Build Thread Update
All I can say is… wow.
I thought I was finally at the “add water and relax” stage — turns out I was very wrong. After getting everything plumbed, cemented, tightened, and looking clean, I filled the tank… and both bulkheads immediately started leaking. Instant panic mode.
I spent a good amount of time trying to get them to stop, but nothing worked. That’s when I realized the problem: I had cemented the PVC into the bulkheads with the gaskets on the dry side instead of the wet side. Rookie mistake, but one you only make once.
The “right” answer was to cut the PVC and redo the whole thing. But of course, I tried the shortcut first — cut the gaskets, moved them to the wet side, reassembled everything… still leaking. Added plumber’s tape as a last‑ditch effort… still leaking.
At that point we also realized the system was extremely loud without a baffle. So we made the call: cut the PVC, head back to the store, and start fresh. Picked up new bulkheads, new PVC, new adapters, and a ball‑joint baffle.
This time I plumbed it with minimal flex tubing to take pressure off the overflow box, and I dry‑fit every single piece until I was 100% confident it would work. Even ran it briefly without cement just to confirm the flow and noise levels were right.
Once everything checked out, we cemented it all, waited the proper cure time, fired it up… and like a charm: no leaks, dead silent.
To say I was tired, over it, and beyond ecstatic that it was finally working properly is an understatement. What a rollercoaster — but we’re officially up and running.
Rockwork is in, water is flowing, and the tank is alive.
Would love any feedback on the aquascape. Thanks for following along!
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