Very specific CPR overflow question

[jgr]

I finished the plumbing from my sump to the tank last week (all PVC) and until day, everything was running fine (i.e., there were no leaks). Then, when I was playing around with equipment in the sump, I noticed a slow leak at the base of the CPR overflow. To be clear, it is not leaking at any joint in the PVC, rather it is leaking at the exact point where the bulkhead enters into the CPR overflow. For those of you who know this overflow, it is leaking at the location where the washer (on the bulkhead) meets the CPR overflow (note: I did not forget to use the rubber seal).

Any suggestions on ways to patch up a small and very slow leak (perhaps one drop per 30 minutes)? I could of course remove the overflow from the tank and use silicone on the problem area. However, I had hoped to add sand and live rock in the coming days and if I use the silicone, I'll need to wait 1-2 days for it to dry.

Thanks in advance for your help/suggestions.

[TCTFish]

You really should take it out and inspect it for cracks. Maybe the washer isn't good...may have dried out and cracked at one point in time. Maybe the rubber seal isn't good for the same reason. Just hope the CPR itself isn't cracked. I get weary everytime I deal with that skimmer when it comes to where the bulk heads are....sometimes you need to swing them and sometimes it feels so tight that it could crack. Perhaps it's just a question if the rings are correctly in place.

You should find out why it's leaking before trouble shooting what you are going to do with it to fix the leak. This could avoid surprise messes later.

Just out of curiosity, are you using that little piece of sponge way down in the box??? That can interfere with the flow of the skimmer. I always tell people to just not bother with that piece of sponge.

[steve r]

i could not get mine to stop leaking. a very slow leak like you are saying. so i did silicone it and it worked fine.

steve r

[tecwzrd]

Mine doesn’t leak but I do know that if you do see a crack then CPR’s customer service will replace it free of charge pretty quickly. They replaced a friends in less then 3 days. I would go that route personally since a crack could get worse over time and band-aiding it could possibly void the warranty if you try to replace it at a later date.