door alarms needed BADLY

[erikjphillips]

So today my son who is a week shy of 1 found his way into the sump and pulled out the heater. he apparently went back later (I know this because of the burn on my hard wood) and crawled over the heater on the floor. He now has a 2nd, possibly 3rd degree burn on his foot. I desperately need advice on an alarm for the doors. i dont want to lock it because i dont want him pulling hard on the doors. part of the reason i started a salt water tank was for him and he LOVES it. he really enjoys watching the fish swim and it kills me to possibly have to get rid of the tank. However, if i cant keep him safe its gotta go.

The stand: its a 75 gallon tank with zero hardware on the stand so i'm pretty open with that i think i can do. i'm not real handy with tools and building things but my brother works for a carpenter. let me know what you guys think.

 

[Turbosnail]

You could always buy a refrigerator alarm for people on a diet it goes off when they open the door. You could most likely get one at walmart or target.

 

[littlefish09]

the magnet locks work great they mount inside and keep the door flush so he wont have anything to grab.

 

[pallobi]

^^^ the fridge alarm, thats actually a great idea... sorry to hear about your boy

 

[beckbrass]

You can also go to baby's r us they have a lot of door lock stuff to keep kids out. Good luck.

 

[The Ng Thing]

I would scrap the alarm idea and use a lock. If your worried about the intergrity of the doors, reinforce them or add multiple locks. You could even remove the doors and replace it with one flat piece of wood that slides into place. The only reason I would go with locks is because by the time you hear the alarm he could already get himself hurt.

Do you have a picture of your stand? This would help finding an alternative to alarms/locks.

 

[erikjphillips]

i was just looking at the magnetic locks and it never dawned on me to put the locks on the inside. i looked at walmart for the baby locks but they didnt have any. the closest babys r us is about 1.5 hrs away. thanks for the advice guys.

 

[onefish]

kiddie locks that are made for cabinets work wonders. i use two on my canopy.

 

[erikjphillips]

i'll try to get a decent picture of the stand up tomorrow. i'm just worried that he is going to really yank on the doors and have the whole thing come down on him.

 

[Flame Angel]

Yes, there definately is something low tech and low cost that can be done.

I really hope he is doing okay. I can only imagine what must have being going through your head.

 

[Turbosnail]

They sell a bunch of different cabinet safety locks you can buy most of them from any store in the kids section. HD, Lowes I have even seen them in the house hold goods isle at stop and shop.

 

[Turbosnail]

Have you taken your son to have the burns looked at? Burns can get infected really easy I know from first hand experience. I hope he will be ok.

 

[erikjphillips]

we took him to the ER today and they gave us silvadine cream for it. we have to see his primary care in the morning. oddly enough he apparently only cried for about 2 minutes when it happened. when we got home he was back to his happy little self, laughing at the fish and crawling on the floor. the worst part was i was at work, longest 10 minute ride of my life.

 

[Turbosnail]

The silvadine works really good. I know the feeling I was stuck in traffic and got a call from the hospital about my daughter once.

 

[pillowfish]

If you are truly concerned with him pulling on the cabinet doors to the sump and bringing the tank down I would just put a kiddie corral around it. He can still see the tank and be in close proximity without any dangers.
I have those magnetic alarms on all my windows and doors, I bought them at Home Depot, Black and Decker makes them for around $10.00 for 4. You just peel and stick one on the frame and one on the door, problem is that once you have them on the inside every time you open the doors you will have to flip the switch to off and it's quite ear piercing in sound. In the FWIW category, my daughter is 2 weeks-ish shy of her first birthday as well and I would never trust one of these alarms to protect her from dangerous things in the house, it only takes a second and the loud noise she has become accustom to and it does NOT stop her from attempting to open a door.

One thing I would check as well is to make sure you have no stray voltage in your sump if you are going the alarm route. Heaters, skimmers, pumps, etc. can all leak a wee bit of electricity I would think about adding a grounding probe to ensure that is safe as well. But overall, I think your best bet is a kiddie corral around the tank. Good lucfk and hope a speedy recovery for your son.

 

[MisFit]

Child locks on the door and anchor the stand to the wall studs if you are worried about it falling over.

 

[delta]

i'll try to get a decent picture of the stand up tomorrow. i'm just worried that he is going to really yank on the doors and have the whole thing come down on him.

As far as anchor to the wall make sure the stand can takes the lateral stress. A MDF stand might just snap. Also you do not want to make the connection to the wall tight, meaning you need to give ta small amount of room for the tank and house to move independently. if you can get a picture of the stand also from the inside it would be helpful in giving advice for making the stand secure.

You may need to add a panel in the upper part of the stand to attach brackets to secure it to the wall. Easy fix (even w/MDF) for the safety it will provide. You also need to go into the stud in the wall, so the panel would make that process a lot easier

 

[delta]

Few other things that would be helpful to know is what type of floor surface is it on and what size is the tank?
while a smaller tank might come down easy a 90 is going to be extremely hard to pull over unless it was installed on
improperly (not level) or on a sub par floor system. Carpet is also a factor that can make tanks unstable in some cases.

The magnet locks (mentioned before) are probably your best bet, that way no handle to pull when they are closed
http://www.kidsafeinc.com/product/71173/Cabinet-Locks-Magnetic-Tot-Lok-Starter-Set.html

 

[JohnK]

If you are still wanting an alarm in addition to locks, radio shack sells door alarms that work great for about $30

 

[expatgoalie]

I used these with my little guy, and he still cannot for the life of him either A)figure out how to unlatch it, or B)have enough muscle strength to do so even if he knew how... He's almost 3 now.