Water dish ramps (super cheap, takes about two minutes)

[Rocky]

One thing about melting plastic; IT"S DANGEROUS! Sorry but the fumes that melting plastic create when when melted are toxic I guess.
I've been threw countless lectures with my Dad about melting plastic and all that.
Anyway, as we are on the toppic of melting plastic \plastic+fire, an easy way to kill a camp fire is to put a plastic bottle with a lid tightly secured onto the bottle, ten place in fire, and POP! The fire i out (don't try it)

As I mentioned in the 'instructions' I let it sit out for a few hours to keep fumes out of the tank, once its cooled and hardened up I'm sure it'll be fine

[Gab33]

I think she might have meant it's dangerous for you to breathe in- Certain types of melted plastic can act as a carcinogen? Make sure when you're doing this you have proper ventilation.

Anyways, I wouldn't use fire simply because with my luck I'd wind up burning myself. :roll:

[Rocky]

I think (hopefully) That melting plastic on a small scale like this won't hurt to breathe in too much.. And I used a long nosed lighter, no way is fire coming within half a foot of my hand

[DragonsFly]

Melting plastic does cause it to give off toxic fumes. Melting the plastic can also cause chemical changes in the resulting melted plastic that could result in its now no longer being safe (assuming it really was safe to begin with). There are all kinds of different plastics, and frankly, none of them are a good idea to have anywhere near food or water, at least for mammals (I don't know the invertebrate literature, or even if there are any studies done yet with them). Plastic leaches chemicals into food and water (some plastics more than others) which are increasingly being linked with cancer formation in humans and other mammals; some chemicals that leach out of plastics change body chemistry and may cause metabolic and other physiological imbalances, again in humans and other animals--I don't know enough about crab physiology to know whether these problems would extend to them as well.

[gpw9167]

Most plastic containers are BPA free, or will state if it is BPA free on the packaging, so they don't have that chemical that will leach into what ever is stored in there (food, water) to cause cancer in humans. Of course they are finding new studies all the time how we are poisoning our planet and each other. Unfortunately.

[Rocky]

My water dish is intended for food, so it must be BPA free, my croquet net thing says its BPA free as well

[DragonsFly]

BPA is just the "sexy" chemical that has lately been in the news. It isn't the only chemical in plastic that may cause problems.

[meanwun]

I didn't have any luck with this, but on the other hand I got some awesome climbing walls.

[Libbster]

How did u melt the ramp on without melting the whole side of the container?

[Rocky]

The container did melt quite a bit But I changed awhile ago and went with a safer route: poking holes in the container and attatching the canvas with zip ties

[DragonsFly]

You can also use aquarium silicone to attach the ramps to your water dish--my dishes are glass, with plastic needlepoint canvas ramps attached at top and bottom with the aquarium silicone; works great, just want to let it dry really thoroughly before use (I let them dry a couple of days, to be absolutely sure). And make sure you work with it outside, or in a place with VERY good ventilation; until it is dry, the fumes are bad.

[Cutepetgroomer]

I would aquarium sealant would do the same thing