Silicone is killing everything...

[Chew_Magna]

A couple weeks ago I put together a 15 gallon sump/refugium for my 40b. I followed all the advice on the net and bought GE I 100% silicone to attach the baffles in the sump. Immediately upon getting it running everything started going south in my tank. Coral are dying, I've lost anemones, I lost my skunk cleaner shrimp today. I've done tons of water tests, tons of unneeded water changes thinking there had to be something going on with my water (I recently found out my RO source was just tap and I thought this was the problem). I've been doing some reading and apparently both GE I and II have antifungal additives now, even though it does not state anywhere on the tube that it does. It says over and over 100% silicone, not a single mention of any additives, period.

 

So my question is: What can I do? I'm a worst-case-scenario thinking person so I'm freaking out that everything in my tank is ruined due to this crap penetrating all my rock and sand. Or is it all in the water column? Can I just run a TON of carbon to pull it out? Do I keep doing large water changes until the stuff has completely bled out?

 

I seriously need some help here. If this nukes everything then it's going to put me out of the hobby. I just don't have the funds anymore to reboot and start from scratch.

[najluni15]

How long did you cure it for

[najluni15]

Carbon will probably help as well

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

How long did you wait for curing? There have been countless reefers on this board that claim the GE Silicone even though it says not for aquarium use does indeed work.

 

Something doesn't add up?

 

How do you know the anti fungal additive is in your tube? When you stated that you had no warning from the tube?

[gulfsurfer101]

I always use that three hour shower ready clear silicone. I usually give it twelve to twenty four hours with never an I'll effect. I'm sorry to hear that man, I would unplumb your sump and just run a few power heads to the surface till your able to redo the baffling of your sump.

[MarieH]

I used this on my tank with no ill effect. Just 2 months ago. I resealed all the bottom on my 10g, and nothing happened, so sorry to hear the bad news.

[jbb]

I just used it as well , I think it was back in May. Gave it 72 hours of cure time , and have been trouble free so far. Sorry to hear of your issues , but I am interested in your cure time as well.

[Chew_Magna]

I let it cure for 48 hours+. I found out about the antifungal additive by doing a lot of reading online, tons of forum posts all across the net from people who have called GE after using this and their tanks crashed. They were all told by GE that there is an additive. "Trace amounts" of antifungal treatment is the word.

 

Apparently GE I used to be safe. Everything I found online was within the past year or two. I've read everything from it being a west coat/east coast thing to them changing the contents without changing the labels.

 

One thing I've recently learned is that there are two GE I 100% silicone types out there. They're both called the same thing but one has the additive while the other doesn't. I never came across this while reading about what silicone was aquarium safe. Everything said the same thing: GE I is safe.

[Squared]

a few weeks ago i bought and used the same silicone with no ill effects, although it is being used in a QT tank. there are few nice sized feather dusters and sponge growing on the rock that seem fine.

 

for now, if you're sure it's the silicon, i would disconnect the sump and move the equipment to the DT.

[Chew_Magna]

http://www.amazon.com/General-Electric-GE012A-Silicone-9-8-Ounce/dp/B0000CBIH9/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377998962&sr=8-1&keywords=ge+i+silicone

 

http://www.amazon.com/General-Electric-GE712-Silicone-9-8-Ounce/dp/B0000DI7XA/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1377998962&sr=8-3&keywords=ge+i+silicone

 

These are both GE I 100% silicone. The one I bought is the red one because it's the only one carried at my Home Depot. So naturally I assumed it was the only one.

 

It's the wrong one. This one is designed for kitchen and bathroom use while the blue one is for window and door use. That's the one I needed.

[Micro-Reefs Aquariums]

Glad you figured it out and I have never seen the red one at Lowes or Home Depot, only the top one in blue. I have been wanting to pick up the blue GE one and now that I read your thread I'm sure it's the correct one.

 

Window and door version of GE 100% slicone

[Gooburz]

I would undo the sump like stated before, run double carbon, large water changes and pray for the best. In the mean time I would redo that sump, remove all silicone, run boiling water through it with vinegar and find a alternate silicone.

 

Considering the sump is all you added that seems to be the only thing that it could be. This may sound like a dumb question but were all the plumbing tubes cleaned, what was added to the sump and where did you get it from, others have used this gel and haven't had any ill effect.

 

I know its difficult with crap going bad in your tank but break everything from that sump down 1 by 1 and remember what you did, could be something so silly you missed. So again take each thing one by one and go over it, looking at the picture as a whole can give you the deer in a headlights effect.

[najluni15]

I've used the blue one multiple times with no problems. The red one is made with anti fungal for kitchens etc.

[ReviloM]

Yeah GE 1 in the silver bottle is the right one. Red = Dead.

 

also it says

GE712 Kitchen and Bath Silicone I Caulk - White.

[Chew_Magna]

I would undo the sump like stated before, run double carbon, large water changes and pray for the best. In the mean time I would redo that sump, remove all silicone, run boiling water through it with vinegar and find a alternate silicone.

 

Considering the sump is all you added that seems to be the only thing that it could be. This may sound like a dumb question but were all the plumbing tubes cleaned, what was added to the sump and where did you get it from, others have used this gel and haven't had any ill effect.

