Mr. Saltwater Tank TV Friday AM Quick Tip #113: That Wound Needs Care And I’m Here To Help
Gloves should always been on your hands when you are working inside your saltwater tank. And while you might wear gloves, you can still get minor cuts that need attention with some of this stuff
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Good tip… I have from time to time small cuts and have always reached for the coral glue… just like the old timers reach for crazy glue… lol, it all the same “Crazy Glue”!
Krazy glue gel is a much cheaper alternative, and I usually have some handy as that’s what I use to mount frags with my epoxy.
To be honest with you, if I have small cuts or scrapes, when I put my hands in the water to do whatever the saltwater actually heals the cuts much faster. It’s true and I’m not crazy. Sometimes you just have to say……WTF
FixedDice & avzz…super glue is another alternative and I use the liquid bandage stuff as it has an anti-septic as part of its chemical make up
I often have small cuts and things on my hand but don’t do much in the way of preventative measures. Stings like heck right when my hand hits the water but it goes away soon enough. Though saltwater has a healing effect, I suspect from the osmotic shock it creates for the bacteria on your hand, I halfway feel like something in the tank may infect little cuts worse though. My hangnails and paper cuts always seem to get worse directly after tank maintenance
Dave – I’ve heard that from other scuba divers, and I believe it as well. A few days diving in the ocean, and it seems like any cuts or scrapes have healed up. No idea why, but I’ve seen it myself.
Mark – What do you recommend for gloves?
Just had a cut get infected last week so gloves will be used. I haven’t found a pair that are functional and keep your hands dry. Those coral and reef rock do a number on your hands.
salt is a big healer
I know it can be an issue with freshwater tanks, but can saltwater tanks be inhabited by nasty critters like cobacterium marinum? I know I have personally had a staph-like infection on the side of my fingernail after a thourough tank cleaning. Nasty stuff!
I have used the cyanoacrylate “bandage” after getting cut in my tanks. This after scrubbing the wound with hot soapy water and an H2O2 rinse. It seems to work pretty good if attended to immediately.
Hey Mark,
I think you have a lot of great tips on here. I’m a microbiologist (not a medical doctor) but I would highly suggest that nobody stick there hand in a tank with a major open wound. If you have a small cut I would stay away from “sealing it”. I say this because you are allowing for small cracks and crevices for anaerobic bacteria to “sneak into your cut” This will cause all sorts of issues! Oxygen exposure is one of the quickest healers. Even after wearing gloves with a cut in my tank I wash my hands with soap and water and then use hydrogen peroxide over the cut to sterilize the wounded area. Just my 2 cents.
A little know fact….
Crazy Glue was invented as a temporary wound dressing in Vietnam.
A quick stitch in the field!
Happy reefing!
New tank looks great in the background, Mark…….!!,
Have you guys ever put superglue on a cut? We are talking serious pain here, I would still with the liquid bandaid.
Salt water actually helps with the healing process, but still in major causes i would where gloves to prevent blood from getting in the tank
Hey Mark,
Great advice. I would also like to echo the previous comment by Eric Baur (I am finish up my 2nd year of medical school, so not an MD either, but am getting close :P). We often get so used to working in and around our tanks that we forget that there are hidden dangers lurking in them that we need to be cautious of.
In response to a previous question, indeed saltwater can harbor nasty bugs like mycobacterium marinum (commonly called marine tuberculosis), and there are case reports of people contracting it from their tanks — usually from attending to an aquarium containing a sick fish with ungloved hands and open wounds. Although typically not life-threatening, it can cause a nasty skin reaction, and in rare cases it can go systemic, at which point it can be life-threatening. But that’s just one type of bug found in saltwater — there are many other far more common things (e.g. palytoxin the 2nd most deadly toxin known to man) that are lurking in our tanks, exposures to which have consequences from annoying do outright deadly. So, if not wearing gloves, please make sure open cuts are sealed.
I used to use the professional stuff a few years ago on patients … If you follow good clean hand practices then its great stuff to use in combination with a set of nitrile (tougher that latex and usually non-powdered folks 😉 ) gloves and a couple of rubber bands on the wrists without cutting the circulation to the all important fingers … 🙂
Super glue as an emergency but if its serious enough to need that kind of treatment then its important the wound is cleaned and assessed by a professional… Although horrible infections can be very interesting for new doctors to wildly stab at if you like that sort of treatment … 😛
Great tip … lots of horrible things in the tank that will make a mockery of our immune systems .. So I’ll go with that advice all day 🙂
Adam & Eric…my co-author on my fish disease and quarantine guide actually did contract mycobacterium marinum from his tank. Rare yes, but it screwed him up for quite a bit and he still has digestive issues to this day. Perhaps saltwater is healing in nature as others have suggested but I’m not willing to risk it in a small closed system like our tanks.
Wow, that sounds terrible! However, I hope that his story, as well as the stories of others who have been made sick by their tanks, will encourage others to learn and play it safe. It costs very little money and takes very little time to make sure you are using proper practices and equipment to keep yourself safe — there really is no reason not to.
Cut and all goes into the tank and my cleaner wrasses does the job.
Hey guys,
I worked at a vet clinic for about a decade and we used this trick on animals all the time, just one major important thing. MAKE EXTRA SURE the wound is completely clean and debris free before sealing it. Any bacteria in the site will be sealed inside the wound and can lead to a very bad infection depending on what’s in it. Other than that, this great stuff and is used in surgery all the time.
All is not lost for those canister filters. I will let you know how I use mine. Well I use my old canister filters to clean detritus matter from the sump and my tank. Got hair, bubble, slime, or macro algae problems? I had an extra turbo twist and decided to hook it up to the out going flow of my canister and back into the tank as I sucked all the algae up in the past as well as when I would do service for buddies of mine. The UV kept those spores that passed the canister from spreading and of course the reduced flow rate going in the turbo twist maximized exposure to the water. I say keep them handy and don’t toss them out. My favorite is the magnum 350 because it is clear and you can see through it. I personally would never recommend a canister as the main filtration but for cleaning out a tank it is perfect. Even water polishing as well.
^^ wrong post.