Silicone eating worm?

[rcmike]

Hey everyone, I was feeding the the baby clownfish when my son came down into the basement and stepped in a wet spot next to the 75 gal. tank. We found a little hole below the level of the sand. It was a perfect hole that looked almost like it was drilled in it. We drained it and move the inhabitants into the other tanks and I got to searching and found several mentions of worms eating through silicone seams. Most of the mentions were from Australia for some reason. This hole definitely looks like it was eaten through by something. The seam is perfect besides the hole. On the inside it goes through the silicone bead with a perfect circle, not between the silicone and the glass. I bought the tank used and I inspected the seams and didn't see any bubbles or signs of problems before I set it up.
I have attempted a fix by cleaning out the hole by squirting acetone in it and blowing it out with air. I then filled a syringe with silicone and forced it through the hole. I also put a bead on the inside in the area of the hole. After filling the hole there are no bubbles and you can barely see it.

 

[rcmike]

For some reason the picture is rotated 90 degrees.

 

[Sabellafella]

[HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG] going to need more eyes on this one. Ive had limpets push aside silicone like this before, but not completely throught

 

[kschweer]

I have never seen or heard of anything like this. Very strange.

 

[jsker]

That is a new one for me also.

 

[rcmike]

Yeah, I'm not saying that is what caused it but it seems that some people have had them or think they have.

 

[schooleyosis]

Crazy!

 

[ThRoewer]

I had a worm eating through the silicone of one of my tanks back in Germany. I caught it and it was a scary beast with 3 needle sharp teeth. It actually bit me seriously (hurt like hell and bled) when I caught it.

Here a picture I found on the web of the kind of worm that munched its way through my tank's silicone:

Back then we got lots of fresh live rock from Indonesia and Singapore and those were full with all kinds of "interesting" hitchhikers - from crabs and pistol shrimp over coral to predatory worms.

 

[mixer911]

Yes @rcmike I had that same thing happen a few years ago. They do exist, just haven't physically seen one yet.

 

[MaccaPopEye]

The guy I bought my chiller off has had to tear down at least 2 tanks because of them! He got out of the hobby for a little while but is just starting to get back in. If you want to read a bit about his experiences then from memory in this thread he talks about it a little towards the end http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1529412

Edit - highly recommend reading that thread anyway just for the pics. Some very awesome ones in there. Unfortunately the area is not quite as amazing anymore, but it is still nice to go out there for a look at low tides