Sea water allergy???

[Frenchie2]

Something really coincidental happened several months ago. I split (with gloves on) a leather coral (devil's hand) in several pieces and put them back in the tank to heal until I sold them out. The next day, I woke up and a dizzy spell (2 secs) hit me like thunder, lost my balance and almost fell off. After that, the entire day, I felt like my head was "in the clouds" or spaced out - did not feel grounded at all and was pretty nauseous. It got slightly better as the days went on but then again, one morning, "bang!", another dizzy spell. If I recall, the day before, I cleaned my tank, as I always do, every monday. Just a simple change of water, clean the glass, syphon the sand of debris, etc. I always wear gloves (little latex surgical gloves) just in case I have to handle corals. But my arms do get wet. Weeks go by, and I'm still feeling awful (dizzy, nausea, etc.). Went to physician, did just about every blood test possible, sent me to a physio for vestibular disorder (inner ear could be debilitated), followed treatments, got somehow better, but then again, another episode hit me like thunder. Since the last episode (about 1 month ago), I have been feeling awful. Always to do with dizziness (not really spinning but the feeling that you are going to be dizzy and lose your balance) and waves of nausea. I quit the physio treatments as it was not doing too much and it was getting quite expensive ($80./visit). My physician prescribed a medication for dizziness ("Serc") which helps a lot to manage the symptoms along with a nausea medecine. Also sent me for a cat-scan just last week - going for results on Monday. In the meantime, I'm still continuing cleaning my tank as I always do, but with the really long orange/purple gloves so that I don't touch the water at all - have been for the last 2 months. But I still don't feel so good. I never felt like this since dealing with salt water for the last 5 years. Only started when I split that coral, back in September. Funny thing, I feel better when I'm outside my house, i.e work, or driving. Not so hot in shopping/grocery stores or crowdy places.
I was discussing with a reefer today who came by to get a piece of frogspawn and I asked him to split it for me and I explained the situation. He told me that I might be allergic to salt water and to take a sample of my tank water to be tested. Shortly after he left, I started to feel awful (I was having a good day today). Has any of you reefers, experienced something like that? And for testing my tank water, how do I get by doing this? Do I bring it to a lab, to a clinic, a hospital, etc??? Let me know what you think.
I have a 90 gallon, sump, skimmer, lots of "softies" corals along with a few SPS. Corals consists of Frogspawn, hammer, open brain, bird's nest, poccis, LTA, rics, mushrooms, zoas, palys, acans, golden fidji toadstools (2), purple whip. No corals are touching each other except for some mushrooms that are very close to some zoas that are taking over a rock (bastards!) and they are all healthy. Also invertebres (turbo snails, cleaner shrimps, fire shrimp, crabs, urchins). Some fish that are all getting along and don't nip at corals, as far as I know. This is just bizarre...

[ALang]

It is very weird. Thanks for sharing. I hope like heck that you can over-come this. Sure isn't fun when your hobby maybe the one thing that's bad for you.

I remembered cutting pieces of my toadstool off in situ, and never got any adverse reactions. Soon after that I began to read about all the problems that people were having, touching the softies' slime after fragging. I wondered if any of those who are doing a massive amount of fragging to sell is ever sick from doing it.

Best of luck and hope that you get better.

[golf nut]

Check your furnace for CO2

[daniella3d]

I would say coincidence since the sympthoms you describes are not those of allergic reactions.

Dizzy spell is usualy caused by internal ear problem or a particle floating. Especialy if that happen when you go from a laying down position to a straight up position, it is most likely the internal ear canal.

I had a very serious vertigo attack. Woke up, opened my eyes and saw that the cealing was spinning around like mad. Could not stand up, could not even sit in my bed without falling on one side. That was due to my internal ear and was caused by a virus that I had cought a few weeks before.

so I don't think it's your coral but something to do with a virus you recently cought and that has left some particles floating in your ear. Of course if you feel dizzy you will probably have nausea as well..goes together.

Best medication for the vertigo is valium. That's what they gave me at the ER and that stopped the spinning within 30 minues. I was walking back home. I had to take valium for another 3 weeks and did the exercice as well.

It may take a few treatment before the inner ear stabilize. I had to do it 3 times. YOur case sound like internal ear since it gets better during the day and worse when you wake up and change position. It did get better for you when you did the treatment so keep doing it...that's a sing it's working.

no way this is an allergic reaction.


