Girl May lose hand!

[Texreefer]

I think This May have been posted before but WOW!
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/blog/rare-skin-infection-contracted-from-aquarium-bacteria

[bigdscobra]

WOW!!!

[alton]

Yea I read about this somewhere else it seems her immune system was very weak. What is amazing everyone thinks about saltwater, never fresh

[ErikH]

That's crazy, I'm getting gloves now!

WEAR YOUR PPE!

[Europhyllia]

Whew. Glad it was freshwater though! Sad that she gave up everything. I can see the gymnastics of course but I'd still ride my horse if I had one hand injured. Can't quit life because something goes wrong...

[kkiel02]

It was on a news show last week. I saw the aquarium gravel and figured it was freshwater. Crazy none the less.

[justahobby]

The video said that the bacteria can grow in BOTH, FW and SW. :what_smile:

[Europhyllia]

The video said that the bacteria can grow in BOTH, FW and SW. :what_smile:

I saw that - but I chose to ignore it.

Yikes that was an ugly tank. If I were to lose my hand I'd rather lose it for a nicer looking tank than this ... plastic surf boards???

[Troy Valentine]

Those people must really be addicted to aquariums..... Let me see if I understand this: Their daughter might have her hand amputated because of an aquarium, and they choose to keep the aquarium. Is this strange or is it just me? I think this would even make me quit the hobby. :( How sad for this young girl......

[Troy Valentine]

When I first started in the hobby my mom would help me with my system while I was in College. Soon after she started noticing small lumps on her body. It started with her finger then hand, and eventually worked its way to her chest. She went to a number of doctors to try and get an accurate diagnosis. This went on for what seemed years, and by this time they were actively removing many of the lumps from her chest to get biopsied. Then a doctor asked if she has had her hands in an aquarium around the time she first noticed the symptoms. Long story short, the doctor called it Fish finger or later Fish TB. My mother is fine now, but must keep her distance from my aquarium.

[phippsj]

I am guilty of doing several 'less than safe' things since I started my tank.

Case number 1 - when I first got my tank setup I went out and bought 100+ pounds of live rock to seed my aquarium from someone who had taken down their tank. That rock had been infested with Texas Trash polys. Being new, I was told to just put in the rocks that did not smell dead, and that I should just scrape off the dead/dying polyps from rock that did not pass the smell test. I ended up having to scrape a large amont of polys off of a number of rocks. I did not use gloves, and bad things happened. First, the rock put all types of small cuts all over my hand, which got infected and festered. Even worse I cut myself with the instrument I used to scrape off the polys. That cut got severly infected. The following morning my entire hand was swollen, red, and I had red lines running up my arm. I am fortunate that my infections responded to antibiotics... but a lesson learned.

Case number 2 - I started running bio pellets in my tank. However, when I first started I put too many biopellets and clouded all of my water. Instead of chancing anything, I turned off the pump through the reactor holding the bio-pellets. I left all equipment in place, just no water flow through it, and it sat for several months before I returned to try biopellets again. STUPID!!! Once I came back I knew that I had to get rid of the old water sitting in the bio pellets. What I did not realize was how much gas (hydrogen sulfide I believe) was created by the bio pellets in the reactor. I took the lid off of the reactor in my living room and was immediately hit by the stench of rotten eggs and became extremely light headed. I later learned that I probably dodged a bullet here. When I called poison control (to find out if I had to evacuate my family out of the house), they told me that since I was talking to them on the phone I was probably OK, but that I could have been knocked uncounsious and potentially killed (depending on the time it would have taken to get me to the ER). Even though I was working on the tank in the living room, nobody knew I was over there. The smell did travel, but it would have taken some time before I would have been found. I did have to evacuate the house by the way... and since this happened at 9PM I had to wake the kids up. That is really the only time Annalisa has been mad at me.

I have since learned that I don't touch my tank when I fell rushed or I don't have time to dedicate to doing the job I want to do right. I work a lot and time is often in short supply, but this simply is not a hobby that can be rushed at any stage.

[tebstan]

Yikes that was an ugly tank. If I were to lose my hand I'd rather lose it for a nicer looking tank than this ... plastic surf boards???

I thought the same thing!

Maybe the producers of the segment threw together a tank real quick to get on video?




When I called poison control (to find out if I had to evacuate my family out of the house), they told me that since I was talking to them on the phone I was probably OK, but that I could have been knocked uncounsious and potentially killed (depending on the time it would have taken to get me to the ER).


Wouldn't it take a lot Lot more exposure to be dangerous? It's an irritant at a low level, maybe more so for asthmatics. But I would think dangerous levels would be hard to reach.

