Neptune Aquatics

Potential ‘Sump/Plumbing’ leak - Nuvo RFS Sump

Alexander1312

Alexander1312

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I am looking for advice on how to go about a potential sump leak.

I have this 57 gallon innovative marine sump which is about 10 months old. This morning, I woke up to a leak detector alarm in my sump showing a very shallow level of water on parts of the bottom, approx 1/4 of the area had water.

Tested the water and it had 36 PSU, which ruled out my 20 gallon ATO container being the cause (again).

IMG_1942.jpeg
 
Now the good news is I believe I found the cause - see picture. Looks like the main drain is leaking. Not know how to fix it, other than trying to tightening this.

Any advice would be great.

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I’m going to assume that it’s seeping between fitting and the sump ? Does it have a gasket there ? If yes. Options are.

Change the gasket,

remove gasket clean all surfaces, add a drop of lubricant ( anything will do) very little tho. Reinstall. Make sure to 1/8-1/4 turn once contact is made.

Silicone the gasket. Thin layers on both sides.

I’m lazy. I would just try to tighten it more first and see if it still leaks. Then try something else

If no gasket. You should have one. Add one.
 
Correct, it seems to be between the fitting and the sump. I was able to confirm that only the secondary drain (right drain) has this issue, not the primary.

Admittedly, I have never spent a lot of time understanding the sump, and I know I should have. This came pre-plumbed by IM, and we/my son just plumbed it as per their instructions, which was fine for ten months until now.

I will research what a gasket is and then go back to the installation instructions to see if this was used.

What I did now to stop the bleeding is lower the overflow water level so that water is drained only through the primary drain. I am not sure if this causes any issues—or if this is how the water level should have been in the first place.
 
Turkeysammich said:
Gasket is a rubber O ring. It should be between the fitting and sump. When squeezed together with the fitting and nut on the other side. It forms a water tight seal.
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Yes, so I believe this is what could be worn out. I will tighten it more first as you suggested. I do not know how to take this apart, frankly.


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Yes that’s it. They take an extremely long time to go bad. If it’s easy to remove. I would take it out. Clean all surfaces. Add a little. I mean little lubricant. I’ve used vasoline, cooking oil, etc. put it back together. When you tighten it. The gasket should bulge just a little. Like the side of a hamburger. ) like this. Then your good.
 
Thank you. Or Molykote 111 would work as well?

Just on the drain questions I had earlier. I assume the idea with the Bean Animal drain is that both primary and secondary drain will have water coming through, with the majority coming through the primary drain system?
 
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Yes secondary drain is for noise control.
I’m not familiar with that grease. Natural is better but that’s just a guess. Plus you only use an extremely small amount like thin thin. Just to form a seal. But honestly you probably could skip that part. Cuz your seal is still new.
 
Tightening this (by hand) solved the issue (for now). Thank you very much, @Turkeysammich/Will, for your quick response; it is very much appreciated!

We also realized that this part seems to have come pre-assembled, and we apparently never checked or tightened this further when installing it.

Small mistakes can have more significant impacts; in my case, it was not too bad but could have been worse.

It also proved again that having a leak detector is super helpful.
 
Alexander1312 said:
Tightening this (by hand) solved the issue (for now). Thank you very much, @Turkeysammich/Will, for your quick response; it is very much appreciated!

We also realized that this part seems to have come pre-assembled, and we apparently never checked or tightened this further when installing it.

Small mistakes can have more significant impacts; in my case, it was not too bad but could have been worse.

It also proved again that having a leak detector is super helpful.
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Did you check the other connections for tighteness while you were at it?
 
MichaelB said:
Did you check the other connections for tighteness while you were at it?
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In fact yes, we did, all three drains and the return pipe, which had some salt creep around the fittings, but this could have come from some other activities or from the dosing tubes which are right next to it. We tightened all of them to not wake every morning from some other leaks. Thanks for pointing this out though!
 
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Alexander1312 said:
In fact yes, we did, all three drains and the return pipe, which had some salt creep around the fittings, but this could have come from some other activities or from the dosing tubes which are right next to it. We tightened all of them to not wake every morning from some other leaks. Thanks for pointing this out though!
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Good will be a little more peace of mind.
 
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