You have no idea how disappointed I am. As a 40 yr old man, I literally felt like I was going to cry while my wife held a towel under a leaking bulkhead and while I tried to pump 400g of water out of the tank so I could net my fish and sell him asap. What I failed to realize is that if you are running a sump they corner overflows protect you if your bulkhead leaks, so you will only have so much water to contend with. Because I had an ultima and corner HMF I did not have this safety measure in place. I am a major idiot for not realizing that when I did my design.
1100 set up
- Thread starter Egon
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You have no idea how disappointed I am. As a 40 yr old man, I literally felt like I was going to cry while my wife held a towel under a leaking bulkhead and while I tried to pump 400g of water out of the tank so I could net my fish and sell him asap. What I failed to realize is that if you are running a sump they corner overflows protect you if your bulkhead leaks, so you will only have so much water to contend with. Because I had an ultima and corner HMF I did not have this safety measure in place. I am a major idiot for not realizing that when I did my design.
Capping the holes is easy and I’ve done it many times with out ever having an issue.
I use scrap pieces of acrylic. 1/4 thick works fine. You want to use water pressure to your advantage so put all the patches on the inside so the water will push the patch down into the hole. I use tubes of silicone glue from HD or some hardware store. I clean the area and put lots of glue down and push the acrylic down into the glue trying to push all the air bubbles air out. Then put a little weight on it and let dry for a couple days. I’ve had one tank over 10 years with this kind of patch and that tank is 4 feet deep. If that still holds water this is a good system! Below are a few pictures: the first one is a couple holes on the side of the tank. I took the pic showing me painting the bottom so it doesn’t really show any detail. The second pic is a bio tower I covered a couple holes on, this was done on the outside but never leaked. Of course the bio tower was never full. I wouldn’t do this on a tank. The last pic is the other side of the first pic. You can see where the leak was when it had bulkheads.
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I tried the Weldon and it didn’t work for me. I’m not sure if it’s the flexing when the water is in the tank? Acrylic kinda bows and I think the patch may bow less causing a crack to form and a leak to happen. The silicone works for me.
And it’s “when” the bulkhead fails. Eventually they will fail and then the whole tank needs to be drained. I will never drill a hole in the bottom or side of my tank again. Well a large display tank. Little grow outs is no big deal.
I had eleven holes drilled across the top of my big tank (still not set up).
We have had three bulkheads fail on the small 300 gallon tank with the fish ramming/hitting the pipes. The last time, out of desperation, we just put the replacement pipe straight in the hole sans bulkhead. With a little play, it actually works better. Unfortunately, I made my mechanical uptake and return pipes years ago, so will have to use bulkheads. I will be redoing two pipes since I decided against high uptakes, so won't use bulkheads with those. Too much work to redo all the pipes. My druthers now is not to use bulkheads.
We have had three bulkheads fail on the small 300 gallon tank with the fish ramming/hitting the pipes. The last time, out of desperation, we just put the replacement pipe straight in the hole sans bulkhead. With a little play, it actually works better. Unfortunately, I made my mechanical uptake and return pipes years ago, so will have to use bulkheads. I will be redoing two pipes since I decided against high uptakes, so won't use bulkheads with those. Too much work to redo all the pipes. My druthers now is not to use bulkheads.
holes in the top is fine. Holes in the bottom, no good.
I am surprised to hear this. I have always been told do patch with acrylic and weldon 40. In my case I am filling holes that are on the bottom which is then going to sit on top of the plywood board, so I am not sure I would have to worry about bowing there.
Just looked at the corner overflows in the tank and the water level is so high the water is bypassing the clogged filter and going down the drain I installed inside my corner overflows. Go back a couple posts and you can see how easy this is to install. 
I took some pics to show you guys. I also want to reiterate how important this is if you choose to put a filter in your overflow. Filters seem to clog over night or just after you leave for a long weekend!!!! This overflow pipe works!
I took some pics to show you guys. I also want to reiterate how important this is if you choose to put a filter in your overflow. Filters seem to clog over night or just after you leave for a long weekend!!!! This overflow pipe works!