Aluminum Vs Copper and Corrosion

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Originally Posted by fart_plume

the "uv" lighting used in cases is more correctly termed black light, not true UV. The only true UV lights I have ever seen are heavy shielded from the operator. As far as i know uv has little effect on metals. One of the metal shops actually stored Stainless, Titanium and Aluminum, outside unprotected from the elements. the aluminum might get a light white tint to it but never more than that, same for the titanium. Stainless, well there are so many SS alloys, some will actually rust,some just get a little dull looking. your $00 series SS will rust due to the high carbon content, whereas 300 series is used a lot for marine and water uses, mainly because it has a higher nickle content.

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welll.... It can cause metals to have a postential due to the Photoelectric effect, (which Einstein won his noble prize explaning). I suspect UV band light will have this effect.

To follow from this, proper UV should kill bacteria, as used in water filters, and since it causes a potential, could be used to aid or negate the effects of electron flow in corrosion, depending on which metal experience more Photoelectric effect and the intensities and wavelenghts of the UV. :up:

I'm scared to look at the inside of my GTX now :stick:

Well, whenever i get around to pulling my loop apart.. i suppose I'll take a peek inside :rofl:

@ Riptide, I hadn't run across anything yet in my research on light affecting metals yet, so I have no other experience other that actual practical application as used in metal working. So I'll defer to you on this part.

@ KaptCrunch I have aluminum in my loop also, so far no problems.

Here i am about to get in the bed, i click on XS... to find two threads on the GTX corrosion. I'm now OCD about it :rofl:

But it seems fine, temps and all... just like the day i bought it. So i shouldn't worry.

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Originally Posted by fart_plume

@ Riptide, I hadn't run across anything yet in my research on light affecting metals yet, so I have no other experience other that actual practical application as used in metal working. So I'll defer to you on this part.

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Ya according to Quantum phota Theory it has to be ABOVE a certain frequency for each metal to excite the electrons off the surface. Each metal surface will have its own Frequency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroscope <<< Happens with gold in daylight.

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Originally Posted by ThatGuy16

Here i am about to get in the bed, i click on XS... to find two threads on the GTX corrosion. I'm now OCD about it :rofl:

But it seems fine, temps and all... just like the day i bought it. So i shouldn't worry.

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I wouldn't worry, just take the precautions to control corrosion and you'll be fine.

Actually copper is expensive, China has been buying al the copper they can get their hands on for their industrialization. We've had a lot of copper thefts around the state here including guys cutting live transformer out of circuits(I'm talking power grid Transformers) and copper evaps and condensers out of running commercail AC units on the top of buildings. Copper $2.6757 lb., Aluminum $1.033 lb, and you get a lot more aluminum volume than copper for the same weight.


Source: http://www.kitcometals.com/

In marine applications, a zinc anode is better for salt water and a magnesium anode is better for fresh water.

The reason I said use Stainless is fittings are readily available. Magnesium= fire hazard. You can light magnesium with a match and it will burn underwater............( and i'm not disputing you at all dengyong).

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Originally Posted by Hondacity

anymore? info? i see bashing of alu but no pictures...

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Well, if you are so skeptical of galvanic corrosion why worry about mixing alu and cu? Why not do it yourself and find out?

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Originally Posted by fart_plume

Also maintaining a ph level between 7 & 7.5 is optimal for minimizing corrosion and preventing biologicals in water systems.

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I own a pool and the optimal "perfect" pH that is considered "nuetral (i.e. not acidic or alkaline) is 7.4. I do have pH minus and pH increaser here at the house. I also have a test kit here.

In fact, you have raised my curiosity for an experiemnt. I'm gonna go get my test kit and test that Distilled I got at Walmart and report back what I find. This will be straight out of the jug. bbiaf...

I'll report the brand of water and the ph level in a few minutes. Testing is real easy. I have all the reagents to run all water tests.

Really don't mess with pH balance. You just end up adding unknown ingredients that could potentially react in unexpected ways to the other parts in your loop. Something that raises pH can often have citric acid and that stuff will eat away at copper faster than galvanic corrosion. My experience with hydroponic systems has also shown that pH balance is temporary and will usually end up at 8 or 9 within a month anyway.

OK I tested some Walmart Distilled Water that I bought for my new system. It is the cheapest stuff they had at 69 cents a gallon. It has no brand name, but is Steam Distillation Processed by Natural Springs at Hickory Springs in Elloree, SC

I ran full tests on the water and these are the numbers...

Free Chlorine (FC) = 0 (I got no reaction, and no color from the reagents)
Total Chlorine (TC) = 0 (Same deal - No Color, No Reaction)
Combined Chlorine (CC) = 0 (TC-FC=CC)
pH= 7.4 (Balanced)
Total Alkalinity (TA) = Less than 10ppm Calcium Carbonate(ended up proving to be zero after TH test)
Total Hardness (TH) = 0 ppm Calcium Carbonate (No Color Change of Hardness Indicator after adding over 100 drops of Hardness titrant. 100x10 would = over 1000ppm of Calcium Carbonate and I know it's not that high. I stopped at 100.

This is excellent water for a loop. It's balanced and flat on the other numbers. It wouldn't be great for pool water, but for a loop you can't get any better than that.

Basically what all that means is it won't eat on stuff, it contains no chlorates or chlorites, and it won't leave calcium deposits. It's pH balanced which keeps microbials from growing, and stops metalurgic reactions.

I give it an A+! :D

Short Version? :up:

Tested mine for ph only and it's at 6.8ph it's also from Wal-mart. Getting some more samples from every Wal-mart could be interesting.