Homemade Silver Coils for Algae Control

[e2ek]

I recently came across some pure silver wire on ebay and thought I would have a go at making my own form of algae prevention. If it was more cost effective to do so I would have bought several original KillCoils from Petras. However it is a little expensive to ship these items alone half way around the world to Australia without any other major purchases to justify the shipping cost.

So for around AUD $13 (inc. freight) I bought 500mm of 18 gauge, 99.99% silver wire. I formed into a coil shape by winding it around a section of pipe. I have now placed in the bottom of my EK Multioption Res.



I have positioned the coil on the opposite side of the threaded hole in the base of the res. It will also fit comfortably on the other side of the divider. I was reluctant to install it on this side as I thought there was a strong liklihood that I would compromise flow in the loop.



As you can see, once installed the coil is very discrete and I expect it will not be very noticable once the resevoir is installed in the case.

So is this a dumb idea or a good idea? I am pretty confident it will not restrict flow in any way where it is positioned, though I am not sure how effective it will be if water is not constantly flowing over it.

Will the mere immersion of the silver coil be effective in controlling algae?
Would I be better off moving it to the opposite side of the base of the res?

[masska]

Originally Posted by e2ek

I recently came across some pure silver wire on ebay and thought I would have a go at making my own form of algae prevention. If it was more cost effective to do so I would have bought several original KillCoils from Petras. However it is a little expensive to ship these items alone half way around the world to Australia without any other major purchases to justify the shipping cost.

So for around AUD $13 (inc. freight) I bought 500mm of 18 gauge, 99.99% silver wire. I formed into a coil shape by winding it around a section of pipe. I have now placed in the bottom of my EK Multioption Res.



I have positioned the coil on the opposite side of the threaded hole in the base of the res. It will also fit comfortably on the other side of the divider. I was reluctant to install it on this side as I thought there was a strong liklihood that I would compromise flow in the loop.



As you can see, once installed the coil is very discrete and I expect it will not be very noticable once the resevoir is installed in the case.

So is this a dumb idea or a good idea? I am pretty confident it will not restrict flow in any way where it is positioned, though I am not sure how effective it will be if water is not constantly flowing over it.

Will the mere immersion of the silver coil be effective in controlling algae?
Would I be better off moving it to the opposite side of the base of the res?

That's a great price and a cheaper than mine, thats for sure.

Have you considered not using all that coil (maybe half) and maybe just wrapping it around your anticyclone? Or do you prefer not to see it?

[e2ek]

Originally Posted by masska

That's a great price and a cheaper than mine, thats for sure.

Have you considered not using all that coil (maybe half) and maybe just wrapping it around your anticyclone? Or do you prefer not to see it?

I have no idea how much material I need for it to be effective (this WC stuff is totally new to me, this is my first WC build ).

Initially I tried to wrap it around the anti cyclone insert but it is really difficult to bend it at such a tight angle. It looked really untidy.

I don't really care if it is visible, but if it can be seen it then it has to look good.

[zeropluszero]

This is what i've done with Masska's silver (which comes the same size as a matchstick in length and thickness)

[eponymous]

This is a great idea because not only will it most likely be cheaper, but because you're using wire, you'll be increasing the surface area in contact with the water vs. the standard kill coils.

[masska]

Originally Posted by zeropluszero

This is what i've done with Masska's silver (which comes the same size as a matchstick in length and thickness)

I was just about to post your pics mate, but you beat me to it.

[Noisy]

My only concern will be, if the coil is sitting in a compartment by itself, meaning next to no movement of water, the effectiveness would be next to nothing?
Since the coil have quite a lot of space in between, I will put it on the other side, as it will not restrict water flow, only cause more turbulence.

[Zigosity]

Sort of what I did, except with an XSPC res top and a piece of a one ounce silver bar. Yes, that res top is leaking, they sent me a replacement : ).

-Zigosity

EDIT: and no, I don't usually have it covering the pump inlet, I push it over to the side with a screwdriver >_>.

[serialk11r]

Hmmm...first post for me in what, more than a year?

Sorry if this comes off as offensive (this is more of a general statement), but using silver this way is pretty silly. Silver (I) ions in aqueous solution are what inhibit microbial growth due to its toxicity, but when you stick a bar in water like that you don't get much silver ion dissolved into the water, since any silver salts would exist as an oxide, sulfide, or some similarly non-soluble salt from the surface of the silver that has contacted the air. Silver nitrate however would be very effective.

