Leaky Plumbing

SoulFish

SoulFish

New member
Hi guys,
I have a problem, I have connections that leak. I hired a aquarium installer to design and install my plumbing. He installed it, but it had 5 leaks. 2 of them he fixed with, Reef puddy, Superglue, and an acrylic weld glue.

One of the welded seams is still leaking, and another reducer and the collar on the pump is leaking.

My question is what is the best way to fix these leaks? Is there a preferred method for repairing these leaks? I was hoping the installer would fix them, but his position is that I need to pay more for him to come back out and fix it. I don;t want to get into a bashing session, I just need the tank fixed so I can use it. And I am by no means an expert on this.. thats why I hired someone who had a good reputation.

8445573134_654ce4d731_b.jpg


8445573258_a70dd15296.jpg
 
Thanks thats what I am thinking, unfortunatly the guys wants more $$$ just to fix what he installed, so looks like I;m either going to have to do it myself or I am going to have to pay 2xs for the same thing
 
Please tell us which aquarium installer did this. He should not charge you to fix what he did. I would write a review on google if he has a website or is listed and warn every local reefer of him...... I hope he didnt charge a lot of $$$. PVC plumbing is very easy to do. You do have the cleanest/best looking sump ever!
 
Wow, yeah the plumbing looks great and super clean looking.. but Fixing the leaks? You have a couple of options. If this were my leak, I would try and use some marine grade epoxy.. I'm not sure if that is what Reefpuddy is, but other then that you could cut the section of PVC out and redo it with primer/sealer should be fine from there..

Oh and send a small anonymous note to the BBB.. He'll get a clue.
 
Cut it out and redo it. He should stand behind his work.

Worst case scenario, if he charged you a lot, have someone else come and fix it, have them bill you and pay them. Then send a copy of the bill to this guy and tell him he has 30 days to pay you or you will pursue legal action.

Im not saying its worth pursuing legal action, just that it may get him to send you some cash.
 
He's affiliated with a good Tampa Bay LFS, I do not wish any bad posts on them. As a LFS they are great. I'm just put in a very awkward situation.

I did have a talk John at Tamp Aquarium Services, his thinking is the same as you guys, any puddy fix is a fail point and it needs to be cut out and redone. In his opinion the flaw was the installer did not use primer, and possibly the choice of glue. Both of which were the installers choice.

I'm just tired of having to pay for other peoples mistakes, this is not this is not the first time I have done this on this build. The 1st was on the cabinet. Just gets old and I do not have the money for building 2 tanks.

FYI John also recommended legal action, if the guy will not stand behind his work.
 
If he is affiliated with an actual store. That is where you need to go. I would speak with the owner of the store, tell him exactly what happened and how he refuses to fix his mistakes without more money.

If the owner of the store is worth his salt he will have someone else there to fix it fairly soon.
 
The issue is the store does not do "installs" it was just an employee. Unfortunately this is a place that I still would like to shop from. And I honestly do not wish any harm on this guy, or his livelyhood. I just wanted a good plumbing job, and my fault was believing that this guys was a stand up guy. I mean I've spent alot of time talking fish and corals with him and such... just wouldn't think he would have put me or himself in this position.
 
SoulFish said:
The issue is the store does not do "installs" it was just an employee. Unfortunately this is a place that I still would like to shop from. And I honestly do not wish any harm on this guy, or his livelyhood. I just wanted a good plumbing job, and my fault was believing that this guys was a stand up guy. I mean I've spent alot of time talking fish and corals with him and such... just wouldn't think he would have put me or himself in this position.
Click to expand...

offer to go buy the new parts/pieces if he comes and installs it properly- a meet in the middle situation where he's only out his time if you want to keep the relationship up. But seriously, he should fix that for free.
 
SoulFish said:
The issue is the store does not do "installs" it was just an employee. Unfortunately this is a place that I still would like to shop from. And I honestly do not wish any harm on this guy, or his livelyhood. I just wanted a good plumbing job, and my fault was believing that this guys was a stand up guy. I mean I've spent alot of time talking fish and corals with him and such... just wouldn't think he would have put me or himself in this position.
Click to expand...

Was he in the store when he offered to do the install or when you began discussing him doing the work?

I think the owner may be interested to know that this person is using his business as a way to drum up business for himself and then ultimately giving his LFS a bad name by association.

Id still call the owner.
 
What he said^^^

The ONLY real fix for glued fittings that leak is to cut them out and redo them. IMHO, ANY installer would already know this and make it right asap. Anything less than that is just a band-aid and will (probably) fail in the future.
 
Agreed. The work is beautiful, but it has to be functional. You want to be able to sleep at night and not worry about drips, or worse.
 
well fingers crossed I tried the meet in the middle option and he is ok with that. So hopefully he'll come and cut out all the patches and leaks and replace on Thursday.
 
That is some stunning work. You have a great designer at the very least.

"In his opinion the flaw was the installer did not use primer, and possibly the choice of glue. Both of which were the installers choice."

Yeah, that is a red flag and means that you will not be able to trust any weld on the pressure side.
 
Well the guy came back fixed all the leaky fittings, here's the tank today. Wasn't happy about paying more, but happy with the job he did the second time. And just glad it is running finally! This tank build has taken 2yrs, had to rebuild the entire house for it :)

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2216200

Well all leaks cut out and fixed, replaced one dead pump and away I went. Pumped out the freshwater emptied into drain in stand, then pumped in my entire saltwater bank tank to fill the display. Still needed a bit more, and already had the RO/DI filter out another 40 gallons, so pumped that in, added extra salt, then fine tuned the sump area and added more substrate. It's still clearing out but it's cycling now... now if Coralvue could just send me my dam skimmer, ordered it on Jan 14th! They keep telling me you'll get it in a couple days. So I'm now expecting it's arrival on Wed. Fingers crossed. Other than that the tank is ready to go.

Going down the street tomorrow to collect a couple dozen white hermit crabs to clean out the sand. They can clean out the tank for a couple weeks, then get turned back into the wild :)

Filling the tank up
<img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8368/8459683341_505802462b_z.jpg" alt="" />

Sand Settling out and clearing up
<img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8105/8459682837_f15490b113_z.jpg" alt="" />
 
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