Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Hi all.

Being the extremely efficient gentleman that I am, I went and cut all the holes in my FT and Sump tanks for my PVC fittings about 1/4" too big. I really should have done the one and then tested it but, I got excited to be doing something finally.

The fittings are currently just a little bit too big for the fittings and I'm wondering if I can do anything to seal it without trying to get all new PVC fittings as they are quite expensive and extremely hard to find.

I was thinking of buying some Aquarium silicone (is regular silicone the same thing) but, I would prefer something without.

Please let me know if you have encountered the same thing and what you used to fix.

Thanks in advance,
Thefishingangler

What size/kind of fittings are we talking about?

You might be better off trading in the current fittings and getting the larger ones since needing larger plumbing is often one of the biggest issues with new designs.

Depending on what size you are talking about, this costly mistake might wind up saving you if you can trade up a size on the fittings or something as simple as that.

What size holes did you cut? It is happens to be the right size for uniseals, those don't cost much. Do a bit of research before you go trying to glue your current fittings in since you might not be able to return them if you try gluing them.

i was going to ask what TC did,, maybe drill out the hole another 1/4" so you're a half inch bigger, and use a reducing fitting

for fittings going through my barrels, i found that if i drilled them the exact size, i had a problem stripping threads (on pvc) so i got a couple of steel nipples, about 6" long. After the holes were drilled, i heated up the nipple and used it to "thread" the barrel. no more stripped fittings

you might want to increase the size of the piping anyways, but if it is sufficiently sized already, i would drill the holes bigger and use reducers

Thanks TC.

The issue is that I would need to take a trip to the States again to get the bigger fittings. I essentially have a threaded Male and threaded Femail adapter for PVC at 1" and I cut the holes at 1 1/2" as opposed to the 1 1/4" (which works real well on the 1" PVC).

I'd really like to finish the drains ASAP as it's been sitting around for awhile while I was trying to work out the design (maybe I should have spent longer ). The Uniseals at 1 1/2" would require me to get all new PVC and is essentially what I have already with the threaded adapters.

Any other thoughts?

Thefishingangler

I found this as well so I roughed up the edges a bit and it threaded easily enough.

My issue is trying to find a reducer. I had to go to 3 stores in the area on Sunday to find a 1 1/2" fitting. I don't expect to find anything in the area to do this although I definitely will look again.

Thanks for the post.

Thefishingangler

I drilled all kinds of holes in my IBC before I got it right (almost - still have one leak to fix). The first holes I drilled were way to small, so I siliconed the bits that were drilled out back in...holding well. I then (like you) drilled holes 1/4 inch to big. I used toilet bowl gaskets which mostly did the trick. One of the overflows still leaks and seems to be getting worse. Silicon patched up one of them just fine, the other not so well. My problem was I waited until I already had fish and had a running system before I tried to fix the leak. Silicon would have plugged it up just fine had I done it straight away.



You can see the water loss from even a little leek will addup. I have to topup every couple days.

Below you can kind of see the toilet bowl gasket through the IBC wall. I would be inclined to follow what TC said though and go up in size. If you need to drill even larger to get to the next size, you can clamp a thin board (1/4 inch ply) or stiff cardboard over the hole and it will hold the drill steady while making the hole larger. If using cardboard, use plenty of it on both sides. If you do not have clamps, then duct tape would probably hold - just take it slow.

Perhaps look for a "tank fitting" see pic. Used them before on imperial holes when had metric fittings. Little silicone to fill any gap in the wall ensures it does not leak.

I think that you and TC are right. I should just get a 1 1/2" to 1" reducer and be done with it. It does mean another trip but, I could spend at least 3 hours traveling around locally to try and find a McGiver something and not have it work as well.

Hey Privatteer.

I guess this just seals the hole and let's you drill another?

Thanks for the info.

Thefishingangler

Nope, its hollow, female thread other side.
Just got a wide flange as they are designed for water tanks etc with a reasonable amount of pressure.

What size system are you working on? And what type of plumbing are you talking about using 1" for? 1" might be fine for the plumbing from a pump on a small system but any gravity drains must be larger unless we are talking about an aquarium size system with only aquarium stocking levels.

I have patched big holes in stuff when I screwed up. My first barrel ponics set up had a 2 1/2" hole in the bottom of the flush tank that I could not get the fitting to seal properly since I drilled it where the measurments said to but that put it over a variation in the molding so the fitting didn't have a flat spot to work with. I cut a bit out of one of those flat flexible cutting boards so that it was at least an inch larger than the hole on all sides and I used up a large amount of aquarium silicone to completely patch that hole and start again on a flat spot. So, if you have the flexibility to move the holes and lots of fish safe silicone and a thin flat cutting board to chop up, you could probably just patch all the holes and cut your new ones the right size. Be sure to leave the silicone to completely cure before rinsing and adding water.

However, not knowing the size of system and purpose of the plumbing, I am still a bit worried for the size of it but as long as we are not talking about holes for the SLO drains on a CHIFT PIST system, you might be ok. I do have one tank that has a 1" size for the SLO drain. It is only like a 20 gallon tank. It has over flowed on me before, granted due to blockage of the grates or blockage in the pipe it's self but the smaller the pipe, the smaller everything else tends to be too and the quicker they clog.

I have a 250 gallon IBC FT flowing into a 4'X8'X1' GB through a 1'1/2 PVC SLO drain. The fittings are the same as what DejaVoodoo used on his IBC system. My GB has a 1" drain that is working well through the same types of fittings (I drilled that one correctly) and I'm going to setup a Bell Siphon in there. My sump is a set of 3 55 gallon drums that have a 1" PVC running through all of them to allow for the water to be drained from the GB (I drilled these incorrectly at 1 1/2") using the same fittings with PVC running between them. In the last 55 gallon drum (on it's side) I have a sump pump with a float that will pump the water back into the FT and start the process all over again.

I have done something similar to your cutting board for the FT and it only has a bit of a dribble coming as a leak so I will need to seal it up with silicone.

I don't know if this is what you were looking for.

Please let me know.

Thefishingangler

DejaVoodoo's fittings are here:

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=6894 on the first page.

I ended up switching out my 1 inch fittings for 2.5 inch fittings. The fish tank would overflow if I did not divert most of the water back to the sump. Even with 2.5 inch I have to divert some of it back. I think that is TC's concern with your pipe size.

Also - I found that the fittings from the electrical department worked a whole lot better as the threads are not tapered.

I'm planning on putting a Bell siphon in the FT with the Air line to break the siphon so I'm not sure if it won't be fast enough to stop the overflow (my pump isn't as hefty as yours). I will pick up the fittings in any case on my trip in case I need to expand.

My fittings don't taper so I must have the same as yours.

Thanks,
Thefishingangler

Haven't had many people complain about my pipe size. I thought 1 1/2" was a good diameter...