My 90 gallon Octo Tank (Work in progress)

[Cody]

I don't know what to do anymore, honestly. I have aquarium sealant and I guess I'm gonna try it, because the "cleaning-and-reinstalling" method didn't seem to work.

 

[CaptFish]

Darn, that is discouraging. How big is the hole in compared to the bulkhead? Is it a tight fight for the bulkhead or does it have some wiggle room?

 

[Cody]

Some wiggle room, for sure...at least I think

 

[DWhatley]

Can you measure the diameter of the holes? Something is just not right and it would be best to figure it out.

 

[Joe-Ceph]

If a bulkhead fitting is leaking there are only a few possibilities, so check each one:

1) Are there any cracks in the plastic body of the bulkhead?
2) Is the rubber gasket flat and smooth on both sides? If it has any scratches, rough spots, gouges, or thin spots, then it won't seal.
3) Is the glass perfectly flat and smooth where the gasket touches it - no deep scratches?
4) Is the surface of the flange perfectly flat and smooth, without scratches or plastic seams?
5) Is there any sand, dried salt, hair, or anything else, getting caught on either side of the gasket, preventing the gasket from laying down completely against the two hard flat surfaces on each side of it?
6) Is there a soft seal between each pair of hard surfaces? Where ever you have two hard surfaces that come together, you must have an elastic seal (gasket, silicone sealant, etc.) between the two hard surfaces or water will sneak through. That is true unless the two hard surfaces are "welded" together (like with PVC fittings bonded with PVC cement (solvent)). Look at your bulkhead, there are two places where hard surfaces come together that must be sealed. The first is sealed by the rubber gasket where the glass and the bulkhead flange come together. The second is where a pvc fitting connects to the part of the bulkhead that sticks outside the tank. Assuming that the gasket is working, your leak must be coming from this connection. Is that connection a slip fitting, or a threaded fitting? If slip, you need to use PVC cement (or at least silicone sealant) between the two parts that slip together. If it is a threaded connection, you need to use two wraps of teflon tape on the threads, and then screw them down tight. Or, instead of teflon tape, you could use silicone sealant.
7) Is the nut tight enough to press the gasket between the glass and the flange? If the gasket is very stiff, you might need to tighten it down very tightly to get it to seal.

That covers all the possibilities. One or more of the above is your problem.

Here's a Picture of how the parts should go together (the wet side would be the lower side/bottom of the picture) If the gasket isn't leaking, it must be leaking where the black and white pieces come together. PVC cement, teflon tape, or silicone sealant can seal that joint.

 

[Cody]

Alright, I used both gaskets on top of each other (of course) and did another re-installation. So far there doesn't appear to be any leakage but I will check again in a bit. Here's a picture of my drain bulkhead outside of the tank as well as installed..I'd like to see if you guys can figure out what's wrong.

Also, for whatever reason, Tinypic isn't letting me upload images, and I don't know how long these images will stay on ImageShack...

 

[Cody]

I just checked the tank and there's water around the bulkhead nut, as in, on the top of it (on the outside of the tank I'm saying)...So in other words, it's still leaking.

 

[Joe-Ceph]

You've got the nut on backwards. The wide flat part of the nut should touch the glass. You want to press the gasket and glass between the flange on the inside of the tank, and the wide flat side of the nut on the outside. You want to make a glass and gasket sandwich, so that there is a ring of glass and gasket that is being pressed together, evenly, from both sides. With the nut on backwards, you are pressing unevenly. That's probably why it's leaking.

Second. Only use one gasket, it should work with two, but it's like wearing two socks on each foot. It's unnecessary, looks bulky, and if anyone notices you'll look a little silly.

Some people spread a very thin layer of silicon sealant on both sides of the gasket just to fill in any scratches or imperfections in the flange, gasket, or glass. The only downside of doing that is that you need to wait a couple days for the silicone to fully cure before you can put water in the tank, and if you ever take the bulkhead off, you must remove all the old silicone before you can reuse the bulkhead. If it still leaks after you put the nut on correctly, try the silicone trick (but I don't think you'll need to).

 

[Cody]

Ohhh, haha. I feel like an idiot now.. It kinda seemed odd but that's how I figured a nut on anything else would screw on. And okay, I'll use one gasket instead. I bought teflon tape today because I didn't know if I'd need it because I couldn't remember if a slip or threaded fitting needed it; as it looks it seems as if I don't have either, haha.

