Hand sanitizer and fish tank.

[Karen B.]

Greetings!

I try to avoid any hand sanitizer in the house, because I am totally paranoid to accidentally get some in my tanks.

But being the bubbly head that I am, around noon I used some. I then washed my hands, ate lunch and went to take a nap.

I woke up about 6 hours later (I know, long nap) and fed my fish. In the process, I dipped few fingers in one of the tank to moved some floating plants away.

It’s after that that I noticed my hands were still smelling like hand sanitizer (I use the Step one brand, original).

Is there any chance I have harmed my fish doing so? 

[KBOzzie59]

I'm not familiar with that brand but...  Whenever I'm putting my hands in my fry/nursery tanks I spray 91% alcohol on them up to my elbows then rinse with water.

[Brian]

How big/small is the tank?  I think we put some small amounts of contaminates in our tanks from time to time and never realize it.  Maybe keep some active Carbon on hand just in case.   But I’m pretty sure you will be fine.   
Good Luck 

[Baphijmm]

After six hours, any alcohol in the hand sanitizer has absolutely evaporated; the smell left behind is likely just perfume. (I'm not familiar with the brand, but doing a quick search, it does look like they use plant-based ingredients that are likely intended as perfumes.) One of the emeritus professors at my college is a drug specialist (you may know him as the guy who invented the nicotine patch, yes seriously); he once told me, and I'm paraphrasing, "Take one drop of poison and add it to gallons of water, then take a drop of that and add it to gallons of water. What do you have? Water." It's almost certainly nothing to worry about.