Something really coincidental happened several months ago. I split (with gloves on) a leather coral (devil's hand) in several pieces and put them back in the tank to heal until I sold them out. The next day, I woke up and a dizzy spell (2 secs) hit me like thunder, lost my balance and almost fell off. After that, the entire day, I felt like my head was "in the clouds" or spaced out - did not feel grounded at all and was pretty nauseous. It got slightly better as the days went on but then again, one morning, "bang!", another dizzy spell. If I recall, the day before, I cleaned my tank, as I always do, every monday. Just a simple change of water, clean the glass, syphon the sand of debris, etc. I always wear gloves (little latex surgical gloves) just in case I have to handle corals. But my arms do get wet. Weeks go by, and I'm still feeling awful (dizzy, nausea, etc.). Went to physician, did just about every blood test possible, sent me to a physio for vestibular disorder (inner ear could be debilitated), followed treatments, got somehow better, but then again, another episode hit me like thunder. Since the last episode (about 1 month ago), I have been feeling awful. Always to do with dizziness (not really spinning but the feeling that you are going to be dizzy and lose your balance) and waves of nausea. I quit the physio treatments as it was not doing too much and it was getting quite expensive ($80./visit). My physician prescribed a medication for dizziness ("Serc") which helps a lot to manage the symptoms along with a nausea medecine. Also sent me for a cat-scan just last week - going for results on Monday. In the meantime, I'm still continuing cleaning my tank as I always do, but with the really long orange/purple gloves so that I don't touch the water at all - have been for the last 2 months. But I still don't feel so good. I never felt like this since dealing with salt water for the last 5 years. Only started when I split that coral, back in September. Funny thing, I feel better when I'm outside my house, i.e work, or driving. Not so hot in shopping/grocery stores or crowdy places.
I was discussing with a reefer today who came by to get a piece of frogspawn and I asked him to split it for me and I explained the situation. He told me that I might be allergic to salt water and to take a sample of my tank water to be tested. Shortly after he left, I started to feel awful (I was having a good day today). Has any of you reefers, experienced something like that? And for testing my tank water, how do I get by doing this? Do I bring it to a lab, to a clinic, a hospital, etc??? Let me know what you think.
I have a 90 gallon, sump, skimmer, lots of "softies" corals along with a few SPS. Corals consists of Frogspawn, hammer, open brain, bird's nest, poccis, LTA, rics, mushrooms, zoas, palys, acans, golden fidji toadstools (2), purple whip. No corals are touching each other except for some mushrooms that are very close to some zoas that are taking over a rock (bastards!) and they are all healthy. Also invertebres (turbo snails, cleaner shrimps, fire shrimp, crabs, urchins). Some fish that are all getting along and don't nip at corals, as far as I know. This is just bizarre...

[soapy]

If you are certain it is your tank causing this issue, you could be allergic to salt water I suppose or you could be allergic to one of the corals in the tank.

Do you run carbon? Carbon can be a great help in removing coral toxins from the water.

Some of those corals can be incredibly toxic. Perhaps it would be a good idea to remove some of the more likely suspects. I am thinking the zoas, palys, and toadstools. Maybe some of the other softies too. With luck you will pull the offending coral. It could even be a hard coral.

Unfortunately there is also the possibility that a bacteria, algae or sponge in the tank could also be the culprit. There is so much unknown stuff going on in our tanks that it will be pretty hard to pinpoint the cause.

[Murminator]

ZZZZZZZOOOOOOs:twised::twised::twised:

Happened to me

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=68234

[golf nut]

Let's not jump to conclusions, he could be allergic to rubber gloves.

[daniella3d]

right..except that dizzy spell and nausea is not an allergic reaction, unless you eat the stuff of course. Sneezing, coughing, swelling, skin eruption, eye irritation, runny nose...those are allergic reactions.

Latex allergy:

"Allergy to latex comes in two different forms. One form is called a "delayed hypersensitivity" which is usually seen as a skin rash at the site where the latex product contacts the skin. This rash can be quite severe. A more dangerous form of latex allergy is an "immediate reaction" to latex. This is also referred to as anaphylaxis (http://www.canreef.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=12953). Anaphylaxis can result in seriously low blood pressure (http://www.canreef.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=1950), breathing difficulty, and even death. Some patients can experience irritation of the nasal passages similar to hay fever (http://www.canreef.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=377) (allergic rhinitis)."

I hope you know that this is not an anaphylaxis shock... with any type of allergy there should be at least some allergic reaction. skin rash, breathing problem, irritation etc..

Let's not jump to conclusions, he could be allergic to rubber gloves.

[Frenchie2]

Thank you all for your comments. Got cat-scan result today - all OK. Still feel dizzy (damn it). Daniella, I did have the problem of the cristals moving within the inner canals in my ears and had that treated right away with the Epley Manoeuver (not so much fun but works great). That took care of the positional vertigo like you had. This is an additional problem according to the physio. She did mention it could be viral as well. This is been months now and I just find it strange that everytime I clean my tank (even with all arms-covered-gloves) I feel like hell the next day. I'm just desperately trying to pinpoint the cause of this flipping thing but I remain positive. I'm not prepared to give up anything - especially my reef tank - I've invested too much passion in this - just want to go forward and get to the bottom of this... I WILL!!!!!

[daniella3d]

Maybe that's because every time you clean your tank you lower your head and move it in all sort of unusual positions? Could that be it?

What ever it is, I very much doubt it's allergic in nature, probably just side effect of the particles in your inner ear. I still have some dizzy spell from time to time and it's been 3 years since that vertigo attack! It come especialy when I do some wierd head position or when I blow my nose too hard.

I would enjoy the tank and forget about allergy to salt water. Just do a little test if you wish. Take some water from your tank and put your hand in it but do not lower your head and rest as normal. See if you still get the dizzy spell if you only put your hand in the water without lowering your head.


This is been months now and I just find it strange that everytime I clean my tank (even with all arms-covered-gloves) I feel like hell the next day. I'm just desperately trying to pinpoint the cause of this flipping thing but I remain positive. I'm not prepared to give up anything - especially my reef tank - I've invested too much passion in this - just want to go forward and get to the bottom of this... I WILL!!!!!