Draining and flushing my water cooling loop
Just drained my system last night. notice some weird greenish looking colour stain inside my blocks lol? How come? i used pure destilled water. Water is clear itself though but even the tubes have a greenish stain?
i used one drop of this http://www.candccentral.co.uk/images/D/Biocide-02.JPG
edit: pics of my gpu block
http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8350/8...6d067eab_c.jpg
527A4615.JPG by jonneymendoza, on Flickr
Re: Draining and flushing my water cooling loop
So do i need to use 1 drop per week?
what do u mean my loops alive lol
Re: Draining and flushing my water cooling loop
Turn all the fans off, let the loop come up to about 60C for a minute, then turn the fans back off. You've now killed anything that was alive ;)
As Gonz says, probably a small algae build up. Unless you sterilise all your blocks tubes and fittings, connect and fill your loop in a sterile environment, and have the entire thing hermetically sealed (or use strong chemical biocides and refresh them occasionally), you'll never keep algae and bacteria out of your loop completely. It shouldn't impact performance too much though - you'll just have to give everything a thorough clean once in a while :)
Re: Draining and flushing my water cooling loop
Ah ok cool nice one. Yea it doesnt affect my temps.
How can i give it a good cleaning?
Re: Draining and flushing my water cooling loop
Looks like copper carbonate (think: Statue of Liberty) from the picture - although I'd have no idea where you'd get all those carbonate ions from....
Re: Draining and flushing my water cooling loop
There's several alternatives to keeping clear of nasties - i've used redline water wetter in the past (pros: toxic, cons: after 2-3 years discolouration of pipes) and i'm now using purified water with biocide plus a couple of silver kill coils. I'm also using a bit of anti-corrosion additive just in case (although i'm not really mixing metals so it's not too much of an issue it helps to understand the science of why mixing copper with aluminium etc is a bad thing). People have their preferences but yes, water alone will become a breeding ground - your loop is nice a warm and wet after all.
There are specific products for cleaning - a mild acid will help with plenty of flushing afterward etc.
Here's what i'm using:
Pulse Modding BioClear PT - 10ml Concentrated Biocide
Mayhems Silver Killcoil (x2 because my loop has a lot of fluid)
Anticorrosive AntiCorro-Fluid 50ml
I've got a bottle of this for cleaning: SysClean-HPD High Power Lime Scale Remover 50ml
Specialtech and Aquatuning I think I used.
Re: Draining and flushing my water cooling loop
where would that have come from? Also, how can i clean it if possible?
Re: Draining and flushing my water cooling loop
Quote:
Originally Posted by
j.o.s.h.1408
where would that have come from? Also, how can i clean it if possible?
Sorry my edit came a bit late - look above :)
Sure that's staining and not the copper oxidising?
Re: Draining and flushing my water cooling loop
looks like stain, its on the tubing as well.
edit: on my reserviour is there like some little dark patch at the top of it. as if the water was boiling and left a mark on the res lol but no greenish stain though? only on the blocks and tubing
Re: Draining and flushing my water cooling loop
Does look like copper oxidising to me.
*edit - but could be algae too.. so not a helpful contribution from me there :p
Re: Draining and flushing my water cooling loop
Which is worse? copper oxidising or algae?
Re: Draining and flushing my water cooling loop
Quote:
Originally Posted by
j.o.s.h.1408
Which is worse? copper oxidising or algae?
Neither are bad. Algae could eventually gum up things I guess, but it'd take a lot to get to that kind of level.
Re: Draining and flushing my water cooling loop
quality. So the question is, how can i clean it? shall i just boil some distilled water to a decent high tempo(not too hot to handle) and pour inside the block and give it a bit of shakey shake?
Re: Draining and flushing my water cooling loop
Quote:
Originally Posted by
j.o.s.h.1408
quality. So the question is, how can i clean it? shall i just boil some distilled water to a decent high tempo(not too hot to handle) and pour inside the block and give it a bit of shakey shake?
Be careful - hot water will soften tubing and it might collapse/damage (retain the collapsed state) - it's better to use a cleaning agent IMHO. To clean it properly would probably entail dismantling the block and scrubbing it out (toothbrush) depending on what the build up actually is (of course then you risk leaks so a cleaning agent is a better bet as a first stop). Personally I replace my tubing each time I update parts or do a system flush since it's hard to clean well and also tends to harden and discolour over time.
It's difficult to see what the build up is from the pics alone - I mentioned copper because of the colour and the fact your block is copper. What other metals are in your loop? Are your fittings nickel or aluminium?
Re: Draining and flushing my water cooling loop