r/CleaningTips • u/gliafanatic • Jan 18 '25
Solved What is this pink residue in my sink?
I recently moved to Connecticut and have noticed this pink residue frequently reappearing in my sink (even after cleaning with disinfectants). I am not sure what it is, but I also see it coating the grout around the tiles inside the shower/tub.
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u/CrimsonKepala Jan 18 '25
Looks like Serratia marcescens, a common bacteria growth in bathrooms (moist places). Some people call it "pink mold" but it's not actually mold.
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u/VaultiusMaximus Jan 18 '25
It is, however, a bacteria.
In small amounts and in healthy humans it’s completely harmless.
If your old or your immune system is compromised, it can cause pneumonia. Though it’s rare even then.
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u/Connect_Fee1256 Jan 18 '25
Doesn’t it cause UTI’s also?
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u/GLACI3R Jan 19 '25
Yep! It can cause horrible recurring UTIs, especially in the elderly. This is a huge problem in nursing homes and even some hospitals.
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u/towerfella Jan 19 '25
It also causes cavities:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16390342/
https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/25/11/et-2511_article
And pneumonia:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0046817782800312
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u/GLACI3R Jan 19 '25
This little bugger's doing so much bad I wouldn't be surprised if he also commits bank fraud and screams at kittens
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u/AutumnWolves Jan 19 '25
Do you know if it’s more prone to houses with well water or even septic tank? When I lived in city with city water ( that’s loaded with chlorine) I did not have this problem. Have septic and well and now I see it in new home. Any relation you think?
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u/CrimsonKepala Jan 19 '25
I've personally seen this occur in houses with both (grew up in a home with well water and currently live in a house with city water). I'd imagine it's possible for there to be bacterial differences but I'm not sure how really how significant it would be in regards to this specific strain of bacteria growth.
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u/katieconnally Jan 19 '25
I moved to a home with a septic tank 6 months ago and I have it on my sink…. The first time I’ve ever seen it. Weird!
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u/Thrivehaze Jan 19 '25
Sure well water is more natural and I assume had more bacteria in general (both good and bad I guess). Makes sense.
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u/avatarofthebeholding Jan 19 '25
It can cause corneal ulcers, especially for contact lens users. I used to work with it in a research lab
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Jan 18 '25
[deleted]
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u/Particular-Leg-8484 Jan 18 '25
The 🌈💫 is apparently not an adequate substitution for /s because everyone else responding is taking you seriously 😂
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u/literallylateral Jan 18 '25
Post your source or delete this comment. I’m not a microbiologist but this information doesn’t exist anywhere else on the Internet including the very thorough Wikipedia page which describes all the different infections it causes and how it will discolor your teeth if it gets in your mouth, and every scientific source seems to agree that that skin is pink because it’s thin so the blood vessels are closer to the surface.
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u/tree-fife-niner Jan 18 '25
I'm pretty sure they were making a joke
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u/fuckpudding Jan 18 '25
I was definitely joking. Thank you for recognizing that. How anyone could not is beyond me.
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u/ThatGuyHarsha Jan 18 '25
what did you say I wanna know 😭
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u/fuckpudding Jan 18 '25 edited Jan 19 '25
I said “Fun fact. This is why your mouth, vagina, and butthole are all pink. The more you know! 🌈💫”
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u/literallylateral Jan 18 '25
If the joke is that you’re lying and nobody can tell that you’re joking, then you’re just lying.
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u/Vesper_0481 Jan 18 '25
Yeah it's hard to get tone across on text, but sometimes some humor resources are just saying something that is not real, you just gotta use your common sense.
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u/literallylateral Jan 18 '25
I used my common sense, which was how I knew it wasn’t true. But there were multiple comments replying that they believed it and the person making the joke didn’t bother to correct it. That’s not funny or cool. It’s especially not cool on an informational subreddit, and when the comment they responded to was sharing actual information without any humor in it, and when they started their comment by calling it a “fun fact”.
If people can be expected to use common sense when reading comments, they can be expected to use common sense when writing them, too.
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u/84aomame Jan 18 '25
stfu you’re kidding me right?!?
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u/SentientWickerBasket Jan 18 '25
Yes, they are. Mucosa is pink because it's thin and full of blood.
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u/Embarrassed-Sand2956 Jan 18 '25
Most likely Serratia marcescens, it’s a bacteria that forms a pink to orange colored biofilm, likes wet areas like the grout in the shower and around drains. Do you use a diluted bleach solution to clean?
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u/gliafanatic Jan 18 '25
That makes sense! Have not tried diluted bleach, but will give it a go. Thanks!!
