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Red sea reefer 170 mods custom plumbing


Nickbruh510

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Hey guys my red sea reefer is leaking horribly from the crappy bulkheads they put in stock. Does anyone have any experience taking it the red sea bulk heads and swapping it to regular home depot fittings? From my understanding red sea silicones the bulkhead and i am afraid by overtightening it i cracked the bulkhead possibly the tank is fine. Any help would appreciatted. Just to clarify i want to take out all if the red sea plumbing and just make my own plumbing using bulk reef supply bulkheads and do my plumbing from there. Or is this just not possible?

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9 hours ago, Nickbruh510 said:

i want to take out all if the red sea plumbing and just make my own plumbing using bulk reef supply bulkheads and do my plumbing from there.

That should be fine.

 

I wish Home Depot had a better selection of bulkheads.  However, if you need to get your plumbing working until your BRS bulkheads arrive, they should work.

 

9 hours ago, Nickbruh510 said:

From my understanding red sea silicones the bulkhead

That's surprising.  IDK, it might be true, but that doesn't make sense to me.

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8 hours ago, seabass said:

That should be fine.

 

I wish Home Depot had a better selection of bulkheads.  However, if you need to get your plumbing working until your BRS bulkheads arrive, they should work.

 

That's surprising.  IDK, it might be true, but that doesn't make sense to me.

It wont be the end of the world to redo plumbing.  But I will also not pay hundreds of dollars for plumbing since it has leaked already. And yes they silicone the bottom nut on... so when you put the pipe in that acts as the inner piece of the bulkhead. Its kind of stupid if you ask me. It really should be standard in the usa.

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1 hour ago, schwaz said:

RS has terrific customer support if you decide to go that route. Did it start leaking spontaneously? From what area?

I purchased the unit from the OG owner and it was filled!. No leaks. I have contacted red sea and they said after the tank plumbing is taken apart after the first time it is smart to buy an O ring kit @8$ an oring. My problem is I slathered everything under the tank with silicone only to find out i used GE silicone ii which has mold inhibitors. So the best thing is to completely redo the plumbing. I think 1/2 inch bulkheads will work but im waiting to hear back from red sea to find out exactly how to remove the red sea bulkhead.It is driving me nuts they dont use standard plumbing, forcing you to buy the red sea plumbing. On top of all that since I bombed the plumbing with the wrong silicone i meed to take it all of anyway. So just to clarify i did thw teflon tape about 10 wraps around and still leaks. I suggest anyone moving a red sea reefer series you purchase new o ring for the plumbing. Red sea stated to me thats the best thing when movong a tank and resuing plumbing should I have known this i would not be having this problem. I will keep you guys updated on how it goes . Man if this tank wasnt so darn good looking i wouldve switched routes immediatly lol.

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So here is a pic I found of the bulkhead assembly. It is a 1 piece system that is silicone in. I guess I only have one option. Either rid all of the old plumbing and order brand new plumbing from red sea and try my luck even though I think it is coming from the bulkhead. Or just take overflow apart and try and undo the bulkhead which is just silicone in and drill the back and go ghost overflow. I dont really wamt to give red sea any money and would rather just customize the reefer with a ghost overflow.

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2 hours ago, Nickbruh510 said:

would rather just customize the reefer with a ghost overflow.

So if you plan on drilling the back for a ghost overflow, I would remove the gasket, clean off the silicone, then silicone a sheet of glass over the holes (which would then get covered with sand).  Make sure the glass has polished edges, or you will end up cutting yourself.

 

There might not be enough room for a standard bulkhead. :unsure:   Uniseal bulkheads should work, but might not be quite as reliable as a typical bulkhead.

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2 hours ago, Nickbruh510 said:

So here is a pic I found of the bulkhead assembly. It is a 1 piece system that is silicone in. I guess I only have one option. Either rid all of the old plumbing and order brand new plumbing from red sea and try my luck even though I think it is coming from the bulkhead. Or just take overflow apart and try and undo the bulkhead which is just silicone in and drill the back and go ghost overflow. I dont really wamt to give red sea any money and would rather just customize the reefer with a ghost overflow.

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That's a strange way to do it. Red Sea is probably aware of how fragile this part is.

 

TBH the overflow is pretty big, and I kind of hate how big it is. I think an external or ghost overflow would be way better. Make it a project, get rid of the internal overflow box and make your own holes for a ghost.

 

You can probably get a cheap piece of glass from any local glass store and just do a thin layer of silicon between the two, and along the edges to cover up the existing hole that you would have once you removed those bulkheads. You won't be able to keep them in, because they aren't flush with the bottom glass.

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1 hour ago, seabass said:

So if you plan on drilling the back for a ghost overflow, I would remove the gasket, clean off the silicone, then silicone a sheet of glass over the holes (which would then get covered with sand).  Make sure the glass has polished edges, or you will end up cutting yourself.

