"Bubba Wood" wrote in message
...
So my neighbor asks me to look at his kids desk to see if I know how
to fix it. He had a 10 gal aquarium on it for about a year with a
towel between the tank and the desk top. There are black spots and
streaks in the top where moisture was trapped.

The top is MDF core red oak veneer with what looks like about a 1/64"
thick veneer. There is no stain on the wood, just a clear coat which I
will assume is either an acrylic or poly product. There are a few
areas where the finish has lifted and flaked off around the black
stains and the grain has lifted a little bit. There may even be a few
small areas of delamination.

All the neighbor wants is for the staining to be gone. I don't know if
the stain is mold, mildew or something else. The wife tried some
mildew product on it with no success. That may of been what caused
some of the grain to raise.

Has anyone seen this before and know a good method to correct the
problem. I'm looking for ways to remove the stain. It seems to be a
surface stain or growth, I was able to scratch some of it off with a
finger nail but other areas did nothing when scratched.

My first thought was to try a weak bleach solution.

Thanks
Larry

Sand down the top and refinish.