I had my reactor offline too, I was waiting on a replacement part. It was foul when I popped off that lid, made my eyes water and gave me a headache. But I wouldn't call that dangerous. Maybe I'm a risk taker. :)

I've seen/smelled quite a few nasty eggs from things sitting too long. The bigger the filter/reactor/bucket o mess and the longer it sits, the worse it gets. When I find an unattended bucket of slop, I make sure to not anger it (disturb the surface) before taking it out back. Then I find the person responsible and make them clean it. We smile and pretend the place doesn't smell, discreetly spraying fabuloso at every corner...

[FireWater]

Wouldn't it take a lot Lot more exposure to be dangerous? It's an irritant at a low level, maybe more so for asthmatics. But I would think dangerous levels would be hard to reach.

It depends. Niosh and OSHA set different limits - as low as 10 PPM for a ceiling limit. Hydrogen sulfide is also called sewer gas and happens from bacterial breakdown of waste. If the stuff sat for a month then I can only guess of the amount in PPM once released. I don't know that answer. It acts kind of like carbon monoxide in that it affects the ability to exchange O2 at the cellular level - "displaces the oxygen". That can happen in as little as 20-50PPM per million, especially in someone with health problems or children. At high enough level it will paralyze the olfactory nerves so you won't smell but a little bit right off the bat and then nothing, but it won't matter because you would soon be unconscious and/or dead.

I can only guess at the amount that is produced in the regular size of a bio-pellet reactor. It is feasible that sticking your head in the opening and inhaling isn't the brightest thing to do and cold be enough to produce a short term amount that will cause irreversible damage. It's kind of like sticking your fingers in something you don't know what it is and then licking them. We use our senses too much.

[alton]

Remember a few years this was making the news

http://www.caller.com/news/2008/aug/14/surfer-treated-for-flesh-eating-bacteria/

http://www.5starstables.com/HarveyWebsite.htm

[FireWater]

I remember all that. Couple that with the influx of stingray incidents, stingray with infection incidents, and now all the shark attacks on the Texas coast and it made me think twice for about 2 minutes the last wade fishing trip I went on.

The bacteria strains can and will live just about anywhere and there are too many different strains to comprehend. They have been around for years and there is talk of them mutating to super strains and talk of us as people becoming too sterile with all of our anti-biotic products such as hand cleaners and then the over prescribing of anti-biotics by doctors. You can't win it seems.

[phippsj]

I am guilty of doing several 'less than safe' things since I started my tank.

Case number 1 - when I first got my tank setup I went out and bought 100+ pounds of live rock to seed my aquarium from someone who had taken down their tank. That rock had been infested with Texas Trash polys. Being new, I was told to just put in the rocks that did not smell dead, and that I should just scrape off the dead/dying polyps from rock that did not pass the smell test. I ended up having to scrape a large amont of polys off of a number of rocks. I did not use gloves, and bad things happened. First, the rock put all types of small cuts all over my hand, which got infected and festered. Even worse I cut myself with the instrument I used to scrape off the polys. That cut got severly infected. The following morning my entire hand was swollen, red, and I had red lines running up my arm. I am fortunate that my infections responded to antibiotics... but a lesson learned.

Case number 2 - I started running bio pellets in my tank. However, when I first started I put too many biopellets and clouded all of my water. Instead of chancing anything, I turned off the pump through the reactor holding the bio-pellets. I left all equipment in place, just no water flow through it, and it sat for several months before I returned to try biopellets again. STUPID!!! Once I came back I knew that I had to get rid of the old water sitting in the bio pellets. What I did not realize was how much gas (hydrogen sulfide I believe) was created by the bio pellets in the reactor. I took the lid off of the reactor in my living room and was immediately hit by the stench of rotten eggs and became extremely light headed. I later learned that I probably dodged a bullet here. When I called poison control (to find out if I had to evacuate my family out of the house), they told me that since I was talking to them on the phone I was probably OK, but that I could have been knocked uncounsious and potentially killed (depending on the time it would have taken to get me to the ER). Even though I was working on the tank in the living room, nobody knew I was over there. The smell did travel, but it would have taken some time before I would have been found. I did have to evacuate the house by the way... and since this happened at 9PM I had to wake the kids up. That is really the only time Annalisa has been mad at me.

I have since learned that I don't touch my tank when I fell rushed or I don't have time to dedicate to doing the job I want to do right. I work a lot and time is often in short supply, but this simply is not a hobby that can be rushed at any stage.

It is not length of exposure, but the amount. A short, intense burst can knock you unconcious while at the same time stopping your ability to breath, or so they told me. I have looked at it a bit since then and have found cases where clouds of it have hit sewer workers and they have died. Now, apparently low level exposure over long periods of time can be harmful as well, but that was not the case. Either way, it definately is something I would rather not experience again.

[ErikH]

Sounds like Jenkem aka "butthash"

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