Cracked Eshopps bulkheads

Took a peak behind the aquarium last night on the way to bed and saw a small pool of water. Found a leak around one of the bulkheads so I shut down the sump for the night. Upon removal of the overflow box this morning I found both bulkhead nuts cracked.



Any suggestions of some more reliable compatible replacements that I can use?

Explains why my top off reserve was going though water faster than normal this past week!

 

If your BH nuts are cracked, it sounds like they were grossly overtightened. Do you use a wrench/channel locks to tighten them? That being said, you usually end up with a leak due to a mis-shapen O-ring when you overtighten a B/H nut.

I typically hand tighten them, then give them a SMALL tweak with whatever tool you use on the nut.

I've never broken a nut, but I HAVE popped the cheaper double-threaded B/H's by giving the hose barb one tweak too many.

When we do a tank project, I always go for the better grade of fittings if there's a choice, and if I order some anf they still look sketchy, I use another source (I honestly dunno about the quality of the Eshopps fittings tho).

HTH

 

Well they only took 18 months to break. From what I can remember I hand tightened and then used a wrench to tighten another 1/4 turn, per some directions I found at the time. I picked up two replacements today at the LFS so I'll pay particular attention to this step.

 

It sounds like you did about right in tightening them...kinda odd for BOTH to break like that at once tho. I don't have a "1/4 turn rule"...some need that much, some less, some a bit more. I kinda do it by feel.