Pipe work for bottom drilled tank

[stinger]

thanks for the advice,
we've gone with the pvc for the backflow, and will use flexible tubing for the pump from sump.
Just filled the tank with fresh water a couple of hours ago. It's looking good so far, no leak and without the need to tighten the bulkhead either.
i'm planning to start the tank with SW, LR and sand this sunday

 

[stinger]

ok it's been 24 hours. found a very minor leak from the bulkhead. i just tightened it with a spanner. i'm just worry i might be tightening the bulkhead to much, coz both top and bottom sides actually move (my wife help me watch the bottom fitting while i was tightening it from the top). Is this still ok? do you just have to keep tightening it until the leak completely stops?

 

[Anonymous]

You need to hold the pipe inside while you tighten below if the whole moves when you tighten. I found that if you drain the overflow and dry the gasket and then retighten it is less likely to leak.

 

[GSchiemer]

You need to hold the pipe inside while you tighten below if the whole moves when you tighten. I found that if you drain the overflow and dry the gasket and then retighten it is less likely to leak.

Unfortunately he isn't using an enclosed overflow box, so any leak in that bulkhead plumbed through the bottom of the aquarium can potentially drain the tank.

If you insist on retaining this plumbing setup, then I'd suggest using dual gaskets; one on the inside and one on the outside. This may help firm up the bulkhead fitting without having to overtighten it.

 

[stinger]

there are actually two gaskets (one inside and the other one outside, so the glass is sandwich by these two). So i guess it's ok to tightened it more?

 

[Anonymous]

You can tighten it more, but be sure to do it very slowly like 1/8-1/4 turns. Overtightening can be a big problem as well.

Sorry about the the draining idea, I haven't read page one since yesterday.

 

[stinger]

don't worry about it. i just tightened it a little bit (1/16 turn, might even be less), hopefully this'll work

 

[Anonymous]

I needed to use a wrench on my overflow bulkheads. I tightened slowly until the leak stopped. If you double gasket it is sometimes necessary to tighten a little more so that both gaskets are smushed enough to create a watertight seal.

 

[stinger]

all right, good to hear that, i was afraid i might have overtightened it.
thanks for that

 

[stinger]

it has improved a lot over the night. the leak has definitely become very minimal, just a bit of moist when you run a paper towel through the b/head. i tried to tightened it again just now but it's really hard to turn so i didn't really force it, fearing it may make it worse or break something. any input on this?

 

[GSchiemer]

There should be NO water at all. This is not good. If the leak worsens it will drain your tank to the bottom. Perhaps the hole is too large? There's an allowable range of size that's stated by the manufacturer of the bulkhead fitting. Are you certain that the hole that was drilled in the glass is within tolerance?

You should tighten the bulkhead by hand and then give it a quarter turn with a wrench. If you need to do more than this, then something is wrong.

Greg

 

[Anonymous]

forgot to ask.
still related to the bulkhead, would you use pvc + all the elbows (90degress) and glue them together for the pipework (pump and return to sump)? what we're using for pipe now is that same stuff for airline (but bigger diameter), but we're leaning towards pvc now. And would you tigthen the bulkhead first before you connected the rest of the pipework?

PVC is good once you get above the bulk head, but below the bulk head it's better to use tubing because you might want to move your sump or return pump for some reason. If you go straight with PVC from the pump to the bulk head, the pump has to stay put for good.

 

[stinger]

hi
i've managed to stop the leak, but actually it probably was stop a day before i tightened but there is some excess water that's still trickling down.
btw i've got some pics as well of the tank and the plumbing

 

[stinger]

same tank from the other side

 

[stinger]

sump

 

[stinger]

and lastly pipework underneath.
i've gone with pvc, because we're having problem trying to shape the tube to go through a hole in between the cabinet. i've glued the pvc on most of the joint area but not the one that's connected to the bulkhead so i can remove it at latter stage if needed (just use those white plumbing tape, which you can see in the pics). it seems to doing well now, i have found no leak for a couple of days with the pump running and stopped.
however as you can see it still needs a lot of work to be done, but i'm waiting for the test before i'm going to do anything.

 

[GSchiemer]

It looks like you're using teflon tape to secure one of the PVC slip fittings. Please tell me I'm wrong.

 

[stinger]

if by teflon tape you mean it's the white plumbing tape you normally use when you screw on a fitting then yes.
i'm guessing this is a really bad idea?

 

[stinger]

doh, it just dawn on me why this is such a bad idea.....
any suggestion on how to secure this better? i don't want to glue it so that i still have the option of taking it off latter. the tube will only work for one side, as i mentioned before, i was having trouble fitting the tube through the hole

 

[bleedingthought]

You might want to put plastic hose clamps (or plastic ties) on the ends of the flexible tubing in order to keep it from coming apart down the road. :wink: