Horror in my loop

[Salamndar]

Good day good people of Xtreme systems forums, today I decided to clean my loop completely so I can fit with some new parts and into a new case, guess what I found.................. check these pictures :








what should I do exactly, ohh I've had my water cooling parts for 14 months now, I changed water in the loop 3 times, I use Dis. water + PT_Nuke.

My loop parts are :

Swiftech XT, swiftech radiators, Swiftech 355 Pump, XSPC res. and tigun tubes.

[Conumdrum]

How much PT nuke?

[theseeker]

Demineralized water is the best option going forward. You can clean the copper very easily with ketchup and a toothbrush. Vinegar works well too.

[Salamndar]

4 drops / liter

[Salamndar]

Demineralized water is the best option going forward. You can clean the copper very easily with ketchup and a toothbrush. Vinegar works well too.

I use pure dist. water that I buy from a car bat. shop

[Quad-Damage]

Looks like 2 much pt nuke. big drops I bet I had the same issue with my old loop

Take it easy on the PT, they do give you a life time supply of it so take it easy on it slugger

Better clean it up, Tran X works great BTW

[zigzag]

Isnt it supposed to be only 2 drops per litre?

[gmat]

The green stuff looks like copper oxydation ? Seems reasonable since there is nothing in your coolant that would dampen acidity. Acid, water and metals = battery effect. I would suggest adding some kind of dampener (a base, pH>7) in order to prevent the liquid from attacking your metals. Very pure water such as distilled water will become acidic in no time with just contact with the air. Metal ions added to it will accelerate the process.

[Salamndar]

OMG...Just my luck, as I was cleaning the water block my little 10 month old son was able to reach the disassembled parts and he dropped some of the screws some where and I can't find them !!!

Now I have a semi clean dysfunctional water block !



Should buy a new water block tomorrow and delay my build a week or so......

[Holst]

Those screws must be a standard thread. You should be able to buy some replacements from somewhere.

[matari]

Black stuff is oxidation; the stuff in the barbs looks like algae. Easy to fix, just make sure you clean the radiator well.

[Waterlogged]

Clearly to much Nuke (1-2 drops/liter only)...and I'm going to say that it blended with the plasticizer from the Tygon to form what your seeing.

[Salamndar]

Isnt it supposed to be only 2 drops per litre?

Sorry that I failed to mention that I use PT_Nuke -PHN and not PT_Nuke, which states on the bottle to use 4 drops / liter !

also if you look at the 3rd fitting - the one on the left side - that seems to be rust as I scratched with my finger to have a chunk of the fitting itself to fall on the ground.

I've ordered a new water block since it is impossible to find screws from these size where I live and I also ordered 2 fittings to replace the ones that have rusty edges.

[dinos22]

a was fully expecting a Dracula living in your loop

[Salamndar]

a was fully expecting a Dracula living in your loop

It is the lake slimy monster that lives in this water block !!!

[Captain_Harlock]

By the way, a side note about the PT-Nuke products. I've seen several people point out as of late on several threads that its a lifetime supply. If I remember correctly, its only good for a couple of years as it will begin to break down after that. Correct me if I'm wrong on this one.

[voigts]

I'm seeing one too many threads lately where people are using just distilled water and PT Nuke PHN and having issues like this. It leaves me to wonder why when so many of us use the same combination and never have a problem.

[Salamndar]

I'm starting to suspect the quality of dist. water that I use, yet the tygan tubes gets clouded in just a month of use !

I'm so clueless regarding the issue, I really need to find what's wrong so it won't happen again.

[xcooling]

its all down to the PH level of the distilled water.

Some samples I tested were around the PH 4.5 mark.

[PatRaceTin]

hmmmm interesting

[gmat]

Some samples I tested were around the PH 4.5 mark.

That's not surprising considering it will form up ions quite fast when in contact with the atmosphere. That's why some pH buffer would be needed...

[k0rnh0li0]

14 months and how many times did you take it apart for cleaning and whatnot

[voigts]

I'm going to have to go by a pet store and get a PH test kit. I've never had any problems just using grocery store distilled, but it would be interesting to see what the PH is of the stuff I'm using.

[Salamndar]

14 months and how many times did you take it apart for cleaning and whatnot

I cleaned the parts when I first got them, then I made water change + tube changes 3 times during this period in which tubes seems to cloud very fast within the first 5 weeks!!!

Then I tried to clean the parts last night when I was shocked to see what I saw!

[musicfan]

I'm starting to suspect the quality of dist. water that I use, yet the tygan tubes gets clouded in just a month of use !

I'm so clueless regarding the issue, I really need to find what's wrong so it won't happen again.

In post #13, you describe rust or corrosion. There is no evidence of biological contamination other than your fitting was green, which could be corrosion and not necessarily biological. It is interesting that benzalkonium can be inactivated by inorganic contamination (metals?). But many use PT Nuke PHN without biological growth so that is confusing. The plasticizers with Tygon 3603 are well-know but do they get hard? I thought they were mushy and could be cleaned out fairly easily like running a cloth on a wire through the tubing. If there is anything mushy, you could look at it under a microscope for fungal elements. A 10% potassium hydroxide solution (safe) can make it easier but pending that, I would be hesitant to call this biological (do you have a friend who is a medical assistant or med tech who could help?).

Anyway, thank you for this interesting thread. The reason I posted was to offer an idea. Here is my own testing but it's still beta:

I built a new loop last June with cleaned-out new gear using only steam distilled water + silver. Last partial water change water was September when adding a rotary fitting.

I am testing 3 different tubings: MasterKleer mostly but two long pieces of different diameters of Tygon 3603. The MK is crystal clear now 9 months later and all Tygon is cloudy - presumably plasticizers. I have never used PT Nuke but bought some PHN.

Even though it is early to draw conclusions on my testing, you could try MasterKleer and silver and see how you do. Good luck