PVC cement

[valley]

Hello, I just finished plumbing my aquarium however, I didn’t do the best job with priming and glueing. Some primer and glue dripped down the pipe, my cuts weren’t square, and I’m not sure if my coating was good either.

I know that square cuts aren’t too important but could the other errors cause a leak at one point or leach chemicals into my tank? I’ll only have about 800gph going through the return line.

 

[14 foot reef]

Do they leak ? Do they Not leak ?
We have no way to answer this question. How would a not perfect glue joint leach chemicals into your tank vs a perfect glue joint ? More info please ?

 

[danreef55]

Sorry you have encountered issues. If you can cut out the affected pieces and replumb that is wise. If I had to guess you will have leaks

 

[valley]

Do they leak ? Do they Not leak ?
We have no way to answer this question. How would a not perfect glue joint leach chemicals into your tank vs a perfect glue joint ? More info please ?

I just finished priming and glueing my pvc together and I’m letting it dry for the next day. I’m not sure if it’ll leak yet but if it’s likely it will in the future because of my errors I’d rather not use these pipes.

I’m doubting my glue joints because some of them weren’t pushed in all the way although only by a small amount. I also think that I used too much primer and glue.


As for the leaching, the glue/primer dripped down into the tube and the water will be making direct contact with it now. I’m not sure if it’ll leach things into the tank or if it will be fine once it dries

 

[FUNGI]

do leak test....
the glue in the water will be fine once cured.....

 

[cilyjr]

As for the leaching, the glue/primer dripped down into the tube and the water will be making direct contact with it now. I’m not sure if it’ll leach things into the tank or if it will be fine once it dries

Once dry "cured" it won't matter.

As far as your cutting and gluing no one can tell you if it will leak or not because we cannot see what was done.

Honestly, if I had to guess you're probably fine. PVC is made to be glued together and hold pressure when there are no outlets for the water. Meaning everything is off in your house. And the pressure behind is about 50 to 80 PSI.
That doesn't happen in a reef tank.

For example, on the frag tank over my sump, All of the drain fittings are just dry fit. Meaning I can pull them apart and they do not leak. They do however get salt creep at the joints. I did this intentionally because I need to be able to pull it apart to remove that tank from time to time and if it did leak it would just strip into the sump.

That said, I've seen some pretty poor glue jobs that are going to leak.

 

[JayM]

You can almost put the fittings together dry and they wouldn't leak with the amount of pressure you'll see in an aquarium. If you can't pull the fittings apart by hand, they're probably fine.

 

[Uncle99]

Test it.
If some leak, repair them.

 

[Troylee]

Give it a test run it sounds like it won’t leak if the glue was dripping out.. if it’s not leaking tomorrow it’s not gonna leak down the road it’s only gonna get stronger with time: