Possible Palytoxin Poisoning During The Tank Swap

[Quartapound]

Writing this from home today.
Last night was a miserable one for me.
breakdown of the events:

• Moved everything from my 45g cube to the 120g yesterday.
• between ~3-4pm I was on the deck cleaning out the old 45g. Garden hose was frozen, so I was using buckets of warm water. first sloshing around to get the big stuff out, then rinsing and scraping, vinegar, etc. ...there was coral (soft/hard) stuck to the glass everywhere.

• ~2 hours later. Felt like I was getting sick. sneezing lots, nose is completely congested.
• ate dinner
• Had a shower.
• soon after the shower I started getting severe chills, with a fever.
• within an hour or two I was sick to my stomach.
• Started to wonder if the cause was palytoxin, decided to go to ER if anything got worse.... other than being sick a few more times, and lots of chills/sweating, it didn't get any worse.

Feel a bit weak today, but other than that completely normal (no cold/flu symptoms today).
If I had to guess, I think I inhaled some water vapour or got splashed while cleaning out the old tank.


Always be careful while reefing guys!

 

[kapelan]

 

[Quartapound]

I was wearing gloves. no goggles or mask.... Maybe I should have been wearing something like this

I have a feeling that if I'd been able to use the hose and spray it out well from a distance (with it tipped on its side) that none of this would have happened. You always hear stories about people boiling live rock, and I wasn't using boiling water by any means... but the warm water combined with the cold air outside probably allowed some vaporization (just as it would if it was boiling water), and I was in close proximity.

 

[Shooter000]

Yep that's what you had, and that's a MINOR case, it gets a lot worse than that, trust me, I've been there a few times, feel better and drink TONS of water to flush your system...

 

[shamous113]

That sucks, I hope your feeling better. the CDC states that a 10% bleach solution should be used for thirty minutes to adequately neutralize any remaining palytoxin left on equipment. ie gloves

 

[Josh]

My buddy was rushed to the hospital a couple weeks ago with this, his heart rate hit 185. Definitely a reminder to be careful, also let your family know that if you ever go unresponsive to pre-emptively tell the hospital that you have a reef tank.

 

[shamous113]

also let your family know that if you ever go unresponsive to pre-emptively tell the hospital that you have a reef tank.

I'm a bit paranoid so I keep a printed copy of this article "The Power of Palytoxins" at my house and at my desk, people have instructions to hand it to ambulance driver if something happens to me. most er departments around here don't deal with this on a regular basis so I figured better safe then sorry.

 

[Josh]

I'm a bit paranoid so I keep a printed copy of this article "The Power of Palytoxins" at my house and at my desk, people have instructions to hand it to ambulance driver if something happens to me. most er departments around here don't deal with this on a regular basis so I figured better safe then sorry.

His wife told them to google zoanthids i beleive and that got things going but otherwise they really dont know.