Salt creep around bulkheads?

Coralgurl · #1 10-09-2012, 03:43 AM

Doing some reorganizing in the fish room and notice salt creep running down the back of my tank. I've checked them, they are tight and there's no water. Is this normal?

christyf5 · #2 10-09-2012, 05:39 PM

wipe it off and see if it starts up again. Most of my salt creep acts as a bandaid for a slow drip. If you tear it all off, the drip will start up again. I just wipe off as close to the original drip area as possible. Did you use teflon tape for your bulkheads? (or PVC glue?). Sometimes no matter what you do, there'll be salt creep (at least thats my experience).

Coralgurl · #3 10-15-2012, 05:35 PM

Well I wiped down the back of the tank, as much as I could reach and yes, there are leaks on both. We didn't use any glue or teflon on the bulkheads, we thought they would seal themselves. If its not one thing, its something else....

sphelps · #4 10-15-2012, 05:41 PM

Salt creep = leak

You shouldn't use anything with bulkheads. I find the cheap thin ones are pretty sensitive, often what happens is the piping attached puts torque on the bulkheads and causes a leak. Especially with larger pipe which can be quite heavy when full. Best solution is to replace them with sch80 bulkheads.

Coralgurl · #5 10-15-2012, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sphelps

Salt creep = leak

You shouldn't use anything with bulkheads. I find the cheap thin ones are pretty sensitive, often what happens is the piping attached puts torque on the bulkheads and causes a leak. Especially with larger pipe which can be quite heavy when full. Best solution is to replace them with sch80 bulkheads.

I'm pretty sure I got these ones from Dave at Concept, but I can not remember what they are. I don't have any of my plumbing supported and its all pvc, no flex pipe so I could see weight being an issue. Will have to see if this can be dealt with tonight.

sphelps · #6 10-15-2012, 06:44 PM

Yeah the ones that Dave sell are the thin ones. They can work fine but piping needs to be supported or run in such a manner that very little load is applied to the bulkheads. The only issue is sch80 bulkheads require bigger hole sizes so you'll have to use a smaller size.