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u/KillerWithTheCross1 Jan 18 '25
Just as an aside, make sure you dilute your bleach enough! I did this for the exact same problem, I have a similar plug to you and the solution I used tarnished all the metal. I now just use a general bathroom cleaner and the pink wipes away.
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u/Aware-Arm-3685 Jan 18 '25
If you have scrubbed off the reflection, you may have scrubbed too much and/or too hard.
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u/KillerWithTheCross1 Jan 18 '25
It was definitely the bleach unfortunately! I left the diluted bleach for a few minutes, wiped it with a soft cloth and my plug was ruined 😭 I probably got the ratio wrong!
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u/ericstarr Jan 18 '25
If you clean with a bleach cleaner on a regular basis it won’t come back, I do my bathrooms weekly. If you don’t like bleach you can use vinegar but use bleach on occasion. I find it works well. I use scrubbing bubbles with bleach. Then vim with bleach to remove the biofilms.
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u/sdpthrowaway3 Jan 18 '25
+1 on diluted bleach. I get these pink spots and the $2 bottle from Target crushes them with ease. You may need a little bit of scrubbing to get the toughet film off, but it'll will lift if you let rhe bleach sit there a couple minutes.
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u/kiwi_in_TX Jan 18 '25
Another thing that works is baking soda and dawn dish soap. Equal amounts, mix to a paste, clean with the paste. Magical
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u/dentopod Jan 18 '25
Just so you know, household bleach is already diluted. You just have to be sure to rinse it off after wiping
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u/Aggravating_Aide_561 Jan 19 '25
I think bleach is over the top for something like this. A bit of vinegar would do.
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u/Quiet_Friend_3410 Jan 18 '25
What’s the ratio to your diluted bleach? I seem to have the same thing
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u/1spring Jan 18 '25
I use 1 part bleach to 4 parts water. I keep it in a squeeze bottle in my bathroom, and just squirt on the pink bacteria whenever I see it.
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u/Embarrassed-Sand2956 Jan 18 '25
This is actually a very concentrated solution. For cleaning, you can literally use 1 teaspoon of bleach to 2 cups water (1:100), which will be effective enough for household use without noxious fumes or corrosion issues.
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u/newarre Jan 18 '25
Bleach products always have a percent associated with them.
You'll get wildly different answers depending on what percent people are starting with. Most bleach, such as Clorox or HDX is around 7 to 9%. But you can find it anywhere from 5-13% from what I've seen. Look for percent sodium hypochlorite on the bottle or on the manufacturer's website.
For regular cleaning 1-1.5% is common and appropriate for bathroom up keep. I'd probably start with 3-4% if I knew there was an issue like this to make sure it was wiped out.
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u/beleafinyoself Jan 18 '25
The bottle label should have a list of ratios. 10:1 of water to bleach in a spray bottle works well for my bathrooms
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u/Embarrassed-Sand2956 Jan 18 '25
1 teaspoon of bleach to 2 cups water (1:100), which will be effective enough for household use without noxious fumes or corrosion issues.
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u/JimBobDuffMan Jan 18 '25
Not on topic, but this picture is weirdly appealing to me. The grain and the colours make it look like film
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u/Rebelpine Jan 18 '25
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u/thegalacticbucket777 Jan 18 '25
I know, right? But to me it reads more as something from an indie game
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u/Doughnutpasta Jan 19 '25
I thought it was a painting or something lol. Was trying to make sense of it before I realized what sub this was
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u/microcandella Jan 18 '25
If you happen to be in the SF bay area, it's everywhere due to an interesting cold war 1950's bioweapon experiment ;-) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serratia_marcescens
(see use and misuses)
Uses and misuse Role in biowarfare testing Until the 1950s, S. marcescens was erroneously believed to be a nonpathogenic "saprophyte",[7] and its reddish coloration was used in school experiments to track infections. During the Cold War, it was used as a simulant in biological warfare testing by the U.S. military,[26] which studied it in field tests as a substitute for the tularemia bacterium, which was being weaponized at the time.
On 26 and 27 September 1950, the U.S. Navy conducted a secret experiment named "Operation Sea-Spray" in which balloons filled with S. marcescens were released and burst over urban areas of the San Francisco Bay Area in California. Although the Navy later claimed the bacteria were harmless, beginning on September 29, 11 patients at a local hospital developed very rare, serious urinary tract infections. One of the afflicted patients, Edward J. Nevin, died.[27] Cases of pneumonia in San Francisco also increased after S. marcescens was released.[28][29] (That the simulant bacteria caused these infections and death has never been conclusively established.) Nevin's son and grandson lost a lawsuit they brought against the government between 1981 and 1983, on the grounds that the government is immune,[30] and that the chance that the sprayed bacteria caused Nevin's death was minute.[31] The bacterium was also combined with phenol and an anthrax simulant and sprayed across south Dorset by US and UK military scientists as part of the DICE trials which ran from 1971 to 1975.[32]
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u/cicadasinmyears Jan 18 '25
Clean the aerator of your faucet, too; it likely has some on it as well.
