Very small drip/leak from drainline, how to solve?

[mginani]

Hi Everyone,

I am a newbie and just set-up my tank. Everything is running smoothly except I now notice a very small drip from my drain line. I have attached a picture. The drip is coming from the seam you see at the top of the picture. You will see a bead forming on the right part of the seam. These parts are connected and NOT cemented together. I bought my system used and the person I purchased from said that it was not necessary to cement them since it was not pressurized. He ran it that way and it worked fine and he indicated it would make things much easier if I needed to take apart. I added some straps to hold the PVC up and keep the connections together.

Anyway, what should I do now? Could I add some silicone and if I needed to take apart later, I could just peel the silicone away? Ignore it? Its a small drip every few minutes and falls back into the sump. Thanks in advance for your help.

[1fishkeeper]

You said that they are connected but not glued. When you glue them the leak will stop.

[mginani]

Thanks for the reply. I know glueing them will stop the leak but that would the negate the ease of taking apart later if need be as the previous owner suggested. Maybe that is my only option and if so that is what I will do. Could silicone work?

[gone fishin]

You may get lucky with some silicone but I kind of doubt it. If you got room add a union and glue up the pieces. If there is a space water will eventually find its way out and water is an excellent lubricator. I would be worried about the fitting coming off or getting worse and draining the entire tank. just my 2 cents.

[nychris351]

Dude cement those pipes before there's a disaster

[capysolo]

Definitely cement them together... fittings are cheap if you ever need to cut it out and re do it.

[sleepydoc]

+1 the above comments. I would worry less about taking it apart later and more about it not leaking and being reliable now. Any fitting that is just friction-fit together like that one has the potential to come loose and fall off completely. If you're really worried about taking it apart, get a union, but as capysolo said, PVC is cheap. Floods are not.

[mginani]

Thanks everyone. I will glue together.

[godsdoc]

I am guessing you have already glued it but if not you may want to consider a union (as mentioned above) or use a threaded fitting.

[biecacka]

Thing to remember is if you don't glue em you'll get salt creep and that stuff can tighten up like glue as far as difficulty to get pipes separated.
But it's not nearly as safe as glue.
Please glue them
Corey

[Pearson]

I added a union to my plumbing so I could take it apart easily. Unions are great but you are going to need to glue those pieces together for the leak to stop.

[Amatuer21]

purple primer and all purpose cement, pvc cement. Worked wonders for me