bulkhead disaster

[jdthomas24]

today i was working on cleaning up my power station under my tank. i was almost done when i decided to push the UV light cord above the holder in between the stand top and the case. when i did it put a little stress on the bulkhead and then bam!! the nut popped back and the water began to pour, all over the ballasts, strips and plugs, timers and in the worst possible spot to get to in the whole dang assembly !!!! i was getting shocked likel crazy...... turned of power and then began the repair... anyone ever had this happen to them? it did not break it just popped off like the nut was just a tad to big for the bulkhead... i replaced the other side and had an extra laying around thank goodness. all pipe was glued thought so i had to cut pipe glue and use a shop vac to suck water out of the overflow chamber.. what a nightmare!!!!!

gets better though. my ATO ruyns through the attic and it got cold and it froze, lol... well i shut it down and manually move water until it gets hotter outside. walked out there to get water to add to the tank to replace was came out and i see water on the floor. im like f$%^&**^%%..... well there is a small square type box on the RO/DI unit that 4 1/4 inch lines go into.. what is this by the way???????? well it has 4 phillips head screws and what appears tpo be a rubber assembly inside of it. Well it leaks no matter how lose or tight the screws are so i had to shut the ro/di unit down all together...

I felt like dunking my head in the tank..... what i time to quit smoking!!!!!!!

[7Dragons7]

Wow that is some bad luck.

The RO/DI piece that you are talking about is the auto-shutoff. It works on back pressure, so maybe with the water freezing it broke some of the O-rings inside.

[jdthomas24]

hmm, so maybe one of the lines froze somwhat and caused it to leak,,,, i took it apart to see if i could see anything wrong with it but nothing....it is suppose to get warmer in the next couple of days so maybe i will turn it back on to see if it leaks or not...

[luther1200]

That stinks. I don't have any electronics under my stand for that reason. I have had quite a few floods, since I have always had external skimmers. Everything would have been toast buy now for sure. Did you actually break your ballasts and stuff? I almost had a problem with my bulkheads 1 time though. I have the barb types, which I won't use on my next tank, and I was adjusting something once and nearly pulled the hose right off the barb. So ever since that I am very careful when ever I do anything near the bulkheads.

[fernandokng]

Wow, sorry. what a disaster

[aquaman67]

I used the Schedule 80 bulkheads I got from www.glasscages.com

http://www.glasscages.com/?sAction=ViewCat&lCatID=38

You're not going to pop the nut off those bulkheads...

[flyin2jz]

I would figure out why the breaker didn't pop when the electonics were in water before I called it fixed. When water hit those pieces it should have tripped the breaker in a instant. That could be dangerous for u if it doesn't pop lime it should. I filled my entire stand before with water. 6 inches because I made the stand waterproof when I put it together. I had 4 400 watt ballasts under water and my chiller too. Dried it all out and everything worked perfectly. I got lucky

[jdthomas24]

flyin2jz, they are not on GFI's. they were not submerged but were getting wet as heck....

[sedor]

I think he may have meant the circuit breaker on the house...

[slief]

Sounds like it could have been a lot worse! When I read the topic, I thought you would have lost everything. How old were the bulkheads? Sounds as though the threads stripped. Could they have been over tightened?

[flyin2jz]

Yes I meant circuit breakers. Sorry if that didn't sound right. I have had a light fall into my tank and it flipped the breaker immediately.

[hk855]

I feel ya on this disaster. I had a simmilar one last weekend, water all over the balast and then I hit the power strip... Lit me up like crazy, tie for #1 of worst shocks of my life. My breaker didn't trip either, nor did it for the electrical smoulder(GFCI burned out) on a non tank outlet the night before that started the whole mess(was on the same circut). I know they are supposed to trip at some point but I think its more of a continuous overload to keep the wires in the wall from starting a fire, rather than a split second short which the GFCI does.

[jdthomas24]

ya the overload or direct short strips a breaker..if your home is newer then you have a good one, if its older there were two brands of breakers that were notorious for nto tripping, you could weld with a hot and ground wire. They are both out of business now for homes that burnt down.. Federal breakers and Zensco breakers.... btoh are very very bad to have..... GE, Square -D, Cutler Hammer are good.

Back on the topic, i am very fortunate i was hoem when this happend. I did not overtighten them and they did not strip. It appears that the nuts were not made correctly for the bulkheads. Someone may have gotten the Schedule 80 versus the schedule 40 ones mixed up, not sure, they were lsoe on the threads for sure and there was nto damage to them.. Not sure but i know that the next ones will be 80 for sure!!

[fisherman2]

weird coincidence, but i had this happen to me last night....The nut cracked making it loose enough to slip off. Im def. using sch80 bulkheads on my new tank.