Plumbing – Whats the difference between black, blue and red PEX pipes sleeves

I am a professional plumber and I have been using PEX tubing for 20 years and I am also manufacturer-certified to do so.

The only time I've ever seen this green color in PEX tubing it was algae. The pipe was a cold water supply line that was wrapped with heat tape and pipe insulation, and run above ground underneath my camper. When I removed the pipe it had algae growth along its whole length.

However, the algae will not stick to the pipe. When you kill it, it will just wash away out through your faucets; just make sure you remove your aerators in order not to clog them.

1. Shut off the water supply line to your water heater.
2. Drain some water out of your water heater from the drain valve.
3. Disconnect the supply line from your water heater, so you can pour your bleach in from there.
4. Reconnect your water heater and run hot water out all your faucets until you can smell the bleach.
5. After letting it sit for a sufficient amount of time, flush all the water out of your hot water pipes and water heater until no more bleach is detected.

This will kill your algae, but you may still have it inside your pipes. You might need to tap on the pipe to knock it loose before flushing.

In my case I drained the pipe and the algae dried up and fell from the pipe. Or you could remove and replace the affected area.

You may notice a rotten egg odor from the water from time to time if the sulfur content is high enough. Bacteria in the water convert sulfur compounds into hydrogen sulfide which reacts with the copper to form a coating of copper sulfide.

There are no set limits on how much sulfur can be in the water. It's naturally occurring and not considered to be a primary water contaminant.

If you are having problems with slime, stained clothes or rotten egg odor, chlorination can reduce the bacterial action that produces hydrogen sulfide. Chlorination will cause the sulfur to precipitate out of the water which you will now have to filter to remove the particles.

Excessive sulfur content in water has a laxative effect, probably the only reason to worry about it. Lower content is basically an added nutrient. Hydrogen sulfide gas in quantity is a poison, but since it's smelly and you haven't mentioned it, the quantity is likely a non-issue.

As to the pipes, it sounds like your problem is a stable black copper sulfide tarnish that has low solubility in water (unlike copper sulfate which readily dissolves and is toxic). New copper will quickly acquire the same coating from the hydrogen sulfide (which will also tarnish silver).