Leaky return bulkhead

vucious

vucious

Member
Out of nowhere, the bulkhead of my return is leaking. It looks like probably the gasket is not sealing properly. I've tried reseating the gasket, tightening, loosening, magic lube, no magic lube, but all without success. It's leaking at about 1 drop every 5 seconds. Any suggestions?

Silicon the gasket to the glass? New gasket? New bulkhead?

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Probably just replace it to be safe. Also be careful not to over tighten it as you can squeeze the gasket out of alignment.
 
+1 on replacing the gasket... Make sure the gasket is on the inside non moving side of the bulkhead. Also don't over torque it as was said previous. Good luck with the fix.
 
If aquatica open, they usually have a huge selection of dry goods, but far away. Other choices is Aquacave and pick up from store.
See if Best Fish in Milwaukee is open.
Or that fsh store in skokie has bulkheads too.


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I'm looking at that picture, to me the leaked is not coming from the seal. if the problem is the seal water would run on to the glass Try to put more teflon tape on that male elbow fitting, i think that is where water coming from.
 
yeah, where exactly is the leak coming from? you can place paper towel just under gasket to check if leak is coming from there (if the paper towel get's wet).
 
Nino, gasket is on the inside of the tank as you can see in the second picture.

Menard, there is no leak on the outside glass. Let me try putting extra Teflon on the elbow fitting.


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Just from visual inspection of the leak, it does not look like it is coming from male elbow. I am seeing water on the outer thread of the bulkhead fitting (see picture above).


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I went ahead and added lots of Teflon to the male elbow but still seeing the same leak. When I rubbed a bunch of Vaseline on the bulkhead outer thread, the leak slowed/stopped. Now I am thinking it's the actual bulkhead that is possibly cracked. I'm going to try to replace the entire thing since they are cheap and see.


Picture after Vaseline. Leak pretty much stopped almost 100%. Will leave for now until I get new bulkhead.

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I got a new bulkhead from [MENTION=454]maidia[/MENTION] and no more leaks. I looked at the old one and see a hairline crack.

Thanks everyone. Small crisis averted.


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Usually we see these kinds of cracks when the lines get pulled too hard when moving things in a sump. You should look at putting a clamp on your stand that will not allow anyone to pull down on the hoses.
 
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