 

There might not be enough room for a standard bulkhead. :unsure:   Uniseal bulkheads should work, but might not be quite as reliable as a typical bulkhead.

I was thinking plug the middle and use the 2 on the side. Or the starbosrd trick that has been done. But id rather take the stupid plastic piece off and just do as you suggested and sikicone a piece of glass right over the bulkhead part:)

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1 hour ago, kinetic said:

That's a strange way to do it. Red Sea is probably aware of how fragile this part is.

 

TBH the overflow is pretty big, and I kind of hate how big it is. I think an external or ghost overflow would be way better. Make it a project, get rid of the internal overflow box and make your own holes for a ghost.

 

You can probably get a cheap piece of glass from any local glass store and just do a thin layer of silicon between the two, and along the edges to cover up the existing hole that you would have once you removed those bulkheads. You won't be able to keep them in, because they aren't flush with the bottom glass.

Yeah going to empty tank and see if i can get the plastoc piece off. Wish me luckni have a hcksaw and box cutters ready for this bull$hit. Lol. Red sea basically called me crazy but then i met a guy names chahn who works there amd he said just be careful and a ghost overflow would be better for the looks of the tank anyway:).god damn it.lol. 

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4 minutes ago, seabass said:

Be careful, you just don't want to mess with the silicone on the seams.

Yup that was my first thought actually.i think i got it. Going to possibly tackle it tomorrow.

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Here is the start of it all. I figured if i emd uo screwing the tank somehow i will save up amd just buy a sc aquarium 50 gallon pnp system since a new reefer tank will be over 700$ shipped.

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18 minutes ago, kinetic said:

dude this looks great. how did all the plumbing etc. go?

Lol this is the start of it here is teardown amd next is go take overflow box out.Maybe some new red sea plumbing parts  could work but I seriously hate when companys force you to buying their parts let alone want to charge me over 150$ for plumbing parts because home depot cant fix this issue. And on top of it if i bought new red sea plumbing and i still had a leak id be pissed . Red sea called it a elimination process lol. Screw you red sea in going to take overflow apart now.!

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8.Bro i hate red20170921_154819.thumb.jpg.9ddd7d384132ee705419a3f4cb55cf75.jpg sea lol they said you cannot find plumbing parts because all of their plumbing is custom .Mmmhhhhmmmm one trip to home depot.... lol. Now for the second trip since i reconfirmed  everything fits

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1 minute ago, seabass said:

I didn't know if there was enough room.  Looks like it's going to work fine.

That is the exosting red sea bulkhead i just found 1 1/2 inch abs fittong that went on like butter.

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1 hour ago, seabass said:

Is it a bulkhead?

Nope just a female to male adaptor that fit perfectly . Gonna rubber cement it and silicone the red sea bulkhead for good measure and add unions on all three and hopefully no more leaking . Whew hopefully is the right word.

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25 minutes ago, Nickbruh510 said:

Nope just a female to male adaptor that fit perfectly .

I'm not very optimistic that this will work.  It really should be a bulkhead (a standard bulkhead, or even a Uniseal).

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50 minutes ago, seabass said:

I'm not very optimistic that this will work.  It really should be a bulkhead (a standard bulkhead, or even a Uniseal).

The red sea bulkhead isnt cracked i verified that. It was leaking from the o ring inside of the overflow  on the first set of threads. And thats what made it look like it was leaking from the bulkheads. The abs female to male adaptor screws in perfectly. And i bet with some plumbers tape it will be a good seal and if not welp ill tear out the overflow and go with plan b whoch is drill thru the back. I figured i should try and save the inside of the overflow plumbing first. So just to clarify the red sea bulkhead is a 3 piece thing  that is siliconed in on the inside and on the outside there is a nut . I removed the nut and 1 1/2" abs female to male adaptor works on it pretty well and then the white part is a reducer. Then the schd 40 pvc. Im gonna give this a ago and if its no bueno I will end up drilling it:)

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I see.  The Red Sea bulkhead/gasket is making the water tight seal.  So what you have there could work.  I thought you had removed the bulkhead and were trying to use the fittings instead.  Good work!

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3 minutes ago, seabass said:

I see.  The Red Sea bulkhead/gasket is making the water tight seal.  So what you have there could work.  I thought you had removed the bulkhead and were trying to use the fittings instead.  Good work!

Lol !!! Hahaha yeah  sorry if iy is confusing but yes you got it. The threaded part of the bulkhead is siliconed in from factory  and all i did was take the "nut" off and threaded a piece with teflon tape and thats what you see here.

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8 minutes ago, Nickbruh510 said:

all i did was take the "nut" off and threaded a piece with teflon tape and thats what you see here.

Oh wait.  The fittings are replacing the nuts?  If so, those threads probably aren't tapered, so they won't seal.  Teflon tape is for metal fittings.  It won't seal the threads.

 

So if there was a nut on the outside, did the old plumbing attach to the inside?

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