How likely is it for children to crash your tank?

[JZ199]

The only issue I have with my little guy is every time I go out into the tank room he absolutely has to come along to help lol... Gave him a bucket a few days ago to "help" with a water change and he thought it was the greatest thing ever. He doesn't go near it alone though.

 

[Dave1993]

Ewww kids glad i never was 1

 

[pinreefer]

Had one of the kids scratch the glass with a toy

 

[tunedtank]

My stepson once poured a whole bottle of spray n wash stain remover in the sump that his mother carelessly left out laying around. I think him watching me Interact and dumping things in the tank he just wanted to help. He is 11 now and this happened when he was about 3 or 4. Needless to say it removed most all the colors from the corals and a good bit if them died days later but after a few water changes and running carbon it wasn't a total loss. That tank is since long gone but it was definitely a frightening and educational experience all in one.

 

[anthonymckay]

My kids (3 & 5) have never messed with my tank and know to not touch it. They love helping me out with feeding and water changes though.

But a few months back we hosted a birthday party for my 5 year old and I didn’t anticipate children pulling off and stealing all the magnets holding up my various frag racks off the side of the tank and dumping all my frags all over the place/onto other corals. That sucked… I’ve since learned to block off the entrances to the aquarium area of our home when we have many small children around.

My dad kept saltwater aquariums when I was a kid and he told me when I was like 3 or so I got up on a chair and dumped a whole container of dry fish flakes into the aquarium. Oops!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I remember as a kid when we had a pretty large salt water tank I would just stare at it from time to time, but I'm pretty sure my parents drilled into me to not mess with the tank. Also, I didn't want to kill the fishes cause they made me think of Finding Nemo haha

 

[flashsmith]

Enough duct tape will keep your kid out of your tank.

 

[A Young Reefer]

My friends son poured milk into his tank, spoiler alert: tank crashed.

 

[Dom]

In preparation for nesting, I am wondering how people have child proofed their reef tanks? I’ve seen some people use magnetic locks on sump doors. I’m also concerned about windex glass cleaning lol. Have you guys had to deal with children causing tank crashes? Love to hear stories if you all want to share!

I once read a post on here where the kids were peeing in the sump. Sounds worse than it really was.

 

[NY_Sea]

I haven’t had many issues with my own kid crashing my tank. But I do have one story. Came home from
Work one day while my wife was having a play date with our 4 year year old Neighbors daughter. I walked in and she had poured a whole jar of pellet food into my thriving reef. I thought for
Sure I was going to lose all my coral. I jumped into action and sucked out as much of the pellets as I could. Did a few Large water changes and to my surprise no losses !! Agree with the locked stand suggestion. That is always where I worried I would
Find a toy or worse soap. Hahah

 

[w8lifts]

Tank lid for me, has saved a few toys from the wet plunge from toddler shenanigans

 

[AaronFReef]

My kids have been not the kind of kids who poke the electrical outlet or touch things in the house they aren’t supposed to. I’ve put child safety latches with sticky pads to attach them to all my doors when my kids were under 4 but now I don’t think they’d mess with the tank. I also think if they’re born with a tank in the house they’re less likely to be interested enough to….. IME