600 gal display/900+ gal build thread in the Chicago 'burbs.

[Bax]

Bulkheads are a PITA!

I still have one that will just decide to drip randomly for a day or so then stop. Over two yeasr and I still keep a plastic container under it for peace of mind. Every once in a whilr there's a little puddle of salt in it but I've not seen it drip in forever!

A waterfall, that's another issue all together. How are you supporting that 3" pipe, if it's tugging at all it could cuase a leak

 

[erics3000]

I had a bulk head leak and I used a little silcone and the leak is gone.

 

[Elliott]

I had similar problems with my bulkheads, then someone here on RC mentioned he always used silicone in addition to the gasket, I tried it and it worked like a charm

 

[wmilas]

Tonight, I'm going to go a little nuts with the silicone

 

[wmilas]

A lot of silicone just went on. I'm going to wait till tomorrow night to let it cure before I do a water test. Think this is long enough, or should I wait 48 hours?

 

[ReefEnabler]

from your post on the last page, it sounded like the weight of the plumbing runs is exerting leverage upon the bulkheads???? if that is the case, then its a real problem, and no amount of silicon will fix it. please forgive if I read it wrong.

but I would make sure that the plumbing is adequetely supported such that it would remain in place WITHOUT the bulkhead.

I found these type of PVC snap clamps to be totally awesome for that:

way better than the click style pipe hangers that savko sells IMO. you can snap the plumbing out with ease, but it will not come out by itself.

if you dont have a secure surface to support them by, just use some scrap lumber.

 

[erics3000]

nice ryan..1 day is good enough for the cure period. I think his bulk head was just leaking, i hope he doesn't have al ot of weight on it..

Speaking of that..what happen to all the pics...wmilas you got us addicted to all your sweet pics any new pics??

 

[wmilas]

I'll post some pics tonight.. sorry about that

Thre is a small amount of leverage on some of the bulkheads although I think its minimal. The problem is that the 3" pipe and fittings running over 15 feet is HEAVY. All the pressure for the most part is perpendicular to the bulkhead which should cause the bulkhead to seal even tighter. So along the tank there is no support except the vertical support provided by the bulkheads. As soon as the pipe hits a wall its going to be supported by pvc pipe hangers. This should minimize the lateral and rotational torque on the bulkheads.. I hope. Holy crap I sound like an engineer. Sorry about that

 

[EnglishRebel]

wmilas
I know it's too late for your installation but for others who might be prowling this post I would certainly recommend spaflex for the last couple of feet to the bulkhead. This avoids stressing the fitting and eliminates any vibration in the piping.
Just my two cents worth.

 

[wmilas]

English: Yup I realized that after I had the whole thing glued. If I have to re-do it thats how I'm going to do it.

 

[Goodwin9]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13563955#post13563955 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wmilas
English: Yup I realized that after I had the whole thing glued. If I have to re-do it thats how I'm going to do it.

If you are going to take apart the bulkheads to silicone, it might be a good chance to make the change now.

 

[wmilas]

I could not take them apart since it was all glued. All I could do was loosen the nuts and push the bulk heads up and smear silicone on both sides of the gasket, push them back down and then inject silicone through the voids on top the bottom sides of the gasket then re-tighten them.

Silicone gushed everywhere once tightened so I'm holding out hope

Btw the bulkheads were slip so if I have to take it apart I'll be using new bulkheads as these will be toast.

 

[jrpdriver]

can you just cut a section of the piping and then use unions to connect the new area that gets redone, that way you wouldn't half to re-do all of it and you could ad the spa-flex.

Absolutely beautiful set-up by the way

 

[ReefEnabler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13564140#post13564140 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wmilas
I could not take them apart since it was all glued. All I could do was loosen the nuts and push the bulk heads up and smear silicone on both sides of the gasket, push them back down and then inject silicone through the voids on top the bottom sides of the gasket then re-tighten them.

Silicone gushed everywhere once tightened so I'm holding out hope

Btw the bulkheads were slip so if I have to take it apart I'll be using new bulkheads as these will be toast.

you dont need to lose the bulkheads... you could cut the pipe an inch or two below the bulkhead and then glue a Slip X FemaleThread adapter onto the pipe. If you shave down the flashing around the adapter it should fit inside the hole in your tank. Thats what I did and it worked out nicely.

maybe your gaskets had imperfections that lead to a poor seal? did you ever inespect them closely?

hopefully the silicon fixes it up for you!

 

[wmilas]

Just ran a water test and I'm seeing no leakage. Yea! I think the silicone did the job. Yeah! Thats 6 bulkheads down 7 more to go

On a side note I just discovered something thats annoying me. It seems when I leveled my tank its not perfectly level. I used a 6 foot level contractors level when I leveled it and it SEEMED that it was level. I just pulled out my 4 foot level when I noticed that there seemed to be a tiny but more water in the over flow boxes pn one side than the other.

I think over 10 feet the tank is out of level between 1/4 and 3/8 of an inch. Its not a total deal breaker or anything, its just annoying the hell out of me. I have no idea how it happened. Either the level I was using was a bit warped, or the stand settled slightly., or the tank smushed the wood cushion between the stand slightly.

The problem is that I framed up above the tank for all my finish work and there is no way I'm ripping all that finish work off to re-level. I'm hoping when the tank is full that It wont be noticeable. If it is I guess I can always add more trim work to take the water line above the trim. Right now I have the water line below my trim work.

I can be a bit obsessive-compulsive at times and I hope this doesn't drive my nutty

 

[PaulieWalnuts]

i am sure its still sweet....i am the same way though....can't wait to see more pictures

 

[wmilas]

Oh as an aside I also am a bit worried about the capabilities of my ejector put that I'll be dumping waste tank water into. I Filled the pit up and let it eject. I noticed there was alot of backflow down the pipe even though there seems to be a check valve installed. the stupid thing probably isn't working.

Anyways I then dumped 1 gallon at a time down the drain and it kicked on at 6 gallons which seems a bit small, but if I factor in the water flowing back down the pipe with a bum valve that might make sense. It took between 7-8 seconds to eject the 6 gallons.

Do that math and thats about 2700-3k gallons per hour with a large error factor. Half that for error and that only about 1350-1500 gallons per hour. When I'm doing water changes I can see myself possibly exceeding that. Should I worry about this? I dread having to unseal the pit to get the make and model of the pump... Its got to be nasty as all hell in there.

 

[Wheel of Time]

Just started tagging along. What an incredible build. great trim work by the way! on my 8ft tank I had an issue as well, despite having a 'level' tank on day 1. Oh well, but it has bugged me like crazy too. On the canopy I built, have added trim to cover the uneven water line... uggh.

Cant wait to see more pictures. nice job and good luck going forward.

 

[vsuboy]

cant wait to see pics of water in the bad boy, and then eventully rock sand coral and fish.

do u have any 1 fish or 2 in perticular that will be just amazing like "show" fish

 

[erics3000]

I got worried on my tank with the levelness but realized it was ok after I turned of the pumps. Duhh. I had a couple extra power heads on one side. It really scared me about stressing the seams or something.