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My first acrylic reservoir cracked but still held up for a while before it leaked. I treated that with kid gloves too. Nothing damaged...no loss..no harm. I ordered one of the new polyethylene reservoirs that a lot of places are selling these days. They are ugly as hell but I was hiding it in a bay anyways. Everything seemed fine but then I ran into a problem.
Polyethylene is pretty pliable. That's great since it won't crack easily. What's not so great is that if you are threading in some barbs and you overtighten...there's a problem. I overtightened the barbs on my first one just a little tiny bit..and it leaked (with teflon thread tape on the barbs at the time). Then I put some liquid thread sealer on there and it seemed ok for a while.....but as soon as I changed tubing and put a little pressure on it....it leaked again. If you put any sort of pressure on the barbs or fiddle with them...they bend the polyethylene and weaken the seal completely. A tight bend or an accidental pull of a hose a little hard...and you could be in trouble. I finally glued the barbs in and I'll put it in another system.
I'm going for a T-line on this system now with one of those Danger Den fillports. It seems that all my bad luck has revolved around reservoirs. When is someone going to come out with one that looks good, works great, and doesn't cost $50+? If you bought one of these polyethylene ones...I suggest you epoxy those barbs on.
edit: yes....I could always build my own. Not exactly difficult. I just think they should offer something that works better for the $20-$25.
Polyethylene is pretty pliable. That's great since it won't crack easily. What's not so great is that if you are threading in some barbs and you overtighten...there's a problem. I overtightened the barbs on my first one just a little tiny bit..and it leaked (with teflon thread tape on the barbs at the time). Then I put some liquid thread sealer on there and it seemed ok for a while.....but as soon as I changed tubing and put a little pressure on it....it leaked again. If you put any sort of pressure on the barbs or fiddle with them...they bend the polyethylene and weaken the seal completely. A tight bend or an accidental pull of a hose a little hard...and you could be in trouble. I finally glued the barbs in and I'll put it in another system.
I'm going for a T-line on this system now with one of those Danger Den fillports. It seems that all my bad luck has revolved around reservoirs. When is someone going to come out with one that looks good, works great, and doesn't cost $50+? If you bought one of these polyethylene ones...I suggest you epoxy those barbs on.
edit: yes....I could always build my own. Not exactly difficult. I just think they should offer something that works better for the $20-$25.