Leaky sump baffle

SallyWho · May 17, 2018

I siliconed in some baffles in a 40b, and it's an ugly job (but it was my first attempt at using silicone, so the fact that I didn't glue my pants to the floor was a victory in my book). I thought it was sufficient, until I water tested it. There's a leak in the first baffle, in the chamber where the skimmer will be. What's the fix? I can't add fresh silicone over set silicone, right? Do I have to razor blade all of it off and start over again? Thanks.

Trickman2 · May 17, 2018

How bad and where is the leak? Secondly you must be careful not to cut or damage the tanks silicone.

JoshH · May 17, 2018

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SallyWho · May 17, 2018

Trickman2 said:
How bad and where is the leak? Secondly you must be careful not to cut or damage the tanks silicone.

I can't visually see where the leak is, and it's bad enough that I could tell water was leaking into the 2nd chamber within a half hour. Not a visible trickle, but it must be a fairly strong seep. It sat overnight, and the water level has equalized between the two chambers now.

SallyWho · May 17, 2018

JoshH said:
I gotta say it's MUCH more fun to glue your pants to things. If it's leaking that badly then yes your only real avenue to stop it is to scrape it all off and start fresh. Your silicone does look a little on the thin side, I would suggest taping on either side of the baffle roughly 1/4" away from the baffle. Once taped silicone all sides and press firmly, no need to worry so much about making a clean edge as that's what the tape is for. Once wiped remove the tape and let it set.

Sometimes gluing pants to things IS fun, but I was working on carpet (stupid, I know), and that would have been more adventure than I'd planned for! LOL!

The silicone is thin on that one side because I had trouble angling the silicone gun correctly with the other baffle taped in about 11ish inches away. I thought that by laying it on thick and pressing it deep into the corners, I could squish some of the silicone into the crack to make up for it. For the life of me, I couldn't find a good way to secure the baffles in place while applying the silicone, so once I had all three taped upright in the right spots, I wasn't about to move one! In hindsight, a mistake. Worth mentioning, though, that even with a half-full second chamber, the next baffle doesn't appear to be leaking, so maybe it's just that one panel.

JoshH · May 17, 2018

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SallyWho · May 17, 2018

JoshH said:
It does seem to be just the one baffle and it's probably just being a little light on the silicone. In tight spaces, it does waste a little siicone but you can take a small ziplock bag and fill the one corner of it with silicone from the tube. After that cut a small 1/8" hole in that same corner and squeeze to apply. Just like icing a cake although cakes are definitely more delicious. Can I ask what silicone you are using?

That sandwich bag idea is great! Thanks! And this is the silicone I'm using.

Bayareareefer18 · May 17, 2018

Home depot has small squeeze tubes of dap aquarium safe silicone. It's in a black and green tube. Good for smaller areas. If you can get your hand in there it works great.

It's not with the rest of the silicone. You can find it where the loctite and things like that are

Suspect · May 17, 2018

Why do you care if it leaks? As long as the water is held back enough to establish a constant water level in your skimmer section then you will be fine.

ca1ore · May 17, 2018

Suspect said:
Why do you care if it leaks? As long as the water is held back enough to establish a constant water level in your skimmer section then you will be fine.

Exactly! Lots of my baffles have slow leaks ...... makes absolutely no difference to the function of the baffle. Now, if the 'leak' exceeded the pump capacity, it would be a problem; absent that the baffle will easily do what it is tasked to do.