Basically you only need a very tiny amount of silver to do the job, assuming that sticking a bar of silver like that into water does work, since so little silver makes its way into the water that way. If you can get silver nitrate solution somehow that would be best, since only a tiny amount should work (I think it's illegal to dump it down the drain since it's so poisonous :O). My guess is a few milligrams? Maybe some watercooling supply carrier should start stocking this...

[NaeKuh]

actually

we use the time factor serial

over time the ions will go into the water.

So over time it works better.

And its over time that u get biological things that grow

so its been working great.

Also i was the one who nagg'd the vendors the bring out silver again.

[serialk11r]

I don't doubt that it's working fine, the tiny amount of silver oxide that dissolves should probably be enough, especially with distilled water. There isn't really a "time release" mechanism though, the oxide on the surface will go into the water, most will remain on the surface of the silver, and continue to protect the surface from oxidation.
I'm just saying it's quite wasteful of silver. A low concentration PT nuke type additive with silver nitrate instead of copper sulfate would be what I'm thinking about, although you'd have to be pretty careful to not add anything else into the liquid to prevent the silver from precipitating. Actually that probably isn't even relevant, because if you added enough silver nitrate to be able to precipitate any visible amount, you probably put way too much for antimicrobial purposes.

[iandh]

Originally Posted by serialk11r

Hmmm...first post for me in what, more than a year?

Sorry if this comes off as offensive (this is more of a general statement), but using silver this way is pretty silly. Silver (I) ions in aqueous solution are what inhibit microbial growth due to its toxicity, but when you stick a bar in water like that you don't get much silver ion dissolved into the water, since any silver salts would exist as an oxide, sulfide, or some similarly non-soluble salt from the surface of the silver that has contacted the air. Silver nitrate however would be very effective.

Silly as in effective? Silver ingots have been used in drinking water vessels for thousands of years to prevent algae and bacterial growth. Active ionization is only needed in flowing drinking water systems; closed loops or containers don't need anything to maintain a high enough ion concentration.

Assuming the silver is reasonably clean and pure, and it is placed into a loop with pure distilled water, the silver will shed ions, atoms, and colloids (as well as form compounds) until a charge neutral state is reached.

You are also correct in stating that only the ions will act biocidally, but luckily there is enough friction from the moving water to peel them occasionally off the silver. This can also happen from a biological entity impacting the silver.

Not only have I personally done a lot of research on this, I've also discussed it with a Ph.D. Biochemist. I'll agree with you that there are quite a few misconceptions as to how this works, but it does indeed work.

A lump of silver is probably the least efficient way of delivering silver as a biocide, but it is still efficient enough to work. We are only talking silver ion concentrations in parts per billion here.


I've sold a LOT of silver coils, and not only have I not heard a single complaint of growth, I've had feedback from people that were unable to inhibit growth any other way (oftentimes they had PC's with windows that were in sunlight), and had success with silver.

Originally Posted by serialk11r

Basically you only need a very tiny amount of silver to do the job, assuming that sticking a bar of silver like that into water does work, since so little silver makes its way into the water that way. If you can get silver nitrate solution somehow that would be best, since only a tiny amount should work (I think it's illegal to dump it down the drain since it's so poisonous :O). My guess is a few milligrams? Maybe some watercooling supply carrier should start stocking this...

Why stock something poisonous when you could stock something perfectly safe?

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...t=silver+coils

http://www.petrastechshop.com/puhipubipcco.html

I manufacture a silver ion solution. As long as you don't put it in a loop full of crapola for the silver ions to form compounds with, the loop will find equilibrium with a molecular layer of silver on all inside surfaces that are charged to accept, and the remaining ions will stay in solution until they bump into something they can stick to, like a bacterial cell wall.

Once the container/loop the silver ion solution is in has reached a charge neutral state, the ions in solution have an amazingly long shelf life. I've spoken to people who have had 10yr old ion solution that measured near identical ion concentration as on its birth date.

The reason this can't be sold as an additive is that once you get past the ion concentration that I have reached in this coolant solution, you start to get Agglomeration (When particles in a colloidal suspension become too densely packed, some of them will begin to share electron rings with each other and in effect become a larger particle), which is then followed by precipitation.