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Trouble with my liner and will either fix or remove need help
I put in a Inland Plastic P1080 tarp in my 2 fish tanks and 4 rafts and after 1 year I see small pinholes and a few larger sized holes when I drained everything and cleaned them. This P1080 is a 12 mill poly weave tarp.I tried silicone but it only lasts for a little while.
I was starting a system up and getting it to cycle but now that I see these holes and noticed the big leak in my fish tank, loosing over 200 gallons in a night, it is time to either fix this or remove it and get something better.
What can I use to patch holes with that is safe for food and fish? Where can I get the product or please give me a name and I can Google it.
I am also having problems in my connections going through my side walls. I used 4" PVC pipe with 4" Electrical male and female connectors. I used silicone there and I see leaks coming form this. I am sure that the silicone is not working because some of it is coming off real easy and some is looking like it is okay.
If there is a glue that is safe again let me know a good name and I will get some for the connectors.
I may have to bight the bullet and get new pond liner or billboard vinyl and saw some posts on it if I can't get these leaks fixed and start over But I am hoping that there is a solution to getting the majotr leaks fixed.
I can change out all the fittings and get Uniseals but 4" is large for Uniseals and I do not have a lot of room to work with. I do not know why I used 4" to connect my rafts so if I get new plastic I could go down in size to 1-1/2" or 2" becasue it does not look like I needed the 4" size.
Thanks again for all of your help.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by TCLynx on
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Sorry Joe but I would recommend biting the bullet and replacing the liner with a high quality pond liner or durascrim. It will cost a lot up front but tarps are just not made for this and even if you do manage to patch and seal all the holes, you will be dealing with this on an ongoing and worsening basis as the tarp ages and deteriorates with exposure to UV light.
The durascrim is really nice for rectangular troughs of up to 4' wide by 12 inches deep.
If you have to fold into a more complex shape than a rectangle, then I would recommend the EPDM firestone pondguard liner.
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Permalink Reply by Vlad Jovanovic on
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Joe...IME silicone wont hold up for crap and after even relatively short periods of time becomes pretty useless. Better to go with a (marine) polyurethane adhesive sealant...like 3M 5200...it's used to create watertight bonding/sealing of fiberglass and wood, through-hull and deck fittings on boats. It's permanent and ridiculously strong, yet flexible...
As for the liner, I'm with TC. You don't want to be going through this sort of thing every year... Though, I would add that DuraSkrim comes in a bunch of different widths, so not just the 6' wide stuff that's used for 51" (I.D) wide troughs. I bought a couple of 100' rolls of 6' wide liner from Global Plastics that came to $200 per roll...plus the shipping...
If you go to the very bottom of this page...http://aquaponicscommunity.com/forum/topics/pond-liner-thickness-be...
I've attached a PDF with the low down on the DuraSkrim product...just click on the attachment...
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Permalink Reply by Joe Bifano on
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Hey Vlad, I see you used the r22ww product. I have a call into them on pricing.
If I switch out the plastic can I use 1-1/2" PVC or 2" PVC to inner connect my rafts with rather than the 4" or should I stay with the 4"? I want to get better bulkhead fittings when I change this all out that is why I ask.
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r20ww... (it's in that PDF attachment...technical characteristic and other good stuff...)
Well probably for your electrical costs, I'd say the bigger pipe the better. If you really want to change out your pipes (and 'good' 4" bulkheads if you can find them run about $50 each) I'd go with the 2"...and I'd use 90 degree 'long' sweeps instead of the 'tight' 90 degree elbows...you'll save on electricity for as long as you run your system.
http://www.aquaticeco.com/pages/full_width/87/Friction-Loss-in-PVC-...
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Its just that if I put in all new liner I will need to cut out all the electrical bulkhead fittings that are all silicon-ed and not working. Then the 90 degree tight elbows are going to be removed because they are tight to these connectors. Then I will use the 4" pipe coming from the bell siphons in the bio-filters and right before they go into the walls just reduce them to 2", use long sweeps and then cheaper 2" bulkhead fittings. The connection between rafts is about 4' so I will not loose a lot of 4' pipe and just have cheaper and easier connections.
I am sick of trying to calk this stuff and it not working with silicone and its a mess anyway and I am changing the liner so what the heck.
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Yeah, that seems smart...
Go with the 3M 5200 polyurethane sealant, I think you'll be much happier with it. (other than the price :)
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Update
I switched to the dura-skirm product and cut out the old bulk heads and put in 2" new ones and no LEAKS!!
Thanks everyone for your help on this.
Have one more question. Dura-skirm said that they can't make there product wide enough to do my 4'x4'-6"x8' fish tanks. I need a piece 14' x 18'. They had another product that could be joined together and not sure what it was again and if it would be okay. Any recommendations or should I just get that?
I have seen tanks as large as 27' wide x150' long with 3' deep sides. What are they using to get such big tanks made from?
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Hi Vlad looking at your name we maybe neighbors I was born in Skopje, Makedonija
Vlad Jovanovic said:Joe...IME silicone wont hold up for crap and after even relatively short periods of time becomes pretty useless. Better to go with a (marine) polyurethane adhesive sealant...like 3M 5200...it's used to create watertight bonding/sealing of fiberglass and wood, through-hull and deck fittings on boats. It's permanent and ridiculously strong, yet flexible...
As for the liner, I'm with TC. You don't want to be going through this sort of thing every year... Though, I would add that DuraSkrim comes in a bunch of different widths, so not just the 6' wide stuff that's used for 51" (I.D) wide troughs. I bought a couple of 100' rolls of 6' wide liner from Global Plastics that came to $200 per roll...plus the shipping...
If you go to the very bottom of this page...http://aquaponicscommunity.com/forum/topics/pond-liner-thickness-be...
I've attached a PDF with the low down on the DuraSkrim product...just click on the attachment...
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Cedomr Djordjievski said:Hi Vlad looking at your name we maybe neighbors I was born in Skopje, Makedonija
Vlad Jovanovic said:Joe...IME silicone wont hold up for crap and after even relatively short periods of time becomes pretty useless. Better to go with a (marine) polyurethane adhesive sealant...like 3M 5200...it's used to create watertight bonding/sealing of fiberglass and wood, through-hull and deck fittings on boats. It's permanent and ridiculously strong, yet flexible...
As for the liner, I'm with TC. You don't want to be going through this sort of thing every year... Though, I would add that DuraSkrim comes in a bunch of different widths, so not just the 6' wide stuff that's used for 51" (I.D) wide troughs. I bought a couple of 100' rolls of 6' wide liner from Global Plastics that came to $200 per roll...plus the shipping...
If you go to the very bottom of this page...http://aquaponicscommunity.com/forum/topics/pond-liner-thickness-be...
I've attached a PDF with the low down on the DuraSkrim product...just click on the attachment...
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