Overflow drain leaking after 7 months

[champyeti]

I have a Fiji Cube 57g with the overflow and plumbing that come with the bundle. It was a chore getting it set up so nothing was leaking but it has been running leak-free for 7 months.

Until this weekend when the overflow drain pipe began leaking (see third pic).

The suggestion when it wouldn't stop leaking originally was to mash silicone in there and PVC cement the plumbing fixtures together to try and stop it.

The suggestion now is to remove the bulkhead and see if there is a reason for the leak or replace it... but I am pretty sure the bulkhead is hard-core glued to that piece on the underside. Is there any way to unbind them, any compound that could plug the leak within the overflow, or am I just kinda screwed here?

FijiCube comes with the plumbing fixtures but not the PVC pipe so all the white pipe pieces had to be cemented to the threading.

Thanks.

 

[KrisReef]

aS YOU Know, it depends on if the bulkhead can be removed by unthreading, or not. If it comes apart, putting a union joint in the pipe underneath the overflow is fairly simple but still a task.

If you can't get the "glue and silicone mash" (bad idea, as you now know) apart I would carefully holesaw that mess out, maybe a slightly oversized holesaw to allow the flanges of a new bulkhead to slide completely through the hole.
I would drill a 1/4" thick patch piece to accommodate the bulkhead, and bond the patch to the bottom of the existing overflow that has had the old bulkhead removed so that I had a clean surface to mount the bulkhead and none of the old mess to interfere with the attachment of the replacement bulkhead.

Patch has to align old hole and new, use a C clamp or two to hold the pieces together while bonding and being careful to not get solvent onto the surfaces where the new bulkhead will be seated.
Bulkheads are ment to be hand tightened. Excess tightening (maybe as little as a 1/2 turn past sung) can deform the gasket seal and cause leaks like you are experiencing. Same result for excess glue or mash on the sealing surfaces, which are not made to be glued. Snug, nothing else is needed on these low pressure seals to keep them working fine for years.

I don't know if my written instructions will be more helpful than an Ikea icon assembly instruction sheet but You can fix this, it may be easy or it may require some hole sawing and patches. Sometimes glue used on acrylic will flake off if the plastic didn't melt from the solvent. Otherwise drill out the old mess and replace with a clean, patch and holed surface to replace the damaged surfaces.

 

[Asm481]

Is there a rubber washer on the wet side of that bukhead? Looks like it is under a bit of pressure being pushed sideways a bit. That would not be good and maybe why it is leaking. Cut the pvc where you can either put an elbow or a union to offset and relieve pressure.

 

[champyeti]

Is there a rubber washer on the wet side of that bukhead? Looks like it is under a bit of pressure being pushed sideways a bit. That would not be good and maybe why it is leaking. Cut the pvc where you can either put an elbow or a union to offset and relieve pressure.

I think so? There's a spare rubber piece and a spare of whatever the thing that's on the underside of the overflow (that I have left over, so I presume they were used when it was set up), but I didn't put the overflow/plumbing together myself.

aS YOU Know, it depends on if the bulkhead can be removed by unthreading, or not. If it comes apart, putting a union joint in the pipe underneath the overflow is fairly simple but still a task.

If you can't get the "glue and silicone mash" (bad idea, as you now know) apart I would carefully holesaw that mess out, maybe a slightly oversized holesaw to allow the flanges of a new bulkhead to slide completely through the hole.
I would drill a 1/4" thick patch piece to accommodate the bulkhead, and bond the patch to the bottom of the existing overflow that has had the old bulkhead removed so that I had a clean surface to mount the bulkhead and none of the old mess to interfere with the attachment of the replacement bulkhead.

Patch has to align old hole and new, use a C clamp or two to hold the pieces together while bonding and being careful to not get solvent onto the surfaces where the new bulkhead will be seated.
Bulkheads are ment to be hand tightened. Excess tightening (maybe as little as a 1/2 turn past sung) can deform the gasket seal and cause leaks like you are experiencing. Same result for excess glue or mash on the sealing surfaces, which are not made to be glued. Snug, nothing else is needed on these low pressure seals to keep them working fine for years.

I don't know if my written instructions will be more helpful than an Ikea icon assembly instruction sheet but You can fix this, it may be easy or it may require some hole sawing and patches. Sometimes glue used on acrylic will flake off if the plastic didn't melt from the solvent. Otherwise drill out the old mess and replace with a clean, patch and holed surface to replace the damaged surfaces.

Yes now that I know more about plumbing... I realize that PVC cementing the bulkhead and that piece that screws onto it from the underside together is not good. I don't think the bulkhead can be removed because that other piece is kinda melted into it at this point, unless there's something that can bust the PVC cement apart.

So you'd suggest drilling the old bulkhead out to get rid of it? Oh boy... haha.

 

[ca1ore]

Sometimes the nut on the bulkhead works itself loose. Have you tried tightening it?

 

[champyeti]

Sometimes the nut on the bulkhead works itself loose. Have you tried tightening it?

That is cemented into place so I don't think it moved (or could have)

 

[ca1ore]

That's unfortunate.

 

[Dburr1014]

Dremel, if your careful and patient.

 

[champyeti]

I am wondering if it might be easier to just buy a new overflow + plumbing pieces. I don't have a saw or drill bit that would be useful here so I'd need to buy those (and risk messing it up) anyway.

I had to cut the PVC drain pipes to get the overflow off since the pipes are cemented to the bulkhead (and the nut is then cemented to the bottom of the bulkhead.. sigh) and two of them don't have a union to unscrew. Now I can't get the tank bulkheads to untwist to get the overflow actually off.

Still very frustrating because the middle pipe is essentially stuck behind the tank and I have to do all cutting/measuring/reattaching a new union and bulkhead in that narrow space. Feeling like the guy who did my plumbing was not prepared for the DIY-style of FijiCube (and I certainly wasn't, hence why I paid a LFS to do it).

I know that the solution is either buy new bulkheads and gaskets and somehow get the current ones uncemented from the overflow, or buy a new overflow entirely, and measure out the pipes to put unions on so it can be more easily unscrewed in the future. Then get the bulkheads situated better so they don't leak. I am not great at plumbing, bought this tank expecting to be 20 minutes from a LFS not 3 hours, and feeling like I'd rather just get rid of it than try to fix this myself (and any other inevitable problems in the future).

 

[champyeti]

Oh my god somehow after cutting the pvc pipes I managed to get the bulkheads off so the overflow itself can be salvaged.

Would it help my leaking situation to get a second gasket for the drain pipe where the nut goes or no? The stock plumbing kit only comes with a gasket for the bulkhead on the inside of the overflow.

I am not going to have a ton of fun getting these new unions on but at least they will make for easier fixes going forward.

 

[Dburr1014]

Oh my god somehow after cutting the pvc pipes I managed to get the bulkheads off so the overflow itself can be salvaged.

Would it help my leaking situation to get a second gasket for the drain pipe where the nut goes or no? The stock plumbing kit only comes with a gasket for the bulkhead on the inside of the overflow.

I am not going to have a ton of fun getting these new unions on but at least they will make for easier fixes going forward.

Never put a gasket on the nut side. It won't do anything anyway, water would follow the thread if it leaked.

Clean everything up as if you were going to eat off it. Check for any burrs and mismatchs of plastic and fix what you find.
Put it back together 1/4ish turn past hand tight on the nuts. NO GLUE, NO SILICONE.

Good for you it came apart. Good luck.