Skimmer Repair

J

JosefDevaty

New member
I know Ive been posting a lot of questions lately... but I suppose that is common when setting up a new tank.
Anyway here it goes. I bought a used My Reef Creations MR1 off of the selling forum. Its good and all except for the fact that when I cleaned it up and wet tested it tonight it has a leak. The leak comes from the front righthand corner seam on the base box. If you know what the skimmer looks like youll know what I mean. Where most skimmers are round all the way down... this one is round and then goes into a box where the skimmer and beckett come out of.
This leak seems to be just in the seal between the two joints as I dont see any material chipped or missing. Do I need to get some acrylic glue or superglue gel or? Its a fairly tiny leak that produces a small drip/stream of water when the skimmer is running.
Im hoping that it is a result of some rough shipping as I would hate to think that I bought a leaky skimmer from a fellow reefer.
 
I have a sea life systems skimmer that sounds like it is made the same. The box is PVC and the riser tube is acrylic right? If so, i would just turn off the skimmer, and dry well, and apply pvc glue to the leak area. Let it sit a few hours, and fire it back up. I never messed with acrylic glue, so i'm not sure what it would do to pvc. I have used pvc glue on acrylic, and it hold fine for that type of issue. If it's real small, and doesn't effect the skimmer's operation, i wouldn't worry about it too much.
 
My only concern is it holding up. The skimmer is going to be run externally from the sump so I cant really afford any leaks. I have some rain or shine PVC glue that I was going to use for my plumbing on the tank. Maybe Ill give that a shot tomorrow and see what happens.
 
If the base is acrylic, which I believe it is, I would use Weld On 16 since it is made to fix cracks and high strength. You can check with Farco or House of Plastics...Weld On 4 should work also. You want to use an acrylic glue like Weld On with acrylic since it fuses the 2 pieces together.
 
These sound like good ideas but let me put my $.02 in here.

If I understand the design of the skimmer properly, you have a leak where water is getting from inside the skimmer to the outside?

A friend of mine had this problem with a bulkhead on a sump so I'll describe what I told him to do. I'm not sure what material your skimmer is made from so I'm going from what I know about tanks..

Take the object that needs repairing and clean it thoroughly and then dry it VERY well. Let it sit overnight or use a hair dryer to make sure there is no moisture anywhere. This is possibly one of the most important steps before using any adhesive.

On the inside of the object where the leak is coming from, seal with silicon. Make sure its pure Si and not any type with mildew or mold resistance. Let dry 24 hours just to be sure. Then test out waterflow.

In this scenario the pressure of the water being exerted will push onto the Si and the Si should act as a barrier. In many leak cases people too often will try to fix the leak from the outside but water pressure will merely force the glue out.

I'm not a materials expert by ANY means but I'd avoid PVC glue because its so stiff, though in this case it would probably work. Weld On I think is specific for acrylic and theres a good chance what you have is made of acrylic. I just go with Si since it sticks in general to most things.

Hope this helps, and don't stop asking questions! Its the best way to learn!
 
Yes its definitely acrylic. Im thinking ill go the weld on route since I know that it will bond the acrylic. The idea of going from the inside does make a lot of sense. Ill chat with some acrylic experts and see what they say on the matter.
 
Weld On is what tank makers use to fuse the pieces of acrylic together. It melts the joints as one. The number 16 is thicker for really staying put and filling cracks. You don't want to put silicone on acrylic because it can fail over time. I have repaired a few sumps and I used the number 16 to seal the hole covers on my sump. Give Farco or HOP a call.
 
your in the lakeland area let me know and i have a half of a tube.. would like to keep the tube for my personal fixes but would be happy to fix where it leaks..
 
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