Leak in plumbing help

[Miami Reef]

This plumbing area was recently touched because we needed to modify the plumbing a bit. Now it’s giving slow drops and is leaking (I will point with an arrow where the water is coming from)

I’d rather attempt to fix it on my own without needing the tank builders to come, but I will say I’m worried that I will make the leaking much worse if I move the pipe incorrectly. I already did attempt to rotate it on my own (rotating it towards me makes it worse I think).

I’d rather ask you guys how I should fix this before I mess around and possibly make things worse on my own.

This is where the UV return enters the tank through a bulkhead. It’s leaking where the white PVC meets the threaded black piece.

 

[dedragon]

take a piece of paper towel and make absolutely sure it isnt from the bulkhead itself.
Did you use pvc glue to hold the pipe to the bulkhead? if not disconnect and reglue with pvc primer and cement. Add extra if you havent or change out bulkhead to pipe connection with one that is glued well

 

[Miami Reef]

take a piece of paper towel and make absolutely sure it isnt from the bulkhead itself.
Did you use pvc glue to hold the pipe to the bulkhead? if not disconnect and reglue with pvc primer and cement. Add extra if you havent or change out bulkhead to pipe connection with one that is glued well

I will try this tomorrow! I’ll update!

 

[The Farmer]

Is that fitting on the bottom or the side?

 

[Miami Reef]

Is that fitting on the bottom or the side?

Bottom.

 

[Viking_Reefing]

I will try this tomorrow! I’ll update!

Wait, that bulkhead doesn’t look like it’s made out of PVC. Am I right in assuming that?
In that case pvc cement won’t do much as the bulkhead material won’t dissolve and fuse with the pvc pipe.

If it isn’t pvc I would use plumbers tape. We are dealing with such low pressures here so it would be fine.

 

[The Farmer]

Is your bulkhead a slip fitting? Where you would need to glue the pvc pipe into it?

 

[Miami Reef]

This is the backside of the plumbing in question. See how it’s starting to come out? It’s leaking from this gap opening.

I didn’t do this plumbing job, so I don’t know if they used glue or not.

 

[The Farmer]

It looks like it needed to be glued. Sometime the glued joint are left alone long enough for the glue to cure. My suggestion would be to replace the bulk head glue new fittings and left to cure for a few hours before adding water. There is pvc, abs glue that works perfect for bulkheads

 

[YOYOYOReefer]

either tear it our and replace the bulkhead or something like flex seal will probably be a quick easy fix.

 

[WVNed]

If that joint isn't glued and it pops apart it's going to be a mess.
To glue a PVC pipe into a bulkhead use transition cement. It is designed to glue one kind of plastic to another.

A leaky joint has salt on it. You need to clean the parts really well with water and then dry them to remove it where the bond will be.

 

[dedragon]

if you hired a company to do that i would never hire them ever again. Looking at the second photo it looks like no pvc glue is used at all, I would check all the joints to make sure they used any.
Buy a new bulkhead and pvc pipe glue the line together, alternatively you can use the old pvc but you need to make sure it is dry and pretty clean before trying to glue

 

[Miami Reef]

Where am I supposed to cut it? I never did something like this before.

 

[BZOFIQ]

if you hired a company to do that i would never hire them ever again. Looking at the second photo it looks like no pvc glue is used at all, I would check all the joints to make sure they used any.
Buy a new bulkhead and pvc pipe glue the line together, alternatively you can use the old pvc but you need to make sure it is dry and pretty clean before trying to glue

Looks like there is glue but its not a transition cement that should be used between abs & pvc - transition cement is not clear.

I wipe all my joints clean and one can't really tell that they were glued - nothing wrong with that if they did a clean job.

 

[Miami Reef]

Looks like there is glue but its not a transition cement that should be used between abs & pvc - transition cement is not clear.

I wipe all my joints clean and one can't really tell that they were glued - nothing wrong with that if they did a clean job.

They used clear PVC cement. It looks like there’s glue globs on the elbow. So I drain the overflow down, pull the elbow out, clean very well and apply the transition cement?

 

[dedragon]

yep you just pull the pipe out of the bulkhead, be careful not to crack the bottom of the tank as well. Then reglue

 

[BZOFIQ]

They used clear PVC cement. It looks like there’s glue globs on the elbow. So I drain the overflow down, pull the elbow out, clean very well and apply the transition cement?

If you can pull it apart then yes sand it, apply primer and use transition cement.

But if they used glue i doubt you'll be able to pull it apart.

If you can't pull it apart you'll need to use pvc cutters, cut downstream from the elbow, replace the bulkhead, elbow and throw in a union so that you can nicely tie it together.

Use transition cement between the black abs bulkhead and pvc pipe/coupling and regular pvc cement between pvc pieces.


There is one more thing you can try if you don't want to take stuff apart but it's not a proper fix.

Drain the overflow, wipe everything clean, then wipe with alcohol and dry with hair drier. Apply medium boddied cement around the fitting and allow dry for an hour. Re-test.

If you paid somebody do to this, you should probably call them back to fix their crappy work.

 

[The Farmer]

Highly recommend not using the old bulkhead. As stated above cut the pipe down stream and add new fittings. I would go one step extra and glue a union to the bulkhead and a union downstream as stated above

 

[Miami Reef]

Hi guys! It’s fixed now. They used very little glue and the PVC came apart with very little pressure. It’s sealed and no more leaks. Thanks friends!

 

[Miami Reef]

It’s sealed with a good amount of PVC cement. It’s not leaking at all. It was PVC to PVC.