I do not have a 40b, my dad does though. you are thinking of impur, he has the 40b. at the stalling. it took me a while to figure it out but even Dr. Tim says it can happen. and to Albert, I had my hands in the tanks ALOT. I figured all of the stuff that's on my hands would leach into the tank, and at the very least soap residue would make its way in there. there's actually a thread on here discussing this topic, and I knew how often my hands were in my old tanks. between that and how often I tinkered with various things, my other 2 tanks did not do so well. I figured I would give it a shot, and it really seems to be making a difference! I would advise anyone to try it for a month, and I bet they would see a great difference! thanks for the comments everyone!
Thanks and yes it is best to wear gloves indeed and not just of the reasons you explain IME but also so you do not get stung or get toxins released by corals etc ... on your hands but the problem is still that if you wear gloves part of your arm gets in the water IMO and that would release compounds in the water as well, maybe not soap although if you rinse your hands well after washing them the soap should be gone, but mostly the oily matter that is on our skin .. but you say you saw a big difference so obviously something that was getting in the water no longer is I suspect ... good for you,
I wear gloves at times and that at times not but I do make sure that I do not have soapy hands or residue of soap on them. More of a problem though is aerosols used in one's house or apartment or anything else that is sprayed or kitchen fumes or whatever gets in the air when one is cooking and that gets drawn into the water by the skimmer and also at the air/water interface.
And if one has dogs or cats or birds then anything used on them is also potentially something that enter the water. So the issue is actually IMO a lot more complex.
But I understand what you are saying as you are at least eliminating one source of pollution that could get in the tank