are many parasites the require several hosts to complete their life stage, it's unlikely that they would be introduced into your tank. I wouldn't worry much.
Having said that, I don't drink my tank water out of habit--it doesn't taste bad, but I will sometimes mess up and use a hose that has been used on the SW systems--and a mouthful of SW will make me puke.
The odds are very much against giardia being in your tank--this parasite is released into water from mammal waste--usually beaver. Since it's unlikely that your aquarium contains beaver, you should be safe there. While there are many parasites the require several hosts to complete their life stage, it's unlikely that they would be introduced into your tank. I wouldn't worry much.
Having said that, I don't drink my tank water out of habit--it doesn't taste bad, but I will sometimes mess up and use a hose that has been used on the SW systems--and a mouthful of SW will make me puke.