Plumbing Fix

[thecodingart]

Unfortunately, I hired a "professional" to plumb my 300 gallon tank (they did an absolute terrible job). I mostly didn't have the time to do it myself due to some other focus areas, but here I find myself correcting things.

One result of what they did, there's a leak to a short cut of pipe going up to the tank (slow leak) between the gate valve on the drain. This area isn't reasonable for me to cut off without replacing the entire grommet + main drain, and god knows I can't pull it off given the PVP binding.

I'm going to attempt to glue it and was curious if anyone has used ASI Aquarium sealant for sealing something like this. All thoughts are welcome, I expect to hear people say "cut it anyways", but I'm aiming to attempt to salvage this before hitting that conclusion.

 

[MarineandReef Jaron]

I can't tell if the leak is coming from the bulkhead seal to the tank or a glued joint. If it is the bulkhead seal you may be able to back off the nut and retighten. If it is the glue joint, it is best to cut the plumbing out and replace it.

 

[Aquavaj]

Best would be to cut it and redo. If you do that you may not be able to salvage the gate valve since the pipe is so short and may not have enough contact to use a coupler. Plus the coupler will add a few inches to the length so you might have to readjust everything else down the line.
I have used silicone to help seal bulkheads with good success but the bond with pvc and abs is not that great. Yes, it will stop the leak but if there's lots of movement at the connection it can break that bond and leak again.

 

[thecodingart]

Best would be to cut it and redo. If you do that you may not be able to salvage the gate valve since the pipe is so short and may not have enough contact to use a coupler. Plus the coupler will add a few inches to the length so you might have to readjust everything else down the line.
I have used silicone to help seal bulkheads with good success but the bond with pvc and abs is not that great. Yes, it will stop the leak but if there's lots of movement at the connection it can break that bond and leak again.

100% wouldn't be able to salvage the gate vale (unless there's black magic I'm unaware of).

What I've done (thus far) is prime + cement the outside layer, wrapped a coat of AI Silicon around that (basically filling the gap between the gate valve and the bulk head), then ran a shop vac from the top to try to pull anything up and in it could (if anything).

I'm hoping I can salvage it and want to try anything prior to scrapping.

 

[thecodingart]

I can't tell if the leak is coming from the bulkhead seal to the tank or a glued joint. If it is the bulkhead seal you may be able to back off the nut and retighten. If it is the glue joint, it is best to cut the plumbing out and replace it.

Oh, yeah. The pic doesn't really show the leak. The leak isn't the bulkhead. It's where the bulkhead meets the pipe to the gate valve.

 

[MarineandReef Jaron]

Unfortunately, I think this needs to be cut out and reglued.

 

[Solo McReefer]

Slap It On

 

[thecodingart]

Slap It On

I have yet to understand why something like this guy isn't more mass market:

 

[thecodingart]

As a follow up, I did prime + glue + silicon this (and vacuumed the suction to fill in the gaps).

Everything has held up for a week. I do have backup parts just in case, but looking really good so far.