steveoutlaw

You know, it's funny........when I posted my ordeal on RC I was amazed at how many people came back and said it wasn't palytoxin - and I'm sure they had much more medical experience than the ER docs and the docs from the CDC that I worked with. All zoas and palys contain the toxin but in varying degrees. There are many palys that contain large amounts of it and even the ones that contain smaller amounts can make you very sick. I had the CDC evaluate the ones I was exposed to and they confirmed the presence of a large amount of palytoxin. Also, don't get confused when talking about airborne exposure. The CDC confirmed that stressed palys release the toxin and the it CAN be airborne of it's aeresolized in some fashion......like steam or mist from using a skimmer pump. The most likely explanation is usually the right one. You shouldn't rule other things out, but this seems pretty simple to me......the skimmer pump got the palytoxin in the air and you ingested it. FWIW, I would also go to see a pulmonary doctor. That's who I went to see and who prescribed me a steroid inhaler. It really helps when you have a ton of coughing fits.

Glad to hear he's ok. No one should try to make Outlaw stew.....it never turns out well. When I got exposed I had the same thing as described above; symptoms hit about 3-4 hours after exposure, coughing, wheezing, lungs collapsed. Mine was a bad exposure and I had to spend the night in the hospital on a respirator and 5 months on a steroid inhaler. To this day I still get horrible coughs that causes a lot of chest pain. The CDC came out to look at mine and test them after they heard what happened to me. According to their studies, ANY agitation of palythoas or zoanthids (both contain toxin, the type and amount can vary) causes them to release the toxin as a defense mechanism. It can become airborne by being aerosolized like my soup making experiment, or in water vapor from evaporation which sounds like what happened here. Either way this is nasty stuff. I've had people contact me about losing sight in their eye after being squirted, having numbness and swelling from handling without gloves, muscle and joint pain from contact with an open sore, and pets dying from licking/eating them. With what I'm still suffering today, I recommend to anyone that they get rid of them. You can be as careful as you want, but all it takes is one accident. BTW - The worst part of my experience as I'm laying in the hospital gasping for air, is when the doctor said "Sorry, but I just don't know how to treat this". There is no antidote and the only way they can treat it is "best guess". Not a situation you want to be in.

Hey cuz - how about an update?

I would advise against boiling the rock!!

Nice to see you finally get the build thread started Cuz. Give me a call when you get a chance and I'll walk you through getting pics posted on the forum.

I think you are confusing "cheap" with "inexpensive". While the Evergrow fixtures are very inexpensive, they are far from cheap. I had the D120s and later the D2040s and took both apart to switch out some of the LEDs (nothing wrong, just switching colors). The fixtures are not only well put together but very easy to modify. If a fan goes bad, piece of cake to replace. I got rid of my D120s to get some Kessil A350w leds. These are much more expensive units than the Evergrows but I found their output to be a great disappointment compared to the D120s. I quickly got rid of those and went with the D2040s and have been very happy with them. I would suggest talking with ERC about this. You can go the DIY route, but we all know what kind of warranty that comes with. ERC gives the same, or better, warranty than a lot of the more expensive manufacturers do. Just my .02

Why does it have to be a DSB? Why not got with 1-2 inches of sand on the bottom so your fish and critters will be happy? I've kept SPS in all of my tanks and never had a problem with not being able to have enough flow. You can always aim the powerheads toward the surface of the water to get your high flow and avoid a sandstorm.

Well, I find that hard to believe, buuuuuuut.......if it is the MJ1200, that's an easy fix........just replace it.

I had a bunch of issues with the CS-2 that I had. Same types of issues you are listing here. However, the CS-1 I had performed beautifully.

Live turbo snails smell just as bad. I had one get stuck inverted in my external overflow and it stunk up the whole house before I was able to figure out what it was. The wife was really happy about that one!!

Well, it's hard to build a customer base when the owner treats his customers like $h1t. I stopped going there when Steve Velasco left. They still owe me money. good riddance..

A bit of an ego, eh?????? Let me be the first to introduce you to Zygote2k, He is another one of our members that likes to test conventional wisdom from time to time........who am I kidding, ALL the time. I would recommend going bigger than a 29. You can get a 40g breeder for pretty cheap and that will give you a lot more options on what you can keep. I would also recommend going with a D2040 LED fixture as it gives great color and is inexpensive. Our member Monkiboy can help you out with that. Most importantly, please feel free to ask questions. Pound for pound, this is a fantastic club and there are a ton of helpful people here. Welcome to WAMAS!!

Gotta disagree - my vortech was 3 days out of warranty and I was told to pound sand. That (and the noise) is why I got rid of it. I've dealt with fishstreet.com directly and they were extremely responsive. Just my personal experience.

Just go with a WP10. I had 2 WP25s on a 60x30x27 tank and had to turn both of them down so my LPS could come out and play. I saw a WP10 in londonloco's tank and it has a tiny footprint and is dead silent. Dollar for dollar you just can't beat the WPs.

Why yes, yes I do.