Childproofing your aquarium?

[vialznk]

Have you guys ever tried to childproof your tanks?

I can tell one (of many) curious little story of how my little cousin, 6yr old at the time, was at my house. He sneaked out of sight for two minutes and I found him watching my tank as a million flakes go through the water like snowflakes. He managed to CLIMB the tank stand and dump the entire flakes can in my tank!

I have managed to keep him away from it ever since, but I was wondering what if one of these days... so have any of you somehow put a lock on your lid, reinforced your stand, etc. to successfully keep children from wreaking havoc on your aquarium biology?

 

[alLexX]

tell him the boogyman will get him if he goes near it ROFL

seriously though,why dont you just hide the food?

 

[mfdrookie516]

I lock the door going to the basement... problem solved

 

[vialznk]

Its not in the basement and the boogyman will only encourage him. And by the way I had the food hidden. This boy is relentless.

 

[vialznk]

Anybody with ideas?

 

[jetajockey]

Have you guys ever tried to childproof your tanks?

I can tell one (of many) curious little story of how my little cousin, 6yr old at the time, was at my house. He sneaked out of sight for two minutes and I found him watching my tank as a million flakes go through the water like snowflakes. He managed to CLIMB the tank stand and dump the entire flakes can in my tank!

I have managed to keep him away from it ever since, but I was wondering what if one of these days... so have any of you somehow put a lock on your lid, reinforced your stand, etc. to successfully keep children from wreaking havoc on your aquarium biology?

honestly, a 6 year old is old enough to know better, and if not it should only take 1 incident to find out.

If a child has special needs or something I would understand the need for childproofing but otherwise it's something that parents should deal with.

 

[vialznk]

Okay, let me clarify: this incident was at least five years ago, so he is old enough, and lost most of that manic energy, to know better. But the kid isn't the point. I know parents should look after the kids etc. I was just wondering if anyone has ever modified their tanks, stands, or lids on the tank or something.

 

[tjm80]

My sons 20 months old and aside from handprints, he constantly tries to open the doors and play in the sump. A firm "No Sir!" goes a long way with him.

As for childproofing? Maybe an electric fence? lol

 

[kdpuffer]

I have a three year old who likes to mess with my aquarium stuff, wrecked an air pump, ran off with other stuff. He was in a phase that it didn't matter what you said or did he did what he wanted. I put a cupboard door child lock on the cabinet doors, problem solved. Now he has passed that phase and leaves that stuff alone.

 

[paulace2372]

I would love to say I had the answer but I think you have all hit the common point... unless each door or drawer is locked and your hood is secure there is no way of childproofing an aquarium! I do like the idea of the electric fence though, I'm sure we could work on that! My tank hood is 5ft high and weighs around 15lbs so I think it will be a while before my 2 year old causes me too much grief! Good luck in the search for your solution!

 

[ChristinaE12]

Yeah.. I had to finally put a kid safety lock on my stands door. My 10 month old would and still won't leave my tank alone. He understands no but only to a certain extent at this point in time. So I finally had to lock it up.

 

[dollabill420]

I child proof my house with condoms hahaha , it's had %100 success so far lol

 

[Sssea]

Lol. I don't have to worry about kids, but my puppy likes to steal any fish food she can get at. Problem solved with a higher shelf, I guess the same would work for small kids!

 

[Ickletas]

I child proof my house with condoms hahaha , it's had %100 success so far lol

Totally cracked me up

The only thing I do (my youngest are 5 and 4) is get them to help with feeding time and cleaning. They ask to feed the fish and the answer is either yes or no depending on whether they have already been fed or not and what day it is (I fast then once a week). They feed the fish with what I put in their hands and my youngest likes to hold the hose in the bucket for pwc's, other than that they don't touch, even the 35l (10 usg) that is only 2 1/2 feet off the floor.I think getting them involoved helps, kind of takes the mystery out of it. Just my experience ofc

 

[Retired_AF]

Its not in the basement and the boogyman will only encourage him. And by the way I had the food hidden. This boy is relentless.

I don't think the comment concerning the basement was intended for the tank...

 

[Somethingclever]

I got a 2 year old her that i have noticed try to climb the tank stand, and i scared the witts out of him. Haven't seen him try it since. However i did make the mistake of leaving the betta pellets out, and they were all over my floor when i went to go to bed lol. I have toyed with the idea of making screwing the tank stand to the wall, ya know how they do with earthquake proofing things.

 

[dollabill420]

Totally cracked me up

The only thing I do (my youngest are 5 and 4) is get them to help with feeding time and cleaning. They ask to feed the fish and the answer is either yes or no depending on whether they have already been fed or not and what day it is (I fast then once a week). They feed the fish with what I put in their hands and my youngest likes to hold the hose in the bucket for pwc's, other than that they don't touch, even the 35l (10 usg) that is only 2 1/2 feet off the floor.I think getting them involoved helps, kind of takes the mystery out of it. Just my experience ofc

Yeh that's the best thing to do get them to understand how it works and help then they won't wonder and mess with it, having a work force to help you ain't a bad thing either lol

 

[Johny]

We do just like Ickletas - We involve our two year old. We actually bought the tank because of/for her. She really likes fish. She gets to help feed the fish once a day. I even let her pinch the flakes in the can, I just make her show me before she puts them in. She also "helps" me carry the buckets of water to the tub to dump them and fresh water back to the tank. Its a pain in the back (literally) some times, but it helps her learn and feel like she is involved.

I think with kids they respect things better when they understand them.

 

[Rutrag]

Interesting responses from everyone. My daughter is now 6 and has been around tanks all her life and has honestly never made a big issue out of climbing the tanks or overfeeding fish. She just kind of grew up with it all so there was never any mystery.

However, when she was younger, my wife and I went on a crusade to childproof the house installing childproff cabinet locks and the like.l In the end, it was far more trouble than it was worth as my wife in particular ending up never locking anything back because it was too much trouble to use - especially the toliet seat lid lock. Now, most of the cabinet locks are broken, but they are still finctional on the saltwater tank stnad. We were especially concerned there because of the chemicals I had stored there. I count my blessings that my daughter (generally) is so well behaved.

I HATE it when I see young kinds go through a pet shop and ceaselessly smack the tanks to watch the fish scattter. When I worked for the pet stores, I used to get nasty reposnses from so many parents when I would tell junior to please not do that. I would tell junior at least 10 times because the little hardhead never learned to listen to anyone. (Including his parents!) As you said earlier, parents have to raise their children the right way.

 

[leikela]

We do just like Ickletas - We involve our two year old. We actually bought the tank because of/for her. She really likes fish. She gets to help feed the fish once a day. I even let her pinch the flakes in the can, I just make her show me before she puts them in. She also "helps" me carry the buckets of water to the tub to dump them and fresh water back to the tank. Its a pain in the back (literally) some times, but it helps her learn and feel like she is involved.

I think with kids they respect things better when they understand them.

This is what I do with my 3yr old too, he loves getting involved and always asks before he does anything (feeding/cleaning). He helps me pick out fish too (I'll show him two species that will work in our tank rather than free reign!). Although the day he saw a Silver Arowana was a tricky one!