What's within reach of the little ones?

_shorty_

_shorty_

New member
I've been trying my hand at raising some clownfish lately since my ocellaris pair started spawning. Of course, this led to a semi-temporary tank setup so that I could figure this process out.

My fry were coming up on about 1 month and all was great... Until my 3 year old decided to push around the lights I had on top of the tank, dropping one IN the tank. THANKFULLY, he was not harmed and wasn't touching any part of the water or anything. I guess I took for granted that he was normally very good about just looking at the baby fish, or the frag tank, or the sump to my reef tank, which are also within his reach I our little fish room. But he decided he wanted to be more involved, I guess... And even though I'm bumbed at losing my clown babies, I am very grateful that my little man was not hurt.

So, moral of the story: take inventory of what you have in reach of your little ones! Electricity & water, chemicals/test kits, etc... It's not worth risking the safety of our little ones. Don't take shortcuts, and clean up after yourselves always with these guys in mind. It's easy to take things for granted...
 
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Yeah, fortunately I haven't had a problem like yours. I'm waiting for the day my 3 year old throws a penny or something in my tank. The worse he's done right now is hide my algae scraper in his toy box.
 
My algae scrappers come up missing every time a certain grand daughter of mine is over. She has also reprogrammed my Apex, unplugged my ATO and changed the mode on my Vortech's! She has now learned that she can't do any of that but she is still monitored every moment she's in the room now.

OBTW my favorite thing in reefing is cleaning tiny finger prints off of the lower part of my tank! Kids absolutely love salt water aquariums!
 
hogfanreefer said:
She has also reprogrammed my Apex, unplugged my ATO and changed the mode on my Vortech's!
Click to expand...

There is a Display Lock on the Apex that will keep people from messing with it if you haven't found it yet.

From the display:

System -> Display Setup -> Display Password

Use up/down and left/right arrows to set the password and then hit Done.

You can't do it from the web interface. It has to be done from the display.
 
I keep a close eye. Even if nothing is within reach, the dang kids bang the glass. I have watched a family freinds son bang the glass so hard my wrasse jumped out.
 
I once had my 3 year old brother dump an ENTIRE container of flakes into my ten gallon tank! I didn't notice the food in the tank until the next morning, and by that time all the food was molded and fish were dead!
 
Here's my story:

At Thanksgiving, we had family in from out of town including a niece and her 3 year old daughter. Sometime during dinner, she wandered off to our bedroom where the 90 gallon reef tank is located (door closed, but unlocked).

She managed to find in my "fish cabinet" the drawer with food. She proceeded to dump the entire contents (about 80% full each) of a Reef Chili (1.5oz) and New Life Spectrum (125g) into tank by way of moving nearby chair and climbing up. I found out pretty quickly as our 18 month old granddaughter (possible accomplice) came running into den shouting that Nemo was eating.

Needless to say, dinner for me was short lived. I came into room to find that the water had already gotten slightly cloudy from the reef chili, and the power heads had done a good job of dispersing the pellets around the tank, making cleanup difficult. I did the best I could with my siphon and vacuum. Did a quick 10 gallon water change, and rushed to make more.

Over next week, did what I could to remove any pellets I could find. Had a major bacteria bloom as a result. Water from tank smelled, and skimmer had the worst smelling skim-mate I had ever smelled. I have kept up with water changes up until Sunday past when tank parameters started to come down to normal.

Flash forward to today: After an initial ammonia spike, nitrates are down to 2 ppm, Phosphates to .20. I continue to watch P04 and slowly change out GFO. All corals have survived initial event, except for a pair of Acropora's, including a SSC and Miami Orchid that got severely bleached due to Alk spike that I probably caused due to my massive water changes using Reef Crystals. Rest of corals, except for browning, have actually increased in PE and growth. I also lost a Lyretail Anthia, probably from the Ammonia spike as it was largest fish.

Moral of story, lock up all your food and additives. I have always kept my chemicals and test kits out of range of little hands, but this would have been a disaster if it had been something like Kalk.

Sincerely,

David
 
My three year old thinks he has a better touch for adjusting my skimmer! I have a wall unit so the sump Is in the laundry room so I had to build a gate to keep him far enough away.:)
 
I'm setting up a 300 soon and my son is 6mo. By the time it's set up and running he'll be around a year old. Any tips on baby proofing the tank besides locking the cabinet doors?
 
My step mom feeds my fish after I just fed them she claims I starve them but she doesn't understand that if I fed them 10 Times a day I would be doing 10 water changes a week:/
 
Heh... When we're away I tell the Pet Sitters - Just a pinch - it's better to feed too little than too much.
 
I've been fortunate enough to hide everything in my stand and not have this issue... ATO everything... The tank is high enough and with a canopy it would take an act of God to throw a penny into the tank..

Regardless, we always need to be parents and grand parents (for some here) to watch kids... Most of the time it's not their fault, just exploring and need to be taught properly. Good luck and glad your kid wasn't harmed, that's the most important.
 
atreis said:
Heh... When we're away I tell the Pet Sitters - Just a pinch - it's better to feed too little than too much.
Click to expand...

Depending on how long I'm gone I leave my fish without food, I've had bad experiences with "fish-sitters" :headwallblue:
 
i totally have taken the opposite approach with my tank. i've had a tank before my kid was born, until current (he is 7 now, BTW). generally speaking, i've never denied access to the tank to my boy. he holds the hose during water changes, scrapes algae from the fuge glass (thats his tank duties). checks the specific gravity, feeds (supervised).

i find if you make something "off limits", then it becomes more of a curiosity, which usually gets the best of them.


Now, when other kids come over, he takes over as the moderator/tour guide explaining to his peer group what all the fishes and corals are and acts as a watchman when im not around. no locks, no hiding stuff.

long and short, put em to work!! No free rides in my house!
 
r-balljunkie said:
i totally have taken the opposite approach with my tank. i've had a tank before my kid was born, until current (he is 7 now, BTW). generally speaking, i've never denied access to the tank to my boy. he holds the hose during water changes, scrapes algae from the fuge glass (thats his tank duties). checks the specific gravity, feeds (supervised).

i find if you make something "off limits", then it becomes more of a curiosity, which usually gets the best of them.


Now, when other kids come over, he takes over as the moderator/tour guide explaining to his peer group what all the fishes and corals are and acts as a watchman when im not around. no locks, no hiding stuff.

long and short, put em to work!! No free rides in my house!
Click to expand...
That is my family too. My boys help most of the time. But they are big kids now. They groan when I want to take a road trip to a fish store, but they love to watch the aquarium. Little encyclopedias, they are. But it is important to watch little ones around electricity and water, and chemicals.
 
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