Leaking bulkhead help!

[Daniel12490]

Hello Everyone,

I just replaced the bulkheads on my 180 gallon tank. Purchased it off a guy from craigslist. I fitted the new bulkheads and sealed them both off as this will be a freshwater aquarium. I used 1 inch ABS threaded bulkhead and capped it off with a threaded cap from Home Depot. I filled the tank and all seemed fine, no leaks or drips. I thought I was in the clear! However, a few hours pass and I check on the tank in the garage and I appear to have leaks on both bottom bulkheads coming from the seal itself. I thought with a threaded bulkhead I would not need to us any silicone. Shouldn't the the nut and gasket form a water tight seal? Do I need to silicone around the bulkhead? When I got the tank the previous owner had the bulkheads sealed with silicone within the drilled glass opening.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[54seaweed]

do you have rubber seals between the glass and bulkheads could be why the other guy used silicone he didn't have them ,
if there leaking through the threads wrap a little Teflon tape around them that screw them together may help

 

[Daniel12490]

By rubber seal do you mean a gasket? If so, I have that on the inside of the tank. I also used Teflon tape on all my threads to ensure a tighter fit. Maybe I over tightened and am causing the gasket to not sit properly anymore? Now come to think of it, when i removed the bottom bulkheads he didn't have a gasket, just a think round ring that looked translucent.

do you have rubber seals between the glass and bulkheads could be why the other guy used silicone he didn't have them ,
if there leaking through the threads wrap a little Teflon tape around them that screw them together may help

 

[Leeatl]

Is it leaking around the bulkhead or the caps you put on ? Did you put Teflon tape on the threads where the caps are ? May have over tightened . Just need to hand tighten and then a 1/4 turn with a wrench or pliers .

 

[Daniel12490]

It looks like it is slowly dripping from the bulkhead near the glass. I did use Teflon on all my threaded connections. Maybe I'll try and loosen it a little bit and see if that fixes the problem.


Sent from my iPhone using Aquarium Advice