 

I know its difficult with crap going bad in your tank but break everything from that sump down 1 by 1 and remember what you did, could be something so silly you missed. So again take each thing one by one and go over it, looking at the picture as a whole can give you the deer in a headlights effect.

I'm pretty OCD about what goes in my tank. I cleaned everything that was new, the rest came straight from my DT to the sump.

 

The red one is made with anti fungal for kitchens etc.

This is probably true, the problem is that nowhere is it mentioned that it contains anything other than 100% silicone. I mean literally nowhere. I've read this thing a dozen times over and it just isn't on there.

[ExSmoker]

ANY silicone that is ment for Bathrooms or Kitchens WILL have stuff in it to prevent mould and whatnot. You MUST use the door and window types, ment for outside use. I HIGHLY reccomend finding a way to take apart your sump/baffels and rebuild it using the right stuff.

I know its a pain in the A$$, I have been there too, but thats how to cure this issue. Right away use Carbon and change it OFTEN. this will help remove all this unwanted stuff. Also run your skimmer. Sorry about your tank, it will get better.

[Chew_Magna]

ANY silicone that is ment for Bathrooms or Kitchens WILL have stuff in it to prevent mould and whatnot. You MUST use the door and window types, ment for outside use. I HIGHLY reccomend finding a way to take apart your sump/baffels and rebuild it using the right stuff.

I know its a pain in the A$$, I have been there too, but thats how to cure this issue. Right away use Carbon and change it OFTEN. this will help remove all this unwanted stuff. Also run your skimmer. Sorry about your tank, it will get better.

Yeah that's what I thought when I was looking at the stuff in the store. All the others clearly state on the tube that they have some sort of microbial or anti fungal treatment. This doesn't. And when all you've read is "GE I is safe" you're going to assume this is the one everyone was talking about.

 

I have my chemipure elite in the tank right now, it went in when I plumbed the sump. Tomorrow I'm going to go get a couple bags of the regular stuff to add to it.

 

My skimmer is a joke, it isn't even suitable for my tank in normal situations. It was the one I was using when I started off in a 10 gallon. No money for a better one.

[ExSmoker]

I understand 100%, this is excatly what I thought when I did the same thing, got the wrong one, built the tank and learned a lesson.

when all you've read is "GE I is safe" you're going to assume this is the one everyone was talking about.

[Gooburz]

Yeah that's what I thought when I was looking at the stuff in the store. All the others clearly state on the tube that they have some sort of microbial or anti fungal treatment. This doesn't. And when all you've read is "GE I is safe" you're going to assume this is the one everyone was talking about.

 

I have my chemipure elite in the tank right now, it went in when I plumbed the sump. Tomorrow I'm going to go get a couple bags of the regular stuff to add to it.

 

My skimmer is a joke, it isn't even suitable for my tank in normal situations. It was the one I was using when I started off in a 10 gallon. No money for a better one.

 

Whatever you do don't give up on the hobby man, just give it time and things will eventually get back to normal.

[Chew_Magna]

Whatever you do don't give up on the hobby man, just give it time and things will eventually get back to normal.

I don't plan on getting out. The problem is if my tank does crash I simply don't have the money to reboot. It just isn't there.

[Mojado]

FWIW, I came close to buying that stuff, but read on the package that it was not meant for aquarium use, so I put it back. I bought the stuff that was specifically meant for aquariums. It was more expensive, but I chalked that up as paying for peace of mind.

 

I know this doesn't help you much now . . .sorry.

[debbeach13]

Sorry to read about your problem. I hope by disconnecting the sump you are able to avoid a crash. Some times it is best to keep it simple. If you have the $ I would do a 50% water change and replace all filter media with new. Then wait a couple days and see how every thing loosk and runs some tests.Good luck

[slowngreen]

Like i said this happened to me just a month ago. Once I realized it, I got my new sump (the problem) out of there and did a huge water change. Then did another water change, then another, in three days all water plus some was replaced and instantly almost things started looking good again.

 

Heres my thread, thought it was a bunch of other stuff first since no tests help out with this.

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/330842-calcium-dose-not-happy-coral/page-2

 

And the blue label door and window NOW says online that it is also mildew and mold resistant so its no good anymore either, glad I saw that cuz thats what I fixed my sump with just havent put it back in.

[rafastank727]

I read a thread on rc that any silicone with mildew resistance it's reef safe it just takes longer to cure. I don't think 48 hrs was long enough to cure

Just last night I finished a bottle of the same stuff you use. After reading what happened to you I might just order some of that $15 silicone online and start all over with my sump

[Chew_Magna]

Well a plus is apparently it'll kill calupra, so if you have that problem... doesn't do anything to gha though.

Picked up a couple bags of carbon so I'm running that along with the chemipure elite. I have enough carbon in there to filter a 100+ gallon tank Lol.

I think I may have dodged a bullet by initially having the chemipure already in the tank. There are so many stories about this stuff instantly nuking everything in a tank, the fact that I still have so many things apparently thriving makes me wonder how bad it really could be. I mean it's bad, but it isn't the horror story some people make it out to be. Most of my lps are perfectly fine, shrooms are fine, my sebae nem is fine, all the fish snails and crabs are fine.

This still sucks ass, but it isn't the end for me.