Unconventional or Non-traditional idiosyncrasies in reef keeping

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Nick Shades

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Does anyone else have strange quirks that feel like no one else does when it comes to making your reef, or tanks in general? I do. From my planted setups, to my reefs, with my cultures included, I have a couple.


-I don't like throwing used media bags and/or their content away immediately. I like to fill up a container with tank water and let the inhabitants (mostly pods, but sometimes a periwinkle or an asterina) trickle out over 24 hours so that i can put them back in the tank before getting rid of the spent media.

-i try to always wear gloves when i stick my hand in my tank. Whether my fw or my sw tank, i constantly worry that i will have something on my bare skin that might damage my tanks.

-when trimming my planted tanks, i tend to leave the clippings in a water bucket so that like media bags, they can get a chance to come back.

-when doing water changes, i use spent freshwater to water the plants.

-when cleaning my skimmer and skimmate, i use it as fertilizer.


More might come to me later.,what are the weird things that you do ?
 
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cshplumber

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Seems fine to me Nick. I bail water from my pond to water courtyard then top off pond. I wiped out a tank & did the long glove thing for a while but now I'm back to bare hands.
 
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o2manyfish

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Nick, along time ago when I first got into my frag tanks I was handling the corals non-stop for hours everyday. Eventually the tips of my fingers looked like sliced raw meat and were numb.

I went to dermatologist, and after some testing it turns out there are a couple of skin issues related to the aquarium hobby. In my case my skin is sensitive to the stinging cells in corals. While not like an anemone they do have a similar ability at a much much lower level.

I had to start with wearing medicated gloves. After the tissue finally came back my fingers were still numb. Now 13 years later my fingers are still mostly numb at the tips but I am used to it. It's good that when you cut yourself you don't feel it unless you go deep and then it hurts really bad. Since that diagnosis I wear non-powdered latex gloves for everything. I go thru 2-3 boxes from Costco a month.

I wear gloves for doing anything on either tank. I use them for painting, work on the cars, work on the house. And I wear them now for doing the dishes and cooking.

And my wife and I both wear them when pumping gas.

There are so many bad things I touch everyday, the more I keep from getting on my skin and possibly going into my tanks, or onto any of my pets the better.


Dave B
 
Bouncingsoul393

Bouncingsoul393

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Thanks for sharing. I've always used my freshwater tanks water change to water my plants. Especially my orchids. The only time I've ever been able to get them to bloom again was with water from my tanks. I stopped wearing gloves for the most part. I always used to wear them when handling lots of live rock. Other weird stuff I do? Not sure. I try to buy everything I can from Hydroponics stores or home depot for my aquarium hobby whenever possible as the stuff is usually a fraction of the price of aquarium hobby specific stuff.
 
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Nick Shades

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o2manyfish said:
Nick, along time ago when I first got into my frag tanks I was handling the corals non-stop for hours everyday. Eventually the tips of my fingers looked like sliced raw meat and were numb.

I went to dermatologist, and after some testing it turns out there are a couple of skin issues related to the aquarium hobby. In my case my skin is sensitive to the stinging cells in corals. While not like an anemone they do have a similar ability at a much much lower level.

I had to start with wearing medicated gloves. After the tissue finally came back my fingers were still numb. Now 13 years later my fingers are still mostly numb at the tips but I am used to it. It's good that when you cut yourself you don't feel it unless you go deep and then it hurts really bad. Since that diagnosis I wear non-powdered latex gloves for everything. I go thru 2-3 boxes from Costco a month.

I wear gloves for doing anything on either tank. I use them for painting, work on the cars, work on the house. And I wear them now for doing the dishes and cooking.

And my wife and I both wear them when pumping gas.

There are so many bad things I touch everyday, the more I keep from getting on my skin and possibly going into my tanks, or onto any of my pets the better.


Dave B
Click to expand...
I handle raw sewage on the daily, and after a terrible experience as a rookie and getting the worst case of food poisoning in my life, i became an OCD hand washer.

With seniority in my job, sewage handling occured more often and I began to use medical grade nitrile gloves (I've been told they are the gloves that surgeons wear), and as a result, if I am not at home, I feel gross if I am not wearing them.

I keep a box at the ready at home, 2 boxes at work, and at least 2 in my back pocket, and hand sanitizer EVERYWHERE.

For my fishies, I use Atlas shoulder length gloves.

They make me clumsy, by comparison, but I do not hesitate about handling anything.

For stories such as yours above, I refuse to handle coral freely with naked fingers.
 
BeanMachine

BeanMachine

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I used powder free nitrite gloves all the time. I use a rubber band around my wrist so they don't fill with water. Too many bristle worm stings... my fingers blow up if I get the hairs in my skin.
 
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Nick Shades

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BeanMachine said:
I used powder free nitrite gloves all the time. I use a rubber band around my wrist so they don't fill with water. Too many bristle worm stings... my fingers blow up if I get the hairs in my skin.
Click to expand...
Good idea on the rubber bands. I think i might switch to that in order to increase my dextrrity

Sent from my 1+3 via Tapatalk
 
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