jameson_uk
Member
With the current situation and combination of being at home (a lot) more and washing hands more often I wondered whether this could potentially cause issues for fish?
What we should do, even in normal times, is to wash our hands* well before putting them in the tank, rinsing all traces of soap/handwash etc off. Then wash them thoroughly again after working in the tank.
Indeed but I guess at some point it will build up no matter how much you rinse?
I have found my hands a bit sore and put some E45 on.
The difference between soap going down the plughole and soap getting into your tank?Not sure what the difference between rinsing your hands and putting them in the tank would be?
I guess this was if it comes off with rinsing it will come of in the tank, if you have rinsed everything off it won't.The difference between soap going down the plughole and soap getting into your tank?
I have seen an awful lot of unexplained fauna deaths in aquariums on social media this past few weeks. Many have attributed it to extra chlorine/chloramine added to the water supply. Unsure that this would be the reason for those who use appropriate dechlorinator methods. More plausible perhaps is the notion that the added use of antibacterial hand steriliser perhaps enters the water column. I have no knowledge per say of this but it seems to be more realistic, I dont know the way this would effect the cycle however it would seem logical that it would have a negative effect on filter/tank bacteria and possibly cause a cycle stall and perhaps resultant ammonia spike.
This isn’t at all scientific, and may not hold any real credible theory, but to me seems more logical.
As an aside and example, there were a few problems in the past where people had flea treated their pets with the liquid meds that go on the neck and these are designed to hang around on the skin. In more cases than seems coincidental, heavy tank loses where attributed to people putting their hands in their aquaria shortly after (again in the marine world and I know some wormer are used in freshwater for planar ia but I don't know how the chemical makeups compare).
Will they be harmful at such small doses though? Say you wash your hands with soap, rinse with water afterwards, towel off, then enter the tank with them. You do this once a day, and every week you change 50% of the water. I mean, this is how I've been doing it since day one of corona, and I've lost only one fish (large siamese) since corona started, and to be fair I suspect he jumped the tank and the dog ate him as I've seen no trace of him. Then again he was 9 years old so old age might have gotten him too (and the shrimp could have taken the corpse apart before I could notice). I do make sure I dont feel any soapiness between my fingers etc though, and we tend to use eco soaps (not that I know how eco-friendly they actually are...).Just to add onto this, as I work in the chemistry field, and most specifically hand gels, rinses disinfectants etc due to covid.
Firstly benzalkonium or BAC50 should not be in anything hand wash, hand rinse or hand gel related. Its lethal stuff.
It's used in disinfectants at such a small amount due to its effectiveness in killing nasties and mostly in litchen and moss killers. It can soil any surface for days hence it being a great weed killer.
3 main factors of hand gels that can cause issues to aquatic fauna are the vegetable glycerin, fragrances (oils) and the thickening agents.
The alcohol itself, whilst lotions are 70 to 80 percent ethanol (99.9% conc), this evaporates within minutes of skin contact but the glycerin and thickener are left behind leaving a slight coating on the skin which will leach into water along with any oils which are also harmful.
If hands are going to go into the aquarium I'd suggest rinsing under hot water before hand, or even better, by alcohol free hand rinse. Or make your own it's very easy