bulkhead leaking, please help?

johno4

New member
I have a 1 in bulkhead as an inlet on my closed loop, there is water dripping from it at a pretty constant rate. Is it possible that it is to tight? It is on the back of my tank an is very difficult to get to but I know it is on pretty tight, I cant tighten it by hand anymore, and have used a wrench on the inside to tighten it further. Is there a way to fix this? I really dont want to empty the tank any suggestions are appreciated.
 
one of two problems: too tight or too loose.

I have had the same problem, but mine were too loose. What I did was press the face of the bulkhead into the tank as hard as I could, and at the same time, tighten the nut on the back some more.

That worked for me for three leaking bulkheads. But for one of them, I could only get it as far as a very slow drip, so I actually took a wrench and *gently* tightened it until the drip stopped. Be careful about tightening it with a wrench, though. If it's Schedule 40 bulkhead like most are, it might crack.

good luck
 
the water is actually leaking from in between the nut and the piping. It is not really leaking from in between the and the glass does that mean that it is cracked? I cant really see a crack but I guess that doesnt mean there isnt one.
 
You can try drain the water level . Loosen the bulkhead and Apply silicone grease. I just had to do this last night and it worked great.
 
Is it leaking from the threads? I had 1 leaking once from the treads so I wrapped a little teflon tapearound it. No more leaking.
 
the main problem is that the bulkhead is on the back of the tank and it is butted up agianst the wall so I really cant get to it. The second problem is that the it is located near the bottom so I will have to drian pretty much the whole tank to replace it. I really dont know what to do!
 
Well, that does sound like a big problem. You could fix it temporarily with a bead of silicone if you can get to it. If the drip is not so bad the silicone will dry ok
 
I think it is actually dripping more now as opposed to it slowing down. Does it sound like I cracked it?
 
I had a similar problem in my sump.


I went to Lowes and bought a big tube of silicone.

I dried the bulkhead as much as I could, then covered it completely with silicone.

That pretty much fixed it, but it did spring a little leak through the silicone. I covered that up with more silicone and it's been fine ever since. If I ever need to remove the bulkhead I'll have to cut off the silicone. My biggest worry was stopping the leak though and it worked.

Good luck!
 
mine were also dripping between the nut and the piping, not between the nut and the glass. the technique still worked.
 
Re: bulkhead leaking, please help?

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8116279#post8116279 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by johno4
... and have used a wrench on the inside to tighten it further.

If you have turned the inside, then it is likely that you buckled the gasket. The only thing that should be turned to tighten the bulkhead is the nut on the outside.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8116825#post8116825 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by prsguy
I had a similar problem in my sump.


I went to Lowes and bought a big tube of silicone.

I dried the bulkhead as much as I could, then covered it completely with silicone.

That pretty much fixed it, but it did spring a little leak through the silicone. I covered that up with more silicone and it's been fine ever since. If I ever need to remove the bulkhead I'll have to cut off the silicone. My biggest worry was stopping the leak though and it worked.

Good luck!


i also tried that with a leaking fixture. the problem is, the silicone doesn't dry fast enough before water breaks through. It only really works if the leak is *extremely* slow.


i hate leaks!!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8116841#post8116841 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dtaranath
i also tried that with a leaking fixture. the problem is, the silicone doesn't dry fast enough before water breaks through. It only really works if the leak is *extremely* slow.


i hate leaks!!



I agree, if it's like a faucet then it won't work. If it's a rapid drip (like I had) then it should work. You might want to precure some of the silicone by letting it harden some before you apply it to the tank.

I don't know that it will work, but it's better than draining your whole tank!
 
I think I'll give the silicon idea a try. I guess I really have nothing to loose, if it works great, if not I guess I'll have to empty the tank and replace it.
 
Thanks everyone for the ideas. I tried the silicone on it and the leak has slowed down a lot. I think if I go over it one more time it will seal up completely.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8118094#post8118094 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by johno4
Thanks everyone for the ideas. I tried the silicone on it and the leak has slowed down a lot. I think if I go over it one more time it will seal up completely.

Bada bing!


Glad it worked.
 
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