OUCH! Have you ever been injured while reefing?

Have you ever been injured reefing?


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Nikita1981

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I got stung by a purple goniopora. Small red spots all over my arm and it seriously hurt for 2 days. I never looked the same at goniopora again. Thougth they were not nearly as aggressive as euphyllia or elegance but in my experience they are worse.
 

Hemmdog

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I was trying to reach under the left plate of coral to get something off the sand. My arm was pierced just a pinprick - with something sharp. Within an hour it was red - blistered. Within 3 hours it was the size of a golf ball. I happened to have some antibiotics - and after talking to the doctor took them. the next day - the size of a softball - redness wise (diameter). I saw an infectious disease specialist sure I had vibrio or something terrible - he said 'its probably staph or strep' - he gave me doxycycline and augmentin - took 3 weeks but cleared up. At the end a sliver of calcium - the size of pin 'popped out'. I always vowed to wear gloves since then - but I dont....:)
Omg!
 

ReefQueen

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I have been tagged by bristleworms, sliced by a tang, and slightly electrocuted. I am sure there is more but I have been reefing for 1/3 of my life and I can’t even remember what I did last week lol. I also occasionally break out in a rash on my forearm after tank maintenance, I haven’t figured out why and it is random. I think we should change it from “no” to “not yet” lol.
 

Aquavaj

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There were times when I felt dizzy with elevated heartbeat after working inside the tank but never serious enough to need to go to the er.

My friend once fell backwards onto a empty 10g tank in my backyard. It was crushed but miraculously he wasn't cut or pierced by any broken shards.
 

Midrats

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I've been burned by halides more than once. Not by touching the fixture or bulb but by the intensity of the light after working under them for extended periods. The first time it happened I was wondering why the skin hurt and felt hot on my arms while I was lying in bed. The next day I realized my light had given me a sunburn!
 

Hemmdog

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There were times when I felt dizzy with elevated heartbeat after working inside the tank but never serious enough to need to go to the er.

My friend once fell backwards onto a empty 10g tank in my backyard. It was crushed but miraculously he wasn't cut or pierced by any broken shards.
You don’t happen to have a video of your friend falling into the tank do you ? Lol ;):p
 

Fallling

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I wouldn't necessarily call this an injury, but my right hand (hand I use to work in the tank) is chronically itchy now. There's some coral in the tank that will cause my hand to break out in temporary hives/welts for about 5 - 30 minutes if I brush against them (cespitularia and Muriceopsis flavida gorgonian are for sure culprits). However, rather than building up resistance, my hand is now super sensitive- even just putting my hand in the water will cause it to be very itchy though I don't get the welts unless I brush up against those corals. There was also the time when I was pulling hydroids out and carelessly started resting of my arm against the removed ones- that caused some really big welts for about an hour and kind of had me freaked due to the quarter+ size of the welts.

Occasionally, I've had hives/welts that'll last for a week or more along with some swelling. At one point, I was considering going to the doctor as the Cortizone wasn't really helping, and I was going on 3 weeks of swollen fingers. This all started about a year ago, and I know the solution is to wear gloves, but that just makes working in the tank extremely difficult. I'm also kind of constantly in my tank as well. So, I've just resigned myself to having an itchy hand that I'm scratching at throughout the day.
 

Evan28395950

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My blennie sometimes bites my hand when I clean the glass, more shock than pain. Usually some water goes flying :D
 

AZG

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A fire shrimp got me pretty good on the knuckle. He hangs under the overflow. Now the heart rate increases when I have to pull the back pump from the tank.
 

DivingTheWorld

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35 years in reef tanks, so had a few things happen. Most were when I was younger and dumber. ;) Off the top of my head, got stung by a lionfish, long spine urchin spine in my hand, numerous clownfish bites, a triggerfish bite, scraped knuckles of course, a few cuts here and there. The worst was when I was in middle school and a hose popped off my canister filter (people still use those??!!) spraying water all down the back of my tank. I reached down to unplug the power strips and it was lights out. Thankfully when I woke up I wasn't laying in the wet carpet. 35g on the carpet. I had very understanding parents!
 

Fishyfishyman

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I have never been stung our hurt other then small cuts and nicks from working with live rock, scrubbing sumps, etc. However, I was working at my LFS moving hammer frags from one rack to a rack beside it, and all of a sudden when I reach down to grab a frag, my pinkie finger suddenly exploded in pain. It felt like I'd been stung by a wasp. I jerked away, and looked but there was nothing on my finger, no marks of anything. I went and rinsed my hand in the sink, and after a few minutes the pain died down.

