Bad News

[SSalty]

There might be a way to cut the nut off with a dremel, but all of the other parts are pvc glued together, it would be a pain in the ass. It honestly will give me a better piece of mind having a new tank and knowing everthing will be put together properly and didn't have to be hacked at. Besides, I can get a new tank for cheap.

[jhnrb]

Take the nut off the bottom of the bulkhead under the tank, fill up the portion of the hole with silicone and be liberal around the threaded part. screw the nut back on and sung up squezzing out the excess silicone. use finger or q-tip and smooth out the excess around the nut. let set up for couple hours or over night and see if that will not corredt the problem. The area must be dry when applying the silicone. good luck.

[fatman]

If your bulkheads are on a predrilled tank with overflow towers just drop the water level down below your inlets to the tower. If your lucky there are only top inlets to your towers. Use a hack saw blade (and just the blade) laid up against the glass under the tank and cut through the whole bulkhead nut and bulkhead right next to the glass. It will start out slow but then go faster. Only shallow surface scratches wii occur on the glass but you can fairly easily cut through the entire bulkhead. No, the surface scatches will not cause any huge structural problems. The surest and easiest method I have found to install bulkhead gaskets is to apply a small amount of plumbers silicone to gasket and then use teflon tape or if you insist, I do not, use a single bead of silicone salastic (caulking) around your bulkhead threads about a 1/4" from your outer wall of tank, sump or container. Yes the silicone plumbers lubricant is safe.

[hotimportknight]

I have read before that silicone is a bad idea for bulkheads. I think it was on the site I sat down and red where the guy built like a 500 gallon aquarium in his basement out of fiberglass. He used silicone on the bulkheads and had to redo it, and said never do it because it makes it worse. Just the rubber gasket is plenty if you tighten it enough. Hey, if you want to get rid of that tank... id put the time in to fix it. Dont know what I'd drive to come get it... If not where do you get new tanks for cheap? I was drooling over all the big tanks I saw yesterday. Good luck if you try and fix it, otherwise id drive my ass over to north dakota and get it... maybe with a U-Haul on the back of the bimmer? lol.

[d.french]

my buddy had a problem with a leak at a bulk head and used some sort of puddy around it and stopped the leak not sure what it was but it worked, maybe if some knows about this stuff they can help you out with it.

[MikMcgyver]

Never put silicone on the bulkheads. It will fail eventually. Just use the rubber gaskets that came with it and you will be good. Make sure the gasket in on the inside part of the tank.. The bulkhead nut should be on the dry side..

[fatman]

The putty your talking about could be plumbers putty. The "newer" plumbers putty is an epoxy putty ie: glue, as in two part epoxies, like the two part epoxy sticks used by some in gluing frags to plugs in coral propagation or for gluing plugs to rocks as it can be used "underwater." Used underwater means yep used in wet environment hince with leaks. Old style plumbers putty was/is closer to a latex type putty (or caulking), definitely would be temporary if it even worked at all. Two part epoxies are often used by novices for plumbing repairs, and by professional plumbers doing "cheap" temporary repairs. Expect to discard items at a later date though as two part epoxies are considered very permanent and will stick to almost anything. Highway departments even use them to repair broken concrete bridge beams.

[SSalty]

Didn't you guys realize how old this thread is? haha. I already fixed it.

[reeffreak]

Who dug up this old thread?...haha!

[fatman]

Knowledge is golden. The same problems seldom happen to just one person. If the thread remain then apparently someone still acn use some opinions And on, and on, and on. Finance manager isn't that like a soft sciencr e or something?