Water Heaters - Gas tank, leaking problems

I recently bought my home and the water heater was apparently hooked up wrong because it is leaking where the hot/cold water pipes meet the unit.

It looks like the connection to the actual unit was never soldered and they used some other type of substance that wore down from the leaking water.

I am not a plumber but my best guess would be to shut the water off, clean this all up and solder that connection. Before I run off and do this though I wanted to see if there were any suggestions.

Thanks

http://www.deadissue.com/images/heater1.jpg

How about another picture but far enough back that we can see the entire tank top and piping?

I suspect what was done is the copper-to-male thread adapter was screwed into the tank and then the copper soldered to the adapter. That is the wrong way to do it, the adapter should first be soldered to a piece of copper tube/pipe and then a union (copper-to-copper) soldered to the other end. This way the assembly may be threaded into the tank (using Teflon tape and paste) and the rest of the soldered connections made as needed. This makes the re-tightening of adapters (if necessary) possible. While an all-soldered piping job looks very neat it isn't the best way of doing the job.

Thank you for the feedback, here is another picture:

http://www.deadissue.com/images/heater2.jpg

Unless your local code requires the water heater to be hard piped I suggest that you cut the inlet and outlet pipes above the sleeve couplers and solder on male threaded adapters. Remove the stubs with their male threaded adapters from the heater and install six inch long brass threaded nipples. Use the flexible connectors easily available to connect the heater to the pipes.

If you want to (or are required to) keep the heater hard piped then cut the pipe above the sleeve couplers, remove the stubs and adapters from the heater and using new solder unions and male thread adapters with new pipe, solder the threaded adapters to the pipe first and then using both Teflon tape and Teflon paste screw the adapters into the heater and cut the stubs to the correct length to install the unions. Install the unions so the "ring" is on the upper fitting.

Using the unions allows for easy replacement of the heater when it eventually fails.

Okay, based off your first suggestion, does this look right?

I would have to solder the connections on the top but not the one's below?

And once that is done I just need the 'flexible connectors' to hookup the male/male connections.

Does this sound/look right?

Nothing is to scale of course I'd have to find the right sizes I just want to make sure I am tracking before I head to the store.

Thanks again!

http://deadissue.com/images/heater3.jpg

Yes, that is correct. You could even use compression-to-male thread adapters if you are not sure of your soldering skills.

Sorry I can't find a decent picture but all the parts are available at any big box mega home center. The compression adapters are probably near the flexible connectors.

Awesome, I think I can actually pull this off.

Thanks for all the help and hopefully I will post a finished product that isn't leaking.

Thanks again!