 

[DWhatley]

That is an interesting bulkhead (Joe-Ceph beat me to the upside down nut post ). I have not seen one with a built in hose barb before (the bottom part with ridges) and is the reason it has been confusing when we talk about a slip or threaded connection for your hose - you have neither. The more common bulkhead has only a hole and you add the barb or piping by fitting it into the hole. You have a bult-in barb and your tubing fits directly on the bulkhead.

 

[Cody]

Yeah, I'm glad I finally figured out what the problem was. I bought a Top Fin gravel vacuum and digital thermometer today from PetSmart and I'm having issues with the vacuum haha.. but we'll see how it turns out after I have a siphon that actually goes down instead of trying to do it with two containers at the same level with the water-filled container only filled about halfway.

 

[Mike Bauer]

Is the bottom cabinet open or are those draws in the middle. You should use the larges glass tank that you can fit under it that you can; breeder tanks are longer and shorter so you have room to work. Hose pouting down will not have pressure on it (drain) and that you can use the hose clamp on. I try never to glue anything because you may need to take it apart someday. The flex tube with the spreader is for the water return. In the sump the pump has a hose clamped to it at the top that goes to the bottom of the tank, the smaller hole then the water with pressure passes to the top part were you connect the flex pipe and point it into the tank. The other hole will have the vent looking plug that stops eels and octopus from passing into the sump. The grey flex tubing goes from the bottom of the tank to the sump as a drain hose. It should have hose clamps with it (like on a car hose) the other end of the hose goes to your filter material bio-ball, filter ... water pass though cleaning materials to the bottom of the tank and fill up the tank with water. The sump pump them pushes the water back up into the tank; make sure hose clamps are tight enough not to leak water under pressure. I like the filter you created you could place it in the tank and remove the bottom drawer and fill ti with live rocks. Look like it would be easy to change and clean. Good luck.

 

[Cody]

The bottom cabinet is open but the space is kind of limited. There is a side door but it only measures about 8"-9" wide.. so therefore I have to try and fit whatever I use for a sump through the front cabinet doors and hope that it slides through without tearing up my stand. I appreciate your advice on the plumbing installation but DWhatley has been helping me out with that and I've got it covered. I considered using the filter that I made in the first place but I don't necessarily know how it would work out.. I mean, I've got the filter pad and carbon there I guess, and that's all I'm really using for a filter sock, but the sterilite container doesn't really fit well in my stand... along with the fact that it'd have to fit in the sump container. I plan on using the filter sock filled with carbon, and an oversized protein skimmer for filtration.. along with my 90lbs or so of live rock. I plan on getting the "Real Reef" rock that's made by Fish Heads Inc. as they sell it at a store that is reasonably close to my house and instead of paying either $10/lb for aquacultured rock or approximately $5-$6/lb for rock without algae that probably isn't cured either (they're in tubs at the LFS but that's not a guarantee that it's cured I wouldn't think) compared to the 7.99/lb for the Real Reef which already has the algae, looks very nice, is eco-friendly, and requires no curing, seems like a steal of a deal to me. Yes, either way I'm paying a fair amount, but that's because I can't seem to find anyone really selling it locally on craigslist. It is what it is I guess... you buy it one time, you have it forever, you know?

 

[Mike Bauer]

Looks like you have it under control, it sound good to me. The stand should be made to fit a smaller tank inside the bottom, most are. You will have to put it in sideways and then lay it over. That is why I suggest the shorter longer tank. The rest of the stuff goes in it after that. Good luck. Mike

 

[Cody]

I'm kind of having issues with figuring out how to install/use my aquarium top. It's made my Deep Blue Professional for my tank (of course) and the tank has a brace so the top comes in two parts. The kit came with the two halves of glass, both of which have hinges, and some sort of what I believe is called a "backstrip" from googling how to install a glass hinged "canopy" (or top as I call it).. It seems to be plastic and is able to have the glass slid onto it with a strip at one end. It also comes with these little plastic pieces but I'm not 100% sure what they're used for... Some sort of mount I'm assuming because they have adhesive on the bottom.

I measured the inside of my stand and the skinniest the inside gets is 14" which would be where the braces are.. the doors measure about 13"-14" wide and the inside height is about 25 & 3/4".. So once I figure out what I'm using for my sump I can then decide on my filtration.

I guess I could kind of use either filtration method. If I used my DIY filter and removed the bio balls, I'd be doing about the same thing as a filter sock with the carbon inside, correct? I mean, the filter sock would probably be easier to work with, but would also require more mounting (I would assume).. Although I don't know how I'd place my DIY filter tray either..