fridmani1

I mixed up around 180G of sea water and started to fill my tank and sump. Once I had the whole system filled and running I noticed that there was water next to my sump. The next morning a noticed a little more water and I started to worry. Luckily when I had my tank built I had them put an acrylic liner along the entire length of the tank. That way if there is a leak in the system it will save the floor. The liner has a 5 inch edge around it creating a bowl. This has saved my many times over the years and I wouldn't have a tank without it. I'm surprised to not see more tanks with a liner.

I knew that the sump didn't leak before I took it out from under the tank. I first thing I though of was there was a leak in a bulkhead somewhere. In checking all the connection everything looked great.

So I gave Mark a call and he recommended to pull the sump out of the stand and place it on news paper and fill one section at a time until I find the leak. This is what I did...



First section filled and no sign of a leak.



Next I filled the bubble trap and I found the leak.




Since the leak was in the bubble trap there was no way to fix this from the inside. So my only choice was to fix from the outside. I contacted Marc again and he indicated that there was no problem to fix the leak on the outside.

So I purchased some of the Weld-on #16 and created a thin strip of acrylic to patch the area with the leak. This was my first time gluing acrylic so I was a little nervous about it.




Now I need to glue the strip of acrylic to the area with the leak. It's not a perfect patch but it should hold.



I let it dry for 24 hours and then I filled up the sump on paper to see if I have repaired all the leaks.

Success - this is after sitting on the paper for a couple of hours.



My thanks to Marc for his help.