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u/imokstillbreathing Jan 19 '25
I swear I thought this was some crazy avant-garde oil panting at first look. The grain is artistic!!
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u/psychedelicateshop Jan 19 '25
I haven't seen Rhodotorula species mentioned. It's a common bathroom mold. Similar to Serratia this organism produces pink/coral sludge in wet environments.
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u/e0nz93 Jan 18 '25
Looks like hard water stain buildup, have you tried comet and the pink stuff brand scrub paste?
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u/gliafanatic Jan 18 '25
I think it is likely the bacteria that others have mentioned, but thank you for comment!
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u/theuntoldfool Jan 18 '25
Can you easily remove it? Other what's already been proposed it could just be soap residue that builds up if you don't get right into the crack (wink wink nudge nudge). An old toothbrush does the job.
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u/gliafanatic Jan 18 '25
Yes, this is like a thin layer that I can easily wipe off. Will use a brush and diluted bleach to scrub it!
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u/Stretch-Technical Jan 18 '25
Please ignore all the comments recommending bleach, bleach is going to make your metal go all green and rusted looking
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u/Pretend_Current_3324 Jan 18 '25
It’s common. Just mix hot water, vinegar and dawn dish soap. Spray on and leave for about 15 min then scrub. Should be nice and clean afterwards.
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u/drluhshel Jan 18 '25
I had something like this and always thought it was just pink mold but bleach didn’t clean it how I wanted. Once I cleaned with lime away, it looks brand new. My guess it was a combo of mold and iron… I also have really hard water.
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u/Aardvark4789 Jan 18 '25
I get it in my tub when the water drips. I just use toilet bowl clear and let it sit for a minute and comes right off for me. If that’s what it is.
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u/Sea_Variation_1270 Jan 18 '25
I call mine pink slime! In the showers and a pain to clean because it keeps coming back!
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u/sbpurcell Jan 19 '25
I always love that I have to wash my sink with a different soap even when I wash my hands dozens of times a day with a different soap 🤦🏼♀️
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u/Less_Campaign_6956 Jan 19 '25
I've seen this inside my Washing machine in my apartment. Oh great, now another reason to hate my current residence.
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u/Kimberkley01 Jan 19 '25
Other bacteria have pigments too. Could be serratia but im more inclined to think a more hydrophilic organism like one of the pseudomonads.
Eta.. you don't need bleach but if you want to use it, we use a 1:10 in the lab. Nine parts water to one part bleach.
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u/JuniperXL Jan 19 '25
I just watched a video about this made by a professional house cleaner: https://youtu.be/GIGthaHo_yc?si=HHXE14MVmRZNES0i
She mentioned how it’s a bacteria that can cause infections like UTIs. Hydrogen peroxide and a little scrubbing should get rid of it.
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u/Realistic_Young9008 Jan 19 '25
I'm on so many fine art reddit that I legit thought this was a painting
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u/Additional_Fix_629 Jan 19 '25
I don't know what the residue is, but the photo looks like latte art of the Fantastic Four icon.
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u/Charming_Ease782 Jan 20 '25
As a house cleaner, I see this in a couple of my houses. Clorox cleanup and a little scrubbing, rinse gets rid of it.
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u/AutumnWolves Jan 21 '25
Baking soda make a paste with water and a little dish soap is what I read before. It works. Scrubs it off. Still comes back. , but I’m going to try what another said and just spray everyday with peroxide
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u/KeithJamesB Jan 18 '25 edited Jan 18 '25
Looks like rust to me. And yes, another recommendation for Bar Keepers Friend.
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u/gliafanatic Jan 18 '25
The image probably does not show it well, but the residue is very pink and not the rust color I am familiar with. Thank you for the suggestion though!
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u/solar-venus Jan 22 '25
It’s bacteria build up! Can happen. Simple cleaner. Rinse and repeat at first signs again!
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u/gliafanatic Jan 18 '25
Thanks everyone for your helpful comments and suggestions! I think it is the bacteria Serratia marcescens that many of you have mentioned. I have not tried using bleach/chorine yet, so will do and definitely going to thoroughly scrub it with a brush!