DIY drip tray gasket?

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Steve_Henderson

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jun 24, 2008
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New Jersey
Looking for any ideas on how to make a 'gasket' type thing for my drip tray. I'm sure most of you can guess I'm trying to avoid water from just flowing down the sides of the w/d area since it's not completely tight. The w/d area is 18"x24" and has about 240 holes drilled (or being drilled since I ran out of battery yesterday :().Thanks!
 
you make a very good point about flowing down the side, my sump has a drip tray 22Lx12w split in 2 the first half is siliconed in spot there is not water lost there that is best gasket, but i had to keep the other half open for acess to the bottom of the sump lucky mine was a pretty tight fit (not perfect by any means) but i was happy with water flow, but you bring up a great point and got me thinking, why not just buy auto wheather stripping and add it to all the edges of the drip plate? best way to glue it i'm unsure on though or maybe with the auto weather stripping you can find some that just slips over the edge of the panel so you can remove it
 
how about this.

Make a 1" lip all the way around use a Tap & Die set to make 1 screw hole in all 4 edges and the middle of each side. then put a smooth layer of silicon over top of the lip and also on the edge of the drip plate. you can then use plastic screws to hold these two together tightly silicon on silicon plus pressure should create a seal. Just like a bulk head.
 
nfored;2140903; said:
how about this.

Make a 1" lip all the way around use a Tap & Die set to make 1 screw hole in all 4 edges and the middle of each side. then put a smooth layer of silicon over top of the lip and also on the edge of the drip plate. you can then use plastic screws to hold these two together tightly silicon on silicon plus pressure should create a seal. Just like a bulk head.
Click to expand...

This is the best method.

If the drip tray is sealed completely against the bio chamber pressure could build up inside of it and it will reduce the flow, and possibly overflow the area above the drip tray. I had that happen to one of my sumps and I had to drill a vent hole to keep it from happening.
 
rallysman;2141093; said:
This is the best method.

If the drip tray is sealed completely against the bio chamber pressure could build up inside of it and it will reduce the flow, and possibly overflow the area above the drip tray. I had that happen to one of my sumps and I had to drill a vent hole to keep it from happening.
Click to expand...


DId you drill the hole near the top of the bio chamber?
 
no, it as a small hole in the drip tray. I used some small tubing in the hole to act as a "snorkel"
 
I just used the smallest pvc I could find. Made a rectangle the same size as the outerside edges of the drip tray and just siliconed it to the tray. Works great and the trays are easily removable.
I also had to drill a venthole in the side of the bio tower to keep the water from going over the pvc baracade AFTER boring all the drip plate holes bigger twice. Not exactly super simple to stuff over 4K gph through a wet dry.......
 
Some good ideas here. I might try the small PVC silicone to the drip tray. Thanks for the warning about the pressure build up. I have 240~ 1/8"? holes I believe and I'll be doing 800 to 1200 gph on this sump.
 
old bump....anybody have pics of what this looks like? i need to make a seal as well but im a visual guy, i need pics!
 
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