Fixing this leak is going to be fun!

My 240g. has been up and running for almost 2 weeks and I have noticed that the acrylic sump is leaking. Even though I ran a leak test I missed this. I believe that the water is coming from somewhere along the front bottom seam (left side of photo) and pooling up in the corner of the stand (right side).

The leak is slow, amounting to about 3 or 4 tablespoons of water per day. I'm not quite sure how to fix. Removing the sump from the stand is going to be impossible without draining the entire tank since I would have to take a brace out of the stand. So my idea is to use Weld-it 16 and a square acrylic rod. I would drain the sump, dry it and then apply the rod to the inside edge of the tank. Once it cures, fill the sump back up and hope that the leak stops.

Any other ideas and suggestions?

 

Are you sure it is not the bulkhead union that is leaking? Maybe vibration loosened it a little.

 

The one in the photo? Good call. I'm going to tighten it right now.

 

+1 on this

I had a similar leak with a bulkhead in the lower corner of my sump. I initially thought the same thing and first started inspecting the sump.

 

Do you have a better photo of the bulkhead? It looks like you have the gasket on the nut side of the bulkhead and not the flange side which could be your problem. The gasket always goes on the flange side regardless if it on the wet or dry side, never on the nut side since water travels along the threads and leaks even with the gasket.
Installing Bulkhead Tips

 

I was going to ask the same thing...

 

Okay, thanks for all the info. I'm glad that you pointed out that the gasket is on the wrong side. My pilumbing skills suck so i wouldn't have caught that. I'm not going to get to it until tomorrow (I have an 11 month old who is fussy and an ill parent). Thank you all for the good advice. I'll update tomorrow.

 

It is a very common mistake dome all the time. While it seems to make sense the gasket would be on the wet side thats not always the case. It always goes against the flange for best sealing, if you read my Bulkhead Tips sticky there are lots of othe other things you can do to help the seal also like cleaning up all the excess plastic from the molding process.

 

I drained my sump and saw that the gasket is indeed on the dry side but the nut was not tightened as much as it could have been. I tightened it and the leak has stopped! Thanks for all of the help. Having good advice made it much easier to assess and solve the problem.

 

Just glad you didn't have to get out the weld-on 16!