Bulkhead/Fuge issue

Sometime if you get a chance, pick up a Plasto Joint stick. I have found it at Ace Hardware and even Lowes in the natural gas/propane fittings aisle.

They plumbed my swimming pool PVC plumbing with one in 1983 and I am amazed that it still has no leaks in the Phoenix sun and heat and the stuff can still be worked like putty. I replaced a pump and motor about 10 years ago and used the same thing after talking to the original contactor to find out what he had used.

 

I didn't see it at Lowes when I went a little while ago, otherwise I would have grabbed it. It sounds like great stuff.

It's going without a leak ATM. I'm running the pump (for pressure on that inner joint) for at least a couple hours before I put it back in with the tank.

 

Cross your fingers;D

 

Still going without a leak.


But I did manage to drop a can of mandarins on my big toe. lol.

 

Glad to hear progress is being made....

M

 

It seems ok now. I plumbed it in with the tank, and it's not leaking right now. I have a a paper towel under the bulkhead, and I'm going to check it every 1/2 hour or so to be sure it's good. I'm also going to pick up a water alarm and put it down there.

I think the issue this time was that on the inner thread, I had a barb fitting, and the tubing was pushing up against the back wall of the stand, pushing the fitting up a bit. It was leaking from the bottom part. I put in a male thread x female thread 90 degree PVC piece, and put the barb on that, so now there's no pressure on it. I also used Teflon tape this time, which I didn't the first time, since all of my pressure tests of the other PVC pieces with barb fittings didn't need it.

Since I changed to the PVC, another problem I had was solved. I wouldn't have had room for the door hinge before, and would've needed a new one, since the barb + tubing was bigger than the PVC elbow in there now. It slides back about 1/2" more, which is all of the room I needed.

Thanks for all the help guys! K+ all around, multiple times!

 

Thats the main reason why I use all submersible pumps. Plumbing the suction side of a pump without putting stresses on the bulkhead or having to use elbows which cause head loss is tough. If this is the suction side of a pump were you able to include a ball valve so you can isolate the pump for cleaning and maintenance? Unions and valves or true union valves are lifesavers. I always install a union directly on my pump, then into a short piece of flex tubing to break up vibrations and sound transmission as well as add some flexibility which helps with alignment problems then either more tubing or back to PVC depending on the application. I would never hard plumb directly to a pump.

I think you found out lateral stresses on a bulkhead can cause leaks too. Never support any weight like pumps or pipe runs and fittings with a bulkhead, always provide some sort of support to relieve the stress on the gasket.

 

The stress on the bulkhead was from the bend of the vinyl tubing; it was trying to unbend itself. The pump is submersible, and this is on the pressure side, not suction.

There's no union, but I've got the maintenance part covered. It's pretty much all flex tubing behind the tank. There's only PVC directly out of the bulkheads (one on the overflow, one on the sump), and on the end of the return to give it support. There's a ball valve there too.

 

Wow, thats a tight squeeze. Thats the reason I custom build all my stands now, I got tired of trying to shoehorn everything in a factory stand.

 

Yeah, tight squeeze is right. It took a while to find a tank 16 x 16 (at a decent price), since my area is 18 x 16.5 x 24, and I wanted to give myself plenty of extra gallonage for topoff and water changes. The center divider is really what made it hard.

Don't forget though, this stand was built for the tank, which is an AIO. They mention that the lighting and circulation is good enough for SPS, but they don't mention it's a gigantic PITA to do anything beyond what they have built in, and that the filtration gets a resounding "meh".