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Watercooling Ruined

M

Mandin62

Member

The short version of the story is I was too cheap to by additive to keep algae and stuff from growing in my water cooling system and is has come back to bite me in the ass. My computer which has been in a closet while running for the last 3 months stopped working yesterday. I discovered that my watercooling loops had some algae in them and one of my water blocks was completely full to the point where almost no water was getting through. I am going back to air for the time being but would love to salvage as much as possible as watercooling isn?t cheap. What is the best way to go about this? I think I am going to have to toss the radiators regardless of what I do. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 
Why discard the tubes? Just get a bucket, some pipe cleaners, gloves, and bleach and let soak for a while then use the pipe cleaners on the tubes. Then soak the tubes under water for a while to clean away all the bleach residue. The bleach will kill all the algae. It "might" damage the tubes depending on the type of material they are, so just wait a few days and do a pressure test on them and check that they are not brittle.
 
Originally posted by: Fallen Kell
Why discard the tubes? Just get a bucket, some pipe cleaners, gloves, and bleach and let soak for a while then use the pipe cleaners on the tubes. Then soak the tubes under water for a while to clean away all the bleach residue. The bleach will kill all the algae. It "might" damage the tubes depending on the type of material they are, so just wait a few days and do a pressure test on them and check that they are not brittle.
Click to expand...

Buying new tubing is cheaper than bleach and the time it takes to do all of that.
 
Thanks for all the input. I should be able to salvage the blocks with out too much effort but my main concerns now are the radiators and pump. Is it safe to run bleach water through these followed by distilled water?
 
Originally posted by: theplaidfad
Originally posted by: Fallen Kell
Why discard the tubes? Just get a bucket, some pipe cleaners, gloves, and bleach and let soak for a while then use the pipe cleaners on the tubes. Then soak the tubes under water for a while to clean away all the bleach residue. The bleach will kill all the algae. It "might" damage the tubes depending on the type of material they are, so just wait a few days and do a pressure test on them and check that they are not brittle.
Click to expand...

Buying new tubing is cheaper than bleach and the time it takes to do all of that.
Click to expand...

lol i was just thinking the same.
 
Just curious, if it's in the closet where I assume you would not be able to hear the fans if it was air cooled, why bother water cooling it?
 
i need a pic of this messed up system to see where u can start at salvage.
 
Originally posted by: Alienwho
Just curious, if it's in the closet where I assume you would not be able to hear the fans if it was air cooled, why bother water cooling it?
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe he wants to squeeze everything out of his hardware, overclocking it to the limit, on water. 🙂
 
nope.. doesnt need to be replaced.

And silver was used long time b4 the apearance of copper sulfate. 😛

When you use distilled, its already microbe free. Nothing can grow in the presence of nothing.

When its in your system, the copper sort of acts as an anti microbe. Its good at killing somethings off, but not all things.

Tubing is where most of the nasty's will appear later on.

The silver leeches into distilled water over time. Distilled water is very aggressive, so as the coolant ages, the coolant is stronger, and usually as the coolant ages, thats when microbes start to form.

🙂
 
Originally posted by: aigomorla
nope.. doesnt need to be replaced.

And silver was used long time b4 the apearance of copper sulfate. 😛

When you use distilled, its already microbe free. Nothing can grow in the presence of nothing.

When its in your system, the copper sort of acts as an anti microbe. Its good at killing somethings off, but not all things.

Tubing is where most of the nasty's will appear later on.

The silver leeches into distilled water over time. Distilled water is very aggressive, so as the coolant ages, the coolant is stronger, and usually as the coolant ages, thats when microbes start to form.

🙂
Click to expand...

Thanks!
I'll just need a uv tube and this silver stix.
 
The reason I had the system in the closet was because I recently moved my system from my bedroom to the kitchen area. There is a closet in the kitchen where I was able to put the computer and run the cords under the door so that I could have the essentials only visible. My system has been watercooled for almost 2 years now. I had additive in the first time I filled the system and didn't add it the next time I topped the water off, I guess I should have. I removed all the water cooling components from the case and have removed all tubing from the blocks so that i can set about cleaning them. I hope that I can clean everything and buy new tubing and that silver thing and be ready to put it all back together. Sorry i dont have any pictures available.
 
Originally posted by: BTRY B 529th FA BN
Originally posted by: aigomorla
the thing thats gonna bite the op more is all he really needed was this to prevent algae..

And it goes inside the tubing..

http://www.petrastechshop.com/sikibyia.html
Click to expand...

could i just steel some silver jewelry from my mothers jewelry box and use that? 😀 - seriously 😀
Click to expand...

Yes, as long as it wont get stuck in somewhere and clog it up.

http://i125.photobucket.com/al...aigomorla/IMG_0006.jpg
 
Originally posted by: Mandin62
Aigomerla where did you get that silver piece in your system? That looks much safer than the other one.
Click to expand...

its a us mint 99.99999 1 troy ounce silver ingot.

Tiffany silverware works good too. 😛
 
i use that same killcoil and it does not move once u get it into the tubing. it is super effective and replaced the hassle of dropping in PT Nuke every time i re-fill.
no u can't put it into the XSPC restop because it will get caught in the pump.

and damn.. OP why didn't you make sure you knew what you were doing before actually doing it? a bacteria inhibitor is crucial to any loop... whereas anti-corrosive isn't necessary in most today's loops since most are all copper
 
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