Pinhole leak in drain

[snowmansnow]

Well I made the decision to try that flexible hose stuff again for my drain line and it has a pinhole leak in it. Aghhhhhhhh

I'll need to replace that and the bulkhead since I (yea soooo smart) plumbed it without a place to cut to replace the pipe. Real smart.
Not a huge deal but I'll have to go all the way out of town for a stinking bulkhead:/
Thinking I may go back to hard pipe. At least it isn't going to leak.


So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[snowmansnow]

SnowManSnow;1092448 wrote: Well I made the decision to try that flexible hose stuff again for my drain line and it has a pinhole leak in it. Aghhhhhhhh

I'll need to replace that and the bulkhead since I (yea soooo smart) plumbed it without a place to cut to replace the pipe. Real smart.
Not a huge deal but I'll have to go all the way out of town for a stinking bulkhead:/
Thinking I may go back to hard pipe. At least it isn't going to leak.
Anyone coming close to Rome tomorrow ?;/


So long, and thanks for all the fish.

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[snowmansnow]

Gonna reduce the flow from the pump for the night no minimize the problem for now. Geez why am I NEVER close to w reef store


So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[snowmansnow]

Well, after looking at it I'm going to try and cut the soft plastic coupling from horizontally off of the PVC and peel it off of the pipe. If I can manage that I'll have a place to plumb to again


So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[danh]

Why don't you try to plug the pin hole?

 

[enderg60]

Yeah, turn the pump off, dry off the hole location and cover the hole with something like plumbers goop and wrap it with electrical tape. Give it like 4 hours to dry and put it back on.

 

[ghbrewer]

If you end up needing supplies, I just ordered some stuff from Marine Depot yesterday and it is being delivered today. Looks like their East Coast warehouse is in Kennesaw, GA. Nice to have a big name e-tailer that we can get stuff from next day...

 

[snowmansnow]

To fix it right I'll have to do a bulkhead:/


So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[Adam]

Is the pinhole in the slip fitting? If so you might be able to plug it with some pvc cement. Clean and dry the area then brush on some primer to the spot. Now make some small shavings of pvc and pour a little cement in and mix it up good. Then apply it to the joint where the leak is. Allow a good hour or so to dry completely. Our systems aren't under any real pressure and this should save you from having to tear out the bulkhead. Now if this were a water line under pressure over 10-15lbs and up then I'd say pull it out and redo it.

 

[enderg60]

Actually how big is the leak? Most of my pinhole leaks end up sealing themselves with salt creep before I remember to fix them lol.

 

[snowmansnow]

1- no the leak is in the flex tube.
2- I have too much invested to take a chance on a leak sealing with salt creep no offense


So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[danh]

Same thing with FW. They seal themselves...

 

[snowmansnow]

Just wish there was a shop w a bulkhead closer than 45 mins :/


So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[Adam]

SnowManSnow;1092476 wrote: 1- no the leak is in the flex tube.
2- I have too much invested to take a chance on a leak sealing with salt creep no offense

If it's flex PVC you can cut a piece of the scrap and glue it over the hole. the patch piece will be chemically welded to the pipe. Just another thought.

 

[picoreefguy]

patching is probably going to be the simplest solution. and itll be a strong solution as well since the pvc cement actually welds joints like acrylic cement does

 

[snowmansnow]

Thanks for the advice guys, and you all may be right. HOWEVER I picked up a bulk head today. Thankfully I DID make it easy to swap bulkheads when I put things in.

I'll install it tonight.. hard pipe it in... and I'll be able to sleep knowing plumbing isn't a weak spot in my system.

 

[snowmansnow]

the drain line can be seen here in this thread if you want to see exactly what I'm talking about..
The leak was just a bead every few mins right above the connecting coupling over the sump.

I did straighten that pipe out so there isn't that big giant kink in it by the way haha

 

[danh]

So you replaced it and you're good to go?

I just checked my pin hole leak on my return. It was in the hard portion of my return but I never took the time to figure out where because it was dripping back on to one of the euro type braces on my sump. No real mess, maybe just a loss of salinity as it evaporated some.... It's no longer leaking...

 

[snowmansnow]

Yea I replaced the return.


So long, and thanks for all the fish.

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

There is a pipe tape that claims to be a permanent repair. I would always say replacing is better unless in a pinch