The dreaded sound "Drip Drip Drip"

[Doc Holiday]

SAT: Filled tank with approx 300 litres of water, mixed salt, added the sand, added the rock, looking great, pat myself on the back.

SUN: Wake up to a dreaded drip drip sound, a little bit of swearing, Durso standpipe is leaking. Drain water out again, remove the rock, dismantle overflow box, remove standpipe. Forgot to put thread tape on the standpipe when connecting to the bulkhead, kick myself. I forget the number one rule ALWAYS CHECK FOR LEAKS BEFORE FILLING WITH WATER how could I be so stupid!!!!

Tank looked great by the way, can't wait to get it up and running again.

[Fay]

Sounds familiar!!

[Brianemone]

why thread something inside the tank????

that wouldnt cause a drip out of the tank, sounds like the bulk head wasnt siliconed correctly or the threading to the bulkhead wasnt right

[Doc Holiday]

The standpipe threads into the bulkhead this was the only thrad that I didn't tape and this was where it was leaking, the bulkhead is not plumbed to anything because i am not adding the sump until a later date.

There was no avoiding emptying the tank because I couldn't find where the leak was coming from until the tank was empty and could be moved.

[Brianemone]

that will do it then

[chimera]

been there done that! happened with my closed loop :-? ALWAYS used teflon tape (but not too much, probably only wrap it around 3-4 times)

[Pies]

I am not sure thats right. I would say the lesson to be learned here is always put a TAP on any holes you have drilled through the bottom of your tank. My standpipe just sits in the bottom, so if I ever had to replace it or clean it I can just pull it out.

Pie

[Doc Holiday]

I wish it were that easy, but the tank is drilled through back and the standpipe is on an elbow into the bulkhead. My lesson from this is to rebuild the overflow with enough room to pull the stand pipe out when still attached to the bulkhead

And the biggest lesson I learned is Always check for leaks!![/size]

[chimera]

to rebuild the overflow with enough room to pull the stand pipe out when still attached to the bulkhead

if i were to do the same again, i would have made a 'push fit' standpipe (where it joins to the vertical part of the bulkhead). mine is screwed on. with push fit you could 'pop' the standpipe off for maintenance if you ever needed too. so long as it was reaonably water tight it would still serve its purpose.

as pies says, there are merits to adding a ball valve to the overflow (or rather to the pipe just outside the bulkhead) if any part of the glass/perspex overflow ever leaked, you can turn the ball valve and save your tank draining! not a big chance of that happening of course, but for the sake of a $30 ball valve its peace of mind for me (this obviously wont save ya tank if the thread on the bulkhead was leaking!)

[Pies]

Mine is push fit, for exactly that reason. I see no benifit to screwing it in place, there is no reason for it to be reasonably water tight at all. To me, it seems a little 'kamakazzi pilot' to assume that you will never need to tap of the tank return, too much left to chance.

I have a tap on mine, and have used it on many ocasions.

Pie