Jhodge
1000Gal---Leaking bulkhead repair and replacement
by
, 07-15-2014 at 10:28 PM (7741 Views)
So the last blog consisted of some pictures of a leaking bulkhead..........yeah a little scary. To make matters worse this bulkhead was on a closed loop system, so no overflow. Yes panic ensued.
The leak was caused by yours truly. While removing the remainder of the plumbing on the species systems I lost my balance and fell right back into the ball valve that sits underneath the tank.
I sat for a minute and then felt a drip on the back of my head, initially I didn't think anything of it. So I crawled out got a drink of water and went back at it. The sight was terrifying more than one DOOM scenario immediately ran through my brain. In panic mode I began trying to jiggle the fixture around hoping it would reseal. Some positions created a raging river of water, others slowed it to a small drip. Every time I would get it to just a drip I would get excited and continue tweaking trying to find that sweet spot, of course that made matters worse. After about an hour of toying around I came to the dreaded conclusion that I am going to have to replace this bulkhead, and I had no idea how.
Draining the system is out of the question, the amount of livestock, the fact that it would take me about a week or so to create enough RO water to refill the system. On site there is a 150 gal tub for water changes and I have 2 65 gal tanks that I use for water changes and tank fills on systems without on site water. So I can reasonably store about 225 gallons. 10 5 gal buckets, ok there is another 50, I have the 4 20 gal species tanks there is another 80, 55 gal trash can, check. So with what I could easily access accounted for storing about 400 gallons so I wasn't even half way there. So idea after idea after idea when through my head. I knew that I had to damn off the area somehow. To give you a scope of the picture here, the bulkhead sits about 16" away from the from wall and about 12" from the side. So building some kind of box with a water tight seal was really an impossible task.
It was getting late on the first night of this remodel and I was pissed off, stressed, tired and couldn't believe that this is how this project was going to start. I decided to call it a night, I needed to sleep and come back with a clear head. I placed a 5 gal bucket underneath, took the risk and went home. Sleeping was a failure, I had already installed the start of the APEX system and all night, every time I would doze off I would hear running water, or start dreaming of a gigantic wave, I would jump up and pull up the APEX and check the ORP, PH, and Temp knowing that if the tank did blow that seal I would know right away.
The bulkhead didn't burst during the and the next morning I knew I would have to face this problem and solve it one way or another. I was honestly hoping that somehow it would have sealed itself, but that wasn't the case. Over the night I did come up with an idea, wasn't sure if it would work or how well it would work but its the only thing I could come up with. So I went to the hardware store and starting piecing it together. While I shopping I decided to call my dad and get his advice as he is the king of DIY and coming up with some ridiculous fixes. He seemed to agree with my idea, and gave me some good ideas and tips to speed up the process. He said "boy its a rig job, its either going to work or its not."
So a supply list is as follows:
4" PVC pipe
Bag full of rags and towels
4x4 flexable pipe connector
Shop Vac
1 1/2 SxS bulkhead
10 ft corragated drainage tubing
1 1/2 flexiable tubing
The plan was simple. Use the 4 inch pipe to act as an overflow. Fit the rubber pipe connector to the pvc, apply tons of pressure and try to create a water tight/resistant seal. Shop vac and rags for clean up and the drainage pipe was for a fail safe, I would fit this into the hole and divert as much water as possible back into the sump. First few test rounds didn't go so well. The moment I stopped siphoning the water out the dam would break and the water would refill the pipe. While the water was impeded slightly, I needed more time, as I would have to remove the old bulkhead, pull it out up through the pipe, lower the new bulkhead down, clean the area, seat the bulkhead and reattach while holding pressure and keeping the pipe as steady as possible. Even without any issues this would take about 10 minutes. I decided to up the stakes and in conjunction with the hose clamps, I put a bead on silicone between the pvc and the connection fitting. I also put a LARGE bead of silicone on the underside to help seal against the bottom of the tank. The trial run of this worked better but still was far from perfect. I was still dreading what was about to happen. But "boy its a rig job, its either going to work or its not" kept playing in my head. I went over the plan one last time with the help, and took a leap of faith and just went for it.
Was it perfect.........................far from it, did I get wet sure did, is it leaking..........NOPE!. The joy of sealing the leak was numbed by the taste of saltwater, and the realization that I had lost an entire day of work and I had barely scratched the surface of the remodel. So I slapped a pretty decent layer of silicone on the underside of the bulk head. And that was that. Writing this blog 2 days later and the new bulkhead is holding up nicely.
As always thanks for your time. If you have any questions feel free to ask, if you have had this issue before and solved it in a different manner please let us know about it. I'm sure I will run into this problem again at some point in time of my career so any advice or suggestions are greatly appreciated. A few days behind on the progress blogs but as of today 7/15/2014 the work is 95% and I will update you on the progress as time permits.
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