Kessil

Removing residue from silicon on tank side

phishphood

phishphood

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So I took out a divider type piece of glass from a tank today. It's something I've done at least 20x before, where a piece of glass has been siliconed into a tank. But for some reason this time, I can't get all the residue off of the tank walls. I've tried a razor blade, Goop Off, windex (ammonia?) and I think I even tried some HCl. From what it looks like, the razor blade doesn't even really scratch the residue? The only thing different between this one and all the others is that I know this divider has been in place for upwards of 4 years. Any other ideas? CLR maybe? Thanks guys....
 
Fresh razor blade at a better angle. I've removed dozens or partitions, resealed sumps, etc and a clean blade always does it for me :)

Alcohol will not do a thing as it's not alcohol based (ammonia based IIRC)
 
I don't know about this stuff..... I'm seriously at a loss. You can add to the list of stuff I've tried acetone and Mr. Clean Magic eraser and Dremel buffing wheel. The sanding wheel worked, but also etched the glass, sooooo.....

With a razor blade I can just barely scratch the stuff with the very corner of the blade and lots of pressure. It'll make one clean line through the milky 'residue' line. I'm not even sure it's residue at this point in time. The glass around the 'residue' as well as the residue itself is the cleanest glass I've seen in a long time now. Rubbing your finger along the glass, it feels like my finger catches just a little bit on the glass (like usual, just like using your hand to close a sliding glass door or window), but then when it hits the 'residue' it feels like I literally hit a patch of oil on the glass or something and slides super smooth. Will it help ID it if I take a pic of it? I'm really wondering if this is from the silicon, or from water that got trapped under the silicon and deposited minerals or something? (but that should've reacted w/ the HCl, right?).

Sighh......at least I got my DI filter hooked up right now...
 
GreshamH said:
Alcohol will not do a thing as it's not alcohol based (ammonia based IIRC)
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I don't know if it's just a lubricant for the steelwool, but it works. I have done it many times and the steelwool works better with the alchohol.

Don't say something does'nt work if you have'nt tried it. From my experience, even a fresh razorblade won't take the "Haze" left from the silicone. As I said already I have done it many times and this combination is the only thing I have found to work. I'm not saying it's the only thing that works, but it is the only thing I have found to work. and it works well.
 
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