I didn't think about it or feel it for the rest of the day until I went to drive home. My finger started aching and hurting again and it was very swollen and red and there was a gouge taken out of it. I couldn't bend it without pain. I was baffled! Where had the gouge come from? I know I didn't do anything else to hurt my finger that day. That night was painful until I took ibuprofen and this morning it was still red and swollen and hurting. Hydrocortisone cream and some ibuprofen took most of the pain away but it looks like the gouge is deeper. It has a very wierd "scab" as it's not like a normal scab. It's very soft and an odd color. If it's not better in a few days I'm going to go to the doctor. I've asked some reefing friends and none have anything like this happen before. Does anyone have any idea what might have happened? FYI I checked and there were no bristle worms, vermetid snails, sharp skeletons, etc. I have a friend who gets stung all the time by LPS but they're like tiny mosquito bites, nothing like this.

Anyways, I was curious how many people have been injured and how severly while reefing. Share a picture if you can, and describe what happened!

IMG_20190517_130916708.jpg


IMG_20190517_130858360.jpg
I got stung by an urchin went to doctor it was red and painful. I contracted fish tuberculosis from the urchin. Was on antibiotics for 3 months . Not fun!
 

vetteguy53081

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Yes, while diving in Montegi Bay, Jamaica. Paying attention to fist and coral through camera lens and scraped ankle on coral and never realized until I got back on boat and someone pointed out that I was bleeding
 

thatguyZach

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Knock on wood never anything bad but had a coworker when I worked at a lfs get stung by a fuzzy dwarf lion. I narrowly missed 2 different fox face stings myself while there
 

xxkenny90xx

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Put my arm in the tank and my elbow touched the light fixture. Got a nasty shock and my arm felt cooked and cold for a few days. Other than that just some decent bta stings!
 

Lissa1987

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So, I haven't gotten stung by anything in my tank, but I am uncoordinated and have a workshop with a lot of hand and power tools....Sometimes I get normal injuries that look like hard scabs...but other times it looks exactly like yours...I don't know what the difference is because honestly i get a new one every other day, but it actually hasn't been any different except maybe a little longer healing time.
 

Fotocha

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I have never been stung our hurt other then small cuts and nicks from working with live rock, scrubbing sumps, etc. However, I was working at my LFS moving hammer frags from one rack to a rack beside it, and all of a sudden when I reach down to grab a frag, my pinkie finger suddenly exploded in pain. It felt like I'd been stung by a wasp. I jerked away, and looked but there was nothing on my finger, no marks of anything. I went and rinsed my hand in the sink, and after a few minutes the pain died down.

I didn't think about it or feel it for the rest of the day until I went to drive home. My finger started aching and hurting again and it was very swollen and red and there was a gouge taken out of it. I couldn't bend it without pain. I was baffled! Where had the gouge come from? I know I didn't do anything else to hurt my finger that day. That night was painful until I took ibuprofen and this morning it was still red and swollen and hurting. Hydrocortisone cream and some ibuprofen took most of the pain away but it looks like the gouge is deeper. It has a very wierd "scab" as it's not like a normal scab. It's very soft and an odd color. If it's not better in a few days I'm going to go to the doctor. I've asked some reefing friends and none have anything like this happen before. Does anyone have any idea what might have happened? FYI I checked and there were no bristle worms, vermetid snails, sharp skeletons, etc. I have a friend who gets stung all the time by LPS but they're like tiny mosquito bites, nothing like this.

Anyways, I was curious how many people have been injured and how severly while reefing. Share a picture if you can, and describe what happened!

IMG_20190517_130916708.jpg


IMG_20190517_130858360.jpg

Ibuprofen +1

Hydrocortisone - Bad idea, this could make it worse as it thins the dermis

Avoid Neosporin (triple antibiotic) if cut is deep (use polysporin or plain bacitracin ointment)

If pain persists, you can always buy a product that contains lidocaine otc (Aspercream is a good choice as some formulations contains aspirin to help with pain absorbed through the skin. If unable to find you can use this....

You can also do a makeshift ointment: Crush using a mortar and pestle (bottom of a glass works too) Ibuprofen 200mg 15 tablets/per 1 oz and suspend it in Aquaphor, Petroleum Jelly, or Eucerin Cream. Apply it directly and rub into skin around the wound every 2 hours until the pain subsides.
 

Looking back to your reefing roots: Did you start with Instant Ocean salt?

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