Buildup In Loop?

[danks]

I put together a new rig about a month ago (specs in sig). Before installing the rad I flushed it out with a gallon of distilled water then ran some CLR through it and then flushed again. While some particles and residue did come out it wasnt nearly as bad as some of the other rad's I worked with. I know many people will say leave it sit in vinegar for up to 48hrs but I just didnt have the time and after about the 3rd gallon of water it was coming out clear.

About a week or so of the system running I starting to notice what I can only describe as a dark red residue that started to get caked around parts of the tubing and the res. I let it go a few more days then drained the system and replaced the tubes. Below is a before and after shot of what the tubes looked like:

So once I got the new tubing in place I flushed the system again with distilled water and CLR to get any remaining crap out. About two weeks go by and I got the same problem again. So today I did the same flush process again but didnt replace the tubing... CLR worked wonders and cleaned everything right up and once again the water was coming out clear when i was done. I'll keep an eye on things for the next week to see what happens.

Sorry for the long post but I'm trying to figure out where this buildup is coming from. It seems my rad is pretty clean so I'm wondering if its this green FluidXP EXT I decided to try. Its UV reactive and I have a few UV lights in the case that are usually on all the time. Could the dye in this coolant be seperating?

 

[hegulator]

Just a guess here, but what materials do you have in the loop? Do you have copper and aluminum both in contact with water in the loop? I've heard that it's possible to get galvonic corrosion in loops with dissimilar materials.

Perhaps somebody who knows more about this can confirm/deny this.

 

[Arcygenical]

If you DID have galvanic corrosion, you'd need to look carefully at the metal pieces in your loop to determine if a transfer of materials is occuring.

I used some yellow UV dye once, and my rad is perminantly stained yellow. I've tried everything. Scrubbing bubbles, bleach, vinegar, fantastic, carburator clearner, and let them ALL sit in it overnight, still, the dye won't fully come out...

Um, I'd leave something really corrosive in your rad all night and pour it out, then tell us what colour the used fluid turned .

 

[danks]

I actually figured out what was happening... wasnt any type of corrosion, it turned out to be algae as a result of using FluidXP. Apparently there is no anti-algae agent in it and if there is its not strong enough, FluidXP's site made no mention of an additive for this. I flushed the system again and I'm now using distilled water/pentosin. Problem solved

 

[Marci]

Your coolant must be getting a bit on the warmside for orange algae to grow there...

Temp: Hot>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Cold
Agae: yellow >> orange >> brown >> green

 

[danks]

Your coolant must be getting a bit on the warmside for orange algae to grow there...

Temp: Hot>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Cold
Agae: yellow >> orange >> brown >> green

Possibly, i dont have an inline sensor but the temps on my cpu and gpu's are pretty good now. My cpu idles at about 26c with a load of 38c. vid cards usually idle at about 33c and load is 41c. Sometimes a bit higher when the room is warm...

Want to replace my fans though, i got Panaflo U1A's on the rad now and they have an annoying tick sound when undervolted. I turn them down pretty far to eliminate it so I may be hurting my temps. Was thinking of picking up some sanyo denki's soon...

P.S. Marci, love your rad's mate!