I've got this steak mark on the outside of my aquarium!

Ilya

There is a streak mark on my aquarium. It looks sort of oily. I think I got it from cleaning the tank. If I get it wet, it disappears, and when it drys, it becomes visible. I cleaned my aquarium with vinegar and bleach. And I gave it a good rinse. However, I tried using vinegar and rubbing alcohol to clean it, but no luck. Maybe you guys can help me!

Ilya

Okay, I've tried a ton of house hold cleaning items, even ammonia! I'm convinced it's some mineral buildup!

fish_4_all

First, quit using bleech anywhere near your tank. It can leech through seems faster than anything because the chlorine gas will go wherever it wants. Stick with Windex, ammonia or just water. Once drop of bleech in a tank could wipe your bacteria almost instantly.

IF it is mineral buildup it will come off with a razor blade. Hold the blade flat on the glass and scrape it down to see if it scrapes off. If it doesn't then we are back to square one.

It could be a simple play of the light from the camera though. Take a picture dry when you can see it but also take a picture of it wet. See if there is a difference if the scrape doesn't work.

Ilya

I could see it with the light. And I'm sure it could be bleach as well as mineral deposits. I scraped some of the white stuff off, but the rest seems to be chemical or whatever.

I used bleach to clean out the aquarium from the previous owner. They haven't cleaned it in months, and it was in way worse condition. There were bacterial colonies everywhere, I was convinced there was E-Coli on it. But yeah, I cleaned it with bleach. What do you think I can do.

Could it be a water stain?

It really sounds like this: http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf351538.tip.html

lioness501

u could try some sort of limescale remover? i have done this before to get hard water marks off, but only a little bit

Ilya

Where could I get this limescale remover?

lioness501

any supermarket down the same aisle as cleaning products! i dont kno where u r. i use cillit bang or viakal, it works wonders, just dont get it near the seals of the tank, and wipe off then clean glass with window cleaner

fish_4_all

Try using baking soda and ammonia in a thick pasty mix with some sort of scrubber. It works to remove lime scale and even odors in sinks and when i used it the chrome was even polished without scrubbing.

It could well be bleech residue that reacted from the tank being so cruddy when you cleaned it. It was ok to use bleech to clean the tank so you didn't do bad there. I hope I didn't come across too strong about the bleech but I have seen too many tanks become tombs after someone cleaned them with bleech with fish in the tanks. But it does sound like you have done everything right so no worries.

Is there and chance that some of the color is actually on the inside of the tank? It looks like the oily film I get on the top of my tanks from nitrates which go away after about 2 weeks of keeping up with maintenance. I have never seen it on the glass but it could be the cause.

GW

I may be wrong but it looks like some type of "Oil Stain".
Maybe just putting some good dish detergent like "Dawn" on it and letting it sit for awhile to break up the oil(should work if thats what this is).

Ilya

Thanks for the info. And it's on the outside. Whenever I get the outside wet, it disappears. So if it's on the inside as well, then it would be long gone! I have been told to use baking soda and ammonia. And steal wool as well.