Reef nutrition

Well now I’m scared...Overflow is leaking

Rostato

Rostato

Guest
BARcard
So, my Red Sea Reefer 250 had a leaky seal.

Randys post, and me actually seeing a water drop the other day inspired me to finally fix it.

But I uncovered a way worse issue. Once all water is removed from the overflow it still slowly fills. Is assume the silicone on the bottom of the overflow has failed. I even noticed a bit of silicone that looked loose down there.

This made my idea to actually remove and clean all parts completely impossible. I fixed the leaky seal but I had to do it quickly because I was dripping water pretty fast. My guess is it’s probably leaking about 1 gallon per 2 hours.

So, if I lose power for an extended amount of time I’m screwed! My guess is I have maybe 10-12 hours max before the sump overflows.

What do I do?
 
Site wouldn’t allow me to post the pic. This is the original leak.

3lbuvMc.jpg
 
no

The main drain is down about 4 1/2 inches from the normal running level which is 19 inches. I calculate that to be about 30% of the main tanks water volume.

30% of my normal water volume is about 13 gallons. I’m pretty darn sure my puny little read Sea sump can’t handle that much water. My guess is it can only take about 8-9 gallons before it overflows
 
If there’s space, you could always move that higher, although that doesn’t solve the issue.

What about epoxy along the seal of the overflow box?
 
Yes. The problem is the silicone at the bottom of the overflow box is allowing water into the overflow.

It doesn’t cause any issue while the tanks running.
 
You could but not with stock parts. Would be more if a pain than draining and siliconing it yourself. I don't know if there are any really quick curing ones that are reef safe. Maybe e600? Super glue?
 
I guess I “could” get a 1” metric to us conversion and then glue that on top of the existsting pipe. But it is really crummy so I’d have to take it out to clean it and deal with it leaking while it’s drying. And I’d have to remove the stock drain cover

Or I could just get a huge sump...but that’ll be expensive and I’d have to rehire a lot of equipment. Not really any room for that.
 
Not sure if that particular pipe has an O-ring at the bottom; RSR pipes are propietary, hard to work around a fix with what’s available.
 
It does. The pipes are all sealed nicely now. I just can’t take an extended power outage without having to remove about 20%ish of the water. It’s the silicone for the bottom of the overflow box that’s leaking.
 
Rostato said:
It does. The pipes are all sealed nicely now. I just can’t take an extended power outage without having to remove about 20%ish of the water. It’s the silicone for the bottom of the overflow box that’s leaking.
Click to expand...


So what you can do is seal a pipe into the hole to almost as tall as the overflow box. Otherwise you'll have to reseal the overflow box.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
That’s probably the only way. But it’ll be hard on the reefer. I May have to buy a whole new stand pipe to modify it. There’s no way I can remove the old one, clean it, modify it, wait for it to dry, and reinstall without making a huge mess.

Plus I think the drain will be louder if the water level is higher right?

Grr...this sucks!
 
Overflow box is acrylic? Get a Scrap acrylic from tap and glue it to the box right at the bottom on the inside w Weldon? Super glue along the bottom of the tank and the scrap? Can you tell exactly where the leak is? Which wall of the box I mean?
 
Coral reefer said:
Overflow box is acrylic? Get a Scrap acrylic from tap and glue it to the box right at the bottom on the inside w Weldon? Super glue along the bottom of the tank and the scrap? Can you tell exactly where the leak is? Which wall of the box I mean?
Click to expand...

No I can’t really tell where is was coming from. It’s a slow leak but fast enough to cause concern. I really don’t want to tear this tank down at all. It’s finally locked in a growing like mad. I’m honestly leaning towards just not doing anything and getting a generator. Absolute worst case scenario it happens when I’m on vacation and my tank sitter can’t get the generator going within 8-12 hours
 
Ill think on it. I agree that plan sucks.

If I have to tear it down I’d rather just do an upgrade...my wife will kill me though no matter what I decide.

I’ve neglected to mention this issue to her yet.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top