Mineral, Corrosion, and growing stuff maybe?

[A_Noob]

I have a watercooling setup. My liquid is milky white now (kind of pasty) and my CPU block seems to be corroding. All my blocks are copper. It's kind of weird, I'm trying to figure out why my system seems to have mineral build up and the cpu block is corroding. I'm using distilled water and petra's biocide.

Help! What should I do? What is the best way to flush my system and remove the mineral build up and stop corrosion???

[ElEctric_EyE]

What kind of radiator are you using? How long before this happened? How do you know your blocks are corroding?

[shazza]

And, to add to the questions, did you rinse out your radiator before setting everything up? If not, you may just be seeing some of the normal crud that needs to be rinsed out before setting up your loop. You should be able to flush it out now.

[Polizei]

Pictures would help.

[A_Noob]

Yeah, I rinse out the radiator with hot water before I started using it. It's only been maybe 3-4 months since I have been using my system. I am using a Black Ice GTX 480 with Apogee GTX, DD 975X block, MCR-60 VGA block, Swiftech Pump MCP-655, and masterkleer 7/16" tubing. I know the block is corroding because I took the Apogee GTX block off. The top part (not the copper) has pits in them, I'm afraid the pits will end up cracking the cpu block. The liquid is like white with a light tinge of kind of like blue or green. When I feel some of the pasty materials they kind of feel kind of rough, dry, and a bit pasty. I changed the water out though, I clean the blocks up but I couldn't clean my DD 975x block because I don't have the right hex wrenches.

What is the best way to flush and clean it out? I will get some pictures up as soon as possible when I get some good lighting, it's dark here and I don't want to use the flash.

[ElEctric_EyE]

I believe what you have is some serius corrosion, no sh*t eh?. As an auto-tech, I have seen the same white substance on unprotected battery terminals, and green from the sulfuric acid/iron/steel combo erosion. Only difference here is your system is submerged in water. I am surprised though, that we are only talking abit more than a few months here. You may have had an air pocket where that stuff built up and ionized until the water flow broke it lose and the pump churned it up in the white mixture you're seeing. And that ionized crap got circulated, and things got exponentially worse.

Keep in mind, I myself am a n00b about to start a WC system, I would rec a full teardown and replacement of your blocks and hoses for sure, and sorry to say, your rad's too. I've done alot of reading here in the forums about pH, additives and such. And all I would rec is straight distilled water and do a flush every month or so.

Tonight, I have after 2 days of bleeding air bubbles out (And I mean nothing in the res, not even the slightest air bubble after tipping the case this way and that, and some hard rapping on the case to break air bubbles free from lines and internal rad parts.) flushed the loop with 50/50 distilled vinegar (6cups total mixture) for 20 min's only! Then I flushed another 6 cups of distilled water only and ran for 30 min's, again getting rid of ALL air bubbles. Repeated process until a full gallon was used. Time will tell if I am doing the right thing. Maybe someone else can post another experience they've had. I'm just waiting for a restock of the 8800GT, mount my vid block and start my system up! Read MaxxxRacer's sticky on Guide to Watercooling and Leaktesting.

[Waterlogged]

Until I see conclusive pics, I refuse to believe it's corrosion. We've been down this road before with the Apogee GTX, and every time it's been proven not to be corrosion.

[Jedda]

Masterkleer is known to leach and turn anything but clear in the first few weeks.
Got a pic of the block pitting?

[.Logic]

If you could post some pictures that would be great, then we can get a good idea of what is going on.

[Xilikon]

I did a 48 hours leak test with the Pa120.3 and when I stopped, the water was milky and I used a Fuzion so there is no aluminium in the loop. I believe it is coming from the radiator even if I ran hot water thru it for 5 mins before. I guess I will need to flush the radiator more...

It's a pita to get rid of the white stuff from the parts and I think i'll toss the stained tubing which is cloudy now. I hope that after this, it is pretty clean.

[IanY]

I wished the radiator companies would charge a bit more and sell radiators that are cleaned completely and properly.

We should make a Pinata of Gabe Rouchon... with FuZions and EK video blocks in it Ever since he came up with his Edlebrock look-alike bling bling concept, he's become the favorite punching bag of the water cooling community Oh.. pits... fading... white tubes.. global warming.. world hunger... must be darn Swiftech aluminum again !!

[_Slim_Shady_]

I had the same thing happen with my Black Ice radiator. I did a minor flush before installing it, but obviously not enough. You can just drain and refill and shouldn't have the problem anymore.

[initialised]

Try measuring the voltage between the radiator and the block. If there is a voltage then you might be getting corrosion.

[Sparky]

[Spawne32]

[A_Noob]

Sorry for the delay, I've been so busy with school I haven't got a chance to take some pictures. So here's an update:

The circle area in red is cracked and has pits, there are more pits, all that other stuff on the outer area near the O-ring is white and pasty. The cpu plate is covered with white pasty stuff. Sorry for the terrible lighting, it has been cloudy here for a while .

[Polizei]

Pictures dont get bigger. Just links us to the host website.

[Nate P.]

Bigger pics would help greatly.

[IanY]

Yes, that is an Apogee GTX, and no the top is not copper, and no that is not corrosion. That white gunk is from your radiator. Clean it properly and re-install.

[Waterlogged]

Yeah, I can't positively tell from the smallish size of the pics but, that looks like every other case we've had so far. Can you make them bigger please?

[Brian MP5T]

So I would like to ask (Because I did not see mention of it) was regular tap water used in the beginning.

[Xilikon]

Definitely gunk coming from the radiator. I had some leeching like this after 2 days of leak testing after insufficient radiator cleaning.

[Nettwerk]

Someone poured eggnog in your res

[Sabre2]

Eggnog!

[Petra]

Yes, that is an Apogee GTX, and no the top is not copper, and no that is not corrosion. That white gunk is from your radiator. Clean it properly and re-install.

The stuff in that photo looks the same as the stuff that I found in a customer's block a few weeks ago... except, his block was caked with it to the point of killing coolant flow and performance. Below is a quick photo of the inside of that GTX's aluminum top after a thorough cleaning. According to the customer, there was no other aluminum in the loop and he was running straight tap water (which wasn't the brightest idea, but is beside the point).



...and the unnecessarily high-resolution version

From a quick inspection, the deepest pits in the top are around 0.3mm...

Now, I'm not saying that everybody should panic or anything like that because, really, how many of us run straight tap water in our loops? My point is that these blocks can and do corrode, despite the elaborate plating. So, in the future, perhaps we shouldn't be so quick to write off people's claims of corrosion (assuming, of course, that they can provide decent photos).