let THIS be a lesson to parents!!!

[comfort_racing]

So i go into my fish room last night and something seemed a little "out of place", and the tank a little cloudy. the first thing i notice is my magnet algae scraper is moved and in a strange place.....hmmmmm, and then open the cabinet to look at the beautiful machinery that makes my tank stay alive and the water level is raised and my bottle of purple up (big bottle), is floating in my sump. long story short my 4 year old took it upon himself to replicate what i do on a daily basis while mommy was in the bathroom for a second! he poured the bottle of purple up in the sump! im sure my inverts are happy with all that calcium now, but let this be a lesson...never underestimate a kid around a billion dollar reef setup (no not a billion dollars but to my limited budget it might as well be!).

i will now be installing child locks on the cabinet doors and wont forget to put the purple up on the closet shelf instead of my under tank cabinet!

 

[Shagsbeard]

It's only going to get worse. Kids are going to get into anything... especially the stuff you tell them not to. Your only hope is to really educate the beast so that it will really understand why what he did was bad for the tank.

Give him a hamster to raise. He'll probably kill it, but he'll learn a valuable lesson at 1/110th the cost of messing with your tank.

 

[Nano Chris]

I would not use purple-up, especially if not testing alk, calc, mag, i would buy BIONIC 2 part Alk/Cal and BIONIC MG thats what i did to get mine up, still have a half of a bottle of purple up in my stand, never gonna use it, regular water changes and dosing, i would dump purple-up aka sand-in-a-bottle, not worth the money.

 

[comfort_racing]

nope that was what my purple up was doing, being a paper weight on top of my sump. i started out using it, and realized my tank has been blossoming without it and my calcium levels and such stay at good levels anyways. thanks for the advice on the bionic though!

 

[Sk8r]

Fear can be a very wholesome thing. At a certain stage you will deliberately make the little tyke afraid of light sockets, your power tools, chemicals under the cabinet, traffic, and strange growling animals. Perhaps one might add to the list a healthy fear of parental wrath over 'touching daddy's stuff', no matter how cute the imitation---which would extend to the stove burners, the tank, the wallet, and mommy's purse and pills.

 

[hndakd]

i agree about putting some fear in them. I have a child on the way and hope that she can get the dont touch things quickly Just as a "i have had that happen too" deal, my girlfriend and her friend were playin around with the friends kids and one of them ended up going on closing a couple valves on my plumbing. No harm was really done but it did kinda open up my eyes as to what could happen if my spawn of the devil got underneath there.

 

[comfort_racing]

yeah, that was a fear of my own, shutting the big red valve on my big skimmer and having all that pressure shut down! i guareentee the path of least resistence would be my walls and wood floors.

kids are a trip, it just takes a split second and they can be into something.

 

[swamp]

I know we've all got a lot invested in the tanks, but the lesson here is that if you've got little kids... keep the chemicals away from their little hands!

I'm glad you got the message to put the bottle on a high shelf, and put cabinet locks on the tank before CR Jr or any other kid got hurt.

Thanks for the reminder.

 

[Gdevine]

I hope you did a massive water change to get your chems in line!

I have a 2 and 4 year old and they know well and good to "not touch" I also have a latch lock on my cabinet door so they can't access to the important stuff.

 

[Joe]

Years ago, my twins decided to "fix" the commode, just like Daddy had done the previous day. Well, to make a long story short, they dropped the lid of the tank down into the tank, cracking it (while Mommy and Daddy were still sleeping). What a flood!!!!

Joe

 

[WaterKeeper]

Folks, tales like this is why I always preach about having a GFCI on the tank and keeping all tank test chemicals and additives out of the reach of children. Here it was just a harmless dump of a dilute (and Purple up is really dilute ) calcium/magnesium additive. A child ingesting something like the reagent used in the ammonia test is headed for the hospital with at least a burned esophagus and possibly worse. Be safe.

 

[ccoons43]

With my first one on the way I think about stuff like this all the time.

 

[comfort_racing]

no doubt, you can never be too safe with kids. they want to touch and "break" everything. my 4 yearold loves to show how "strong" he is by breaking stuff all the time. very frustrating.

 

[Cela Vie]

First thing I did when I was preparing the stand for the tank, sump, etc. was to put cabinet child locks in. My two-year old is relentless and very sneaky and the speed...oh! the speed. The only way to catch him would be to turn around then turn around again in the same motion. Do a 360 and you might catch him, otherwise, the mischief is done before you can say....NOOOooooo....... LOL. Kids! You gotta love 'em. But seriously folks, this should be part of the planning in the setup of the tank.

 

[kkyyllee]

my 4 year old brother decide to feed my tank 2 cans of food......while i was at school come home, go over to look at the tank, it looks like a muddy puddle...

 

[Bill Z]

When I feed brine shrip I put the frozen shrip in a plastic cup with some ro/di water to get it to thaw. One night I set the cup on the desk for a minute. When I turned back my 15month old grandaughter was starting to drink it.
I make sure that wont ever happen again.

 

[luke33]

Yes, my three year old boy is all about the skimmer, sump and tank. So i got him a 10g and put fw in it. I catch him from time to time imitating me......armpit deep in water! lol, but he understands what the equipment does and knows the names of all teh fish and what they eat and what not. I just hope he doesn't grow up and hate the hobby..........like his mom(lol)

 

[Rue]

...I'm also a big proponent of fostering a 'healthy fear' in little kids...

So far my kids all seem normal...and they're teenagers now...

 

[WaterKeeper]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10186538#post10186538 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Bill Z
When I turned back my 15month old grandaughter was starting to drink it.

Bad; especially after the brine shrimp are over 18 hours old as they lose their value of nutrition unless gut loaded with plenty of phyto.



One other point I should also make is having toxic fish, like a scorpion fish and saltwater cats, in home with young ones. What may only be a painful sting to an adult can be life threatening to a toddler.

 

[Sk8r]

Quote: When I turned back my 15month old grandaughter was starting to drink [shot glass of dissolved fishfood].

And these are the same kids that will howl at broccoli and brussels sprouts. Go figure.