Silicone changing color?

[OSCARLOVER]

I have a 150g tank thats 3 years old and I bought it a year ago. When I bought it the silicone was perfectly fine all a solid clearish blue color and smooth. I noticed this week that the silicone is developing these dark green alge color to alomost black spots in random areas. All the spots are small and looks almost like alge or some kind of mold. I cant tell if its on the outside of the silicone or between the glass. Also the corners are getting kinda rough and bubbly. Does anyone know whats going on here? I tried to scrape a little bit off with my finger but did nothing. All my water parimeters are fine and take excellent care of my equipment but fail to see whats causing this. Thanks!

 

[Dr Joe]

Could be black algae. Really tuff stuff and may stain the silicone. Can you take any discernable pics?

Dr Joe

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[OSCARLOVER]

Yea I can take some pics but usually takes a day or two to get them up and posted. Is their any way to get this stuff off before it takes over?

 

[Dr Joe]

Sorry...I only had partial success with an algacide. I had to drain the tank & scrub / bleach the areas and the rest of the tank, but still had some discoloration. It was in a 55g tank, I never did figure where it came from.

And I don't know of any algae eaters, fish or snail that eats the stuff.

Maybe someone else can come up with a better solution. I hope .

Dr Joe

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[ewurm]

Did you use malachite green or methylene blue?

 

[Dr Joe]

Did you use malachite green or methylene blue?

Started with hydrogen peroxide, then simazine with no help so tried erythromycin phosphate with no visual effect either. The last two are toxic chemicals and I don't suggest using them anymore. Mind you I had removed all fish and the filter material before I started testing these things.

I couldn't get a microscope to the area and I wasn't going to cut part of the seal out to look at it (wasn't that important to me) to see if it was still alive or just stained. Never came back tho after the bleaching.

And by the way, malachite green is toxic too.

Oh, by toxic, I mean people too.

Now if we could genetically engineer a pleco specifically for a certain algae

Nah...It would still just eat fish food

Dr Joe

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