Bad News

[SSalty]

When I was doing a water change in my sump, I realized I have a leak were the supply and return go through the aquarium. I think we made the mistake of using silicone between the rubber bushing and the aquarium where the tubes go through the tank. I am going to have to tear my whole tank down to fix it. I am really bumbed concidering I just got my tank looking decent.

Has anyone else had any experience with leaks, and what did you do? Is there anyway around this so I don't have to tear my tank apart?

And maybe to make me feel better, please share some of your big troubles that you had with your aquarium.

[seatrueblue]

When we first set up our 120, we bought a ProClear wet-dry. all was well, except we put the rubber gasket inside the sump instead of on the outside. That, coupled with the fact that our kit came with a factory defect (tubing was glued badly) and our first 120 became a leaky mess. We were topping off a gallon per day.

We told our LFS about it and he honored the warranty because of the bad glue job. Problem was that he wanted to send in the old unit, then order the new one!

He ended up ordering it for us and swapping it out, but what a pain.

Lesson: READ THE INSTRUCTIONS, and make sure what's in the box looks the same as the picture.

[yote]

Man that sux.
depending on where the bulk heads come through the glass,you may not have to break it all down.If there fairly high,with in the first quarter or so you could just drain the water down below the bulkheads to fix it.Or possibly dry it enough to silicone around the outside of it.
I was running a canister filter with out the media in for extra flow and a place to put phos-ban.Woke up one morning and looked at my tank to see that my 55gal was half empty.When I got to looking for the leak,it was coming from the gasget on the canister and had pumped about 20 gallons of salt water in the floor.
Hope its not to much of a problem to fix your leak.

[RigoSharon]

sorry to hear that salty..hope you can fix the problem soon..good luck

[SSalty]

One other question, for those with a drilled tank. Where the bulkheads fasten to the aquarium did you just use the rubber seals or did you also use silicone.

[yote]

My tanks not drilled,the rubber seals should be all you need to seal it.Thats what there for.I dont think it would hurt anything to put a small bead of silicone around the outside edge after you get the rubber seal in place.

[jhnrb]

I have a bottom drill with built in overflows. The bulk head rubber bushing is on the inside of the tank and the nut is on the outside or bottom. I spread a small amount of silicone on the glass bottom and then set the bulk head and tighten down. This should not be a problem for you. Leaks are crated for two reasons, not tight enough or overtightened. I am not familiar with your setup. do you have over flows. if so you can stop the return and drain down the overflow chamber, then a fix for the leaking bulkhead can be done, otherwise im not familiar with your system setup. I dont understand why you would have to tear the whole thing down.

[SSalty]

I do have a overflow chamber and yes I could just drain down the water in the overflow and fix it. But there is one problem. We used ALOT of aquarium silicone and pvc glue when putting everything together and with the limited space we have to work with, it is almost impossible to get the bulkheads off. And concidering we used glue, I don't think we are going to be able to get them off period, without breaking the tank. I honestly think the tank is shot. We will determine this tommarow.

[SSalty]

Well, I am going to need to buy a new tank. We can't get the nut off of the bulk head. (note to self, never use pvc glue on the bulkheads). Yes, we could use more silicone to try to fix the leak, but the chances of it leaking again are high, and I like things done the right way. This sucks, but I guess we live and learn.

[yote]

Man I hate that Salty.Is there any way you can cut the nut off the bulkhead?If there is,it would cost alot less to replace the bulkhead than the whole tank.