Need some advice on apparent mold clean up

H

hitched

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 12, 2011
Messages
220
So I was just looking into my computer and I noticed crap floating in my D5 pump reservoir as well as a dot of mold on the top of the plexi...

First off trying to figure out first off what could have caused this? I rinsed out my blocks and reservoir with distilled water before I put everything together. I had to use 2 bottles for how much water I needed in my system. I still have some of mix left over. This is the additive I used with distilled water when I filled everything up.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00L5IXIPK/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1


My biggest question tho is what is the best course of action for cleaning this crap out? I realise this is going to require dismantling everything (FACK) but I do not want to damage the nickel plating on my blocks.. What can I use to make sure everything is clean?
 
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I have heard of using ketchup before as a brush on wash off kinda thing. However the acids in it might be harmful if left on to long.
 
This is a picture of some tubing and my reservoir. This had to have started growing when I was out of town for 2 weeks and the system was off because I never noticed all of this till now.
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You must ask you self how did this happened first? So you can avoid this in the future.

One thing for sure I wouldn't use the XSPC stuff again and I would complain.

Any good loop should use Distilled Water and a biocide additive. Most popular are a silver coil or PT Nuke -Cu (w/dyes) or PT Nuke -PHN (w/o dyes) or Mayhems Biocide Extreme the latter two being your best options.
I used distilled and silver coil ONLY for years and never had an issue like this but I did have tube scaling. Now I just throw one in for good measure with PT Nuke and use Tygon plasticizer free tubing.
If you have to have a dye use PT Nuke -Cu (w/dyes) or colored tubing.

To cleanup mold, best is bleach but vinegar ammonia and peroxide are equally effective. Of course diluting is good but not near as effective so the stronger you use whatever the better.
If it were me I'd throw away the tubing and I'd use bleach or vinegar to clean your other parts.
To flush I'd use a garden house because you'll want to flush it all very very well when the your done cleaning and mold is gone. I use one of these.
Use a gallon of distilled water for final flush and let all parts dry 100% before proceeding as mentioned above. The sun is a useful tool to expedite the matter.
 
Well I'm going to use this bad situation to do something I have wanted to do for a while which is a verticle gpu mod...

So my shopping list is:
Bleach
New tubing
Biocide
Silver kill coil
Pcie riser cable

I believe I am going change to a stand alone reservoir with a regular D5 pump top. On top of not liking the D5 pump tank since I bought it, I believe it had a part to do with this mold since the water never moves around in the tank
 
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There must have been some form of nutrient in there for so much mould to form.
If the basics are covered fully this wont happen.

I question 3 things.
1) is the water truly distilled or a rip off version
2) was the pump, block or tubing used for anything previous where gunk could have built up
3) has something foreign entered your system when opening the filler


I used to add dish soap as a biocide years ago but stopped doing it more than 2 years back.
I replaced the tubing at the same time with ye basic 1/2" ID cheap PVC and it is still completely clear. (no water change since or maintenance other than water top ups)
My tap water is passed through a reverse osmosis filter.
This water has practically nothing in it that can be used as nutrients and I use no biocide at all.
In theory my water is not quite as clean as distilled but it is easily good enough for my cooler.

My cooler has a T piece to top up the water with a marble to seal the hose.
When the previous hose was 5 years old there was occasionally a small amount of growth that looked like yours in my T piece.
If your system has some age then bacteria can build up where it is opened.
If this problem persists I recommend cleaning your hands before opening it and perhaps give any parts that get handled a clean when you open it.
 
Everything was brand new which is why I am baffled that this even happened.

I have 2-360 rads (xspc EX and RX)
Ek Crosshair 6 monoblock
Ek Aorus 1080ti gpu block
Alphacool 655 with D5 tank res

When I first filled the system I underestimated how much water I needed and didn't have enough of the xspc additive and put more distilled water then I was supposed too.. when I ordered 2 bottles of the concentrate I flushed with distilled and refilled with new mix which is what is in here now. That was roughly 4 months ago so this crap is growing pretty fast.
 
You havent confirmed you are using distilled.
Bacteria from your hands when building it (or anyone else that handled your components previously) can cause growths all over if there are any nutrients.
 
Drain the loop, refill with distilled water with a small amount of white vinegar, run for 24 hours, drain and repeat until the funk is gone.

After that change your tubing if you wish and set it back up
 
Nenu said:
You havent confirmed you are using distilled.
Bacteria from your hands when building it (or anyone else that handled your components previously) can cause growths all over if there are any nutrients.
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Yes all water that entered this pc was distilled I had bought 5 gallons to fill and flush this system when I was building it
 
What you think is distilled might not be.
It should be considered if you are looking for reasons how this occurred.
 
rgMekanic said:
Drain the loop, refill with distilled water with a small amount of white vinegar, run for 24 hours, drain and repeat until the funk is gone.

After that change your tubing if you wish and set it back up
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This.

Use distilled water with white vinegar to flush. I'd even flush it a couple of times, scrub the blocks and shake around the reservoirs and radiators.

I wouldn't use bleach hitched.
 
Well I just bought everything I hope to improve this situation... new tubing, a pump top, and a cylinder type reservoir, pt nuke, a few extra compression fittings, rotary 90's, and a riser cable for the vertical gpu mod... $200 worth of crap, wife is going to be pissed lmao
 
hitched said:
Well I just bought everything I hope to improve this situation... new tubing, a pump top, and a cylinder type reservoir, pt nuke, a few extra compression fittings, rotary 90's, and a riser cable for the vertical gpu mod... $200 worth of crap, wife is going to be pissed lmao
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Try the silver coil as someone else mentioned. It's supposed to work the best out of anything.
 
Kwaz said:
Try the silver coil as someone else mentioned. It's supposed to work the best out of anything.
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I just did a search when I was trying to find somewhere other then Amazon to buy a kill cool and found that ek will invalidate there warranty if I were to use a kill coil because the silver will react with the nickel.!.!? Is this true? I have nickel plated copper blocks btw
 
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hitched said:
I just did a search when I was trying to find somewhere other then Amazon to buy a kill cool and found that ek will invalidate there warranty if I were to use a kill coil.!.!? Is this true? I have nickel plated copper blocks btw
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Some metals can have a reaction to others. It's pretty common.

If it's against their warranty and that matters to you I wouldn't do it. That being said, this happened before, so you might as well try something else.
 
EK had some issues with there nickel finish back in 2011, google that, why not blame it on something else and even post a warning. Many still won't buy EK Nickel thinking they never really did address the issue properly and opted to band-aid the issue with a slightly heavier coating. I've had several nickel blocks CPU and GPU only a couple EK and never had an issue using a silver coil maybe I don't keep them long enough 2yrs or less.
 
owcraftsman said:
EK had some issues with there nickel finish back in 2011, google that, why not blame it on something else and even post a warning. Many still won't buy EK Nickel thinking they never really did address the issue properly and opted to band-aid the issue with a slightly heavier coating. I've had several nickel blocks CPU and GPU only a couple EK and never had an issue using a silver coil maybe I don't keep them long enough 2yrs or less.
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I googled it some more, not really sure what to say about that particular issue, but through all that i saw and read I have no doubts I would be safe if I went with a kill coil, but I think I will just stick with the distilled and biocide for now and let it run and see what happens. I plan on getting some form the primochill vue whenever it releases.
 
I wouldn't use the Kill Koil if you have EK blocks. Just use distilled water and PTNuke. Done-
 
FML! Can't wait to crack open my 1080ti block!! Pump tank is trash... thankfully the nickel cleaned up just fine, the plexi is a little stained tho but may clear up when filled with water... definitely finished with any dyes! What a mess to clean up...
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hitched said:
I googled it some more, not really sure what to say about that particular issue, but through all that i saw and read I have no doubts I would be safe if I went with a kill coil, but I think I will just stick with the distilled and biocide for now and let it run and see what happens. I plan on getting some form the primochill vue whenever it releases.
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Probably a good plan with just biocide. The primochill vue is new and I would wait to see how things go with it. This stuff is very similar to the Mayhem Aurora line of coolants which is now in version 2 and is advertised to last longer than it's predecessor. One thing I really like about the aurora coolant is it's constant view of flow at any point w/o buying a flow meter. I do hope they profect it. In any case Mayhem is somewhat tried and true. I'm using one of there pastel line up coolants in one of my machines, kinda a test subject, Corrosion & Scale Inhibitors included in it. All is still quite well after 6 months. It's also friendlier on the environment than some others. Mayhems also got Nuke products as well now and they are fast becoming a trusted source for coolants and additives.
 
I used some dyed water before, and I noticed the color got weaker and weaker as it was in the loop, temps were getting higher then when it was first built.

Opened up my cpu block, all the dye had turned into a sludge that was packed into the water block, tons of stuff in the radiator too, had to flush that for a long time. From now on, if I want color, I use color tubing with distilled and a kill coil.
 
personally, i'd advise against using vinegar in your loop. the acid breaks down copper/brass very readily. i like my parts to last as long as possible so i tend to avoid chemical flush that has any chance of causing damage.

yes i get that the potential for damage is minimal if not negligible. i like to keep my parts forever and a day, so i take care of them well. for that reason i only use short term weak acid treatments.

my advice:

ditch your tubing, it's cheap. difficult to clean and get all mold spores. disassemble all your blocks, pump, etc. and clean. dishsoap will do well, sure vinegar for palstics. for copper blocks i use ketchup and an old toothbrush. rise thoroughly with tap water.

in my water loop i do not use any sort of anti-corrosion additives. my blocks are all pure copper, rad is brass so there's no issue with dissimilar metals. it's simply unnecessary if your water chemistry is right. forget distilled water, it can still contain ions that may cause corrosion. go to any car parts store and buy a jug of deionized water. its used to mix up coolant in cars. rinse all your parts with a bit of this as tap water most definitely contains minerals. fill 'er up with the deionized and as suggested use a biocide like PTnuke. i've used that stuff for years, never a hint of mold in my loop.

and that's all you need. if you want to add dye at this point sure go for it. i don't use it myself so i can't comment on any ill effects - again, chemistry. i can't prove that it won't cause damage so i'm not interested. i'm kinda lazy, and my loop has been VERY low maintenance. i have gone several years without replacing the water and there has been no ill effects to speak of. i have a very small amount of copper tarnishing but it has not had any effect on performance nor has it gone beyond a thin layer or progressed into corrosion - my blocