Help - Leak in uni-seal - how to fix without dismantling setup

Hi, theres a leak at one of the uniseals in my 2 bucket setup. Can I get away with using PVC cement on both sides of seal? If so, how long do I need to let it dry for? I just pulled my new clones out of the buckets and drained (most of) the nutes into stand lone buckets and placed the clones there for now. Would appreciate any suggestions for a quick and easy fix.

If you do it right the first time you'll limit future headaches. If it's mostly drained and clones out then just go all the way and fix it properly.

The quick easy fix will probably come back to haunt you at a time far less than favourable to you and your plants.

ricky1lung said:

If you do it right the first time you'll limit future headaches. If it's mostly drained and clones out then just go all the way and fix it properly.

The quick easy fix will probably come back to haunt you at a time far less than favourable to you and your plants.

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How would you suggest to fix it the right way? This is my first setup and I had initially checked the seals by filling each bucket with 3 gallons of water and no leaks showed then. I also ran the system for a little bit and then checked them again a few days later for new leaks and nothing appeared then. Should I replace the seal where the leak is? I can't so that without potentially cracking my return manifold PVC joints.

Without taking it apart all you can do is try to seal the leak. Dont use PVC cement on the uniseal, it wont work. Try silicone or multi surface sealant on the exterior joint. Make sure the joint is dry and clean first.

redi jedi said:

Without taking it apart all you can do is try to seal the leak. Dont use PVC cement on the uniseal, it wont work. Try silicone or multi surface sealant on the exterior joint. Make sure the joint is dry and clean first.

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Thanks, I bought some 3M Marine Adhesive Sealant Fast Cure 5200 so I hope this does the trick, a fellow in another forum used 3M Marine Adhesive Sealant Fast Cure 4000UV and it worked great for him. Hopefully, it works. I ended up getting the 3 ounce tube in case the other seal had problems too which ended up happening after I tried sealing the inside of the seal on the outside of the bucket with plumbers tape. Just finished draining the nutes out of both bucket and moving my clones to their standalone buckets and giving them a nutrient bath since they've been starving for the past 12 hours. Hopefully, they'll live through time it takes for the sealant to tack and curing to follow.

PsicloneX said:

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=89951

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The ones I got were from Allied Aqua.
http://alliedaqua.com/uniseal-1-inch.html
These aren't the same uniseals? I thought there was only one kind of uniseal out on the market.

jensen71 said:

The ones I got were from Allied Aqua.
http://alliedaqua.com/uniseal-1-inch.html
These aren't the same uniseals? I thought there was only one kind of uniseal out on the market.

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A uniseal is a uniseal. Same deal.

I had the same leak problem. The key is installing them with the hot water/soap trick. Otherwise every 4th or 5th uniseal will leak because it wasnt installed correctly. I used aquarium sealant. It won't expand or crack and it's basically the same shit as marine sealant but this will directly stop a small leak. I didn't even need to empty my buckets to fix my leaks =P Just a good coat around it. Find it cheap and at any wal-mart or pet store. Can't beat a 5 dollar tube!

underwater epoxy or putty. i think i saw some at big box hardware store

Well, it appears there are large cracks in the buckets im using so I had to scrap these cracked buckets and get new ones and going step by step courtesy of youtube and then add the sealant to both sides of the buckets and each seal. That should do it to avoid leaks in the new system.

The real trick to uniseals is drilling a round hole...of the proper dimension.

If your pushing hard enough to deform the bucket, you will get a slight oval. Or if your hole saw doesnt spin concentrically in the chuck the hole will be over sized...or if the hole saw blade is not concentric with the arbor. This is common with cheap hole saws

I pushed the seal from inside the bucket out, and kinda pulled them from the outside a little too, around the entire edge. The seal is tapered so if you pull it a little from the outside it will help seal a tiny leak. That and some silicone sealant worked for me.

Thanks for all the advice fellas. I'm back in rdwc growing mode. Hey have any of you ran into extra air bubbles without a visible leak in water pump return and delivery manifolds? My 250 gph pump was struggling at first and.not pumping water and air bubbles started filling tops of the delivery manifold into each of 2 buckets but then was able to start pumping the waterfalls into each bucket as desired. I did put the diffuser rings above the return pipe outtake back to the water pump so there should be little if any air getting into the water pump. Should I be worried?

can we get pics? I dont understand this visual.

Okay, I figured it out, the Y filter was clogged with nutrient and clay sediment. I had to clean the filter about 4 times this afternoon and now its working fine. Thank god for simplicity. Here's the 2 bucket setup with outtake in rear returns to a ball valve and then a Y filter and then a return to the water pump which pumps filtered nutrient through to both buckets via hosing to a tee bar to each bucket near the top of each bucket which water falls to center of each bucket or at least that's what it is doing.

I'm using a 38LperMin Dual Diaphragm Air Pump and am getting insane bubblage. See screenshots below of each bucket and the air pump suspended in the middle at the bottom. Question: is it normal for the braided air hose to turn brown/discolor after the first few days of use? Why does it do this?

Your bubbles look like soap suds and the hose off your air pump should not discolor so rapidly. Did you try to lubricate the air pump?

No. the soap suds must be the superthrive I added to the weekly feed. I didn't lubricate the airpump either.