We've got WATER!!

[Gmoney]

Well, I have been quiet lately, mostly because of the baby, but I have everything plumbed, in position, and YES, now I have WATER in the tank... yeeeeeeeeeeee haaaaaaaaaaaw.......

BUT WAIT...

Not everything is well...Being the genious I am, I plumbed my CL Dart wrong, my drain to my output and the returns to my input.... needless to say my dart dont work so well LOL...

Ok, small prob....its independant of the system, we can still move forward with adding rock etc... I need to download the pics I took and show you guys...

I didnt know starboard floated, was I suppose to silicone it to the bottom, or just add rocks to weight it down?

For the bottom, I built 2 spray bars into 2 of my CL returns... My dart return is plumbed through a 4 way OM... and 2 ports are open at any one time...they are 1inch ....I reduced my return to 3/4in and most the holes I drilled were 1/8 inch... am I going to cause backpressure and lose flow by doing this? I guess just by going to 3/4 in I might lose some flow... should I increase my spray holes? or is 1/8 inch ok, or should I go with all 1/4in?

Anyways, otherwise all is looking really good...had a couple of leak scares in the back of the tank...but that proved to be just forgetting to tighten well the bulkheads....so did that and leaks went away....

I'll post some pics soon.

G

[Gmoney]

well the leak on the CL drain isnt going away...I think I know the reason , the spigot x slip street El I got didnt really fit tightly dry into the socket of the bulkhead when I did the dry fit...I hoped that adding a lot of cement would fix this... guess not...so I think now I am going to need to undo that hole part ...cut off the elbow, get a new bulkhead, new single union ball valve...what a pain....I tried siliconing it, but not sure it can help with the leak going....

What do you guys think? Should I drain the water below the CL drainand then add a TON of the christy's red hot blue cement and see if that plugs up the hole? Then add more water to test it out? That would seem like the simplest fix if it works... Or should I just start over, get a new bulkhead, new elbow, new valve and redo that whole part?

G

[gman0526]

I would redo it, better do it now than having it fail sometime down the line when the tank is stocked.

[verde_ad]

Is the bulkhead threaded? YOu could just go buy a pvc plug and screw it into the inside of the bulkead, then give it some time to dry out. and then you could silicone, or use weld-on to fix the leak.

[Gmoney]

Originally Posted by verde_ad

Is the bulkhead threaded? YOu could just go buy a pvc plug and screw it into the inside of the bulkead, then give it some time to dry out. and then you could silicone, or use weld-on to fix the leak.

I hear ya.... but my only concern is, I am not sure if the leak is coming because the bulkhead isnt making a proper seal, or because the spig to socket 90 deg ell isnt properly cemented into the bulkhead....it almost looks like its coming from the bulkhead to elbow joint, meaning its not properly cemented in there...if I did seal that hole up, I guess I can dry out that leak, reapply the cement and see if it fixes things up....we'll see, I am still debating.

G

[Gmoney]

actually verde ad, your point just gave me an idea.... if i screw in a cap, and it stops the leak, it means my leak is due to a bad cement job/connection... if it doesnt , it means its just not a tight seal between the gasket and bulkhead and I need to either crank it a tad tighter, or just drain it half way and silicone it to death.

G

[verde_ad]

Isn't troubleshooting fun .

I am having a crazy microbubble problem right now, so I feel you pain.

I hope everything gets worked out for you.

AJ