Bulkheads- Proper Use For Aquariums | Tips and Tricks
Tips and tricks for aquarium bulkheads. How to install aquarium bulkhead. Leaking aquarium bulkhead and plumbing a bulkhead.
Help from professionals with 40 years experience. When installed correctly, we’ve had ABS bulk heads last decades!
Many aquariums come pre-drilled with a 2 inch hole. We recommend a 1 inch bulkhead over a 1 5/8, because it takes less to adapt it down to the standard ¾ to ½ needed for most aquarium parts. This answers the question what size bulkhead for aquarium bulkhead.
As long as the gasket on the bulkhead is covering a half or more of the hole, this size fitting is prefect to use. The fitting does not have to be a very tight fit!
The way we recommend adapting down from the 1 inch bulkhead is to a 1×3/4 bushing, with Teflon tape, to a ¾-1/2 hose barb adapter, which makes this more standard for most aquarium filters.
A trick: when you get the lock nut almost screwed in, stop and apply a bead of silicone on both the inside of the aquarium side and outside on the lock nut side. This will form two removable silicone gaskets, which will prevent any leaks, which happen from long term use. This also makes it so the bulkhead does not have to be tightened as much, which makes these fitting last decades. Most of the time, when we’ve seen bulk heads spilt, it was because the luck nut was over tighten!
Tighten the fitting by hand all the way, then use a wrench to barely tighten it just a little more! That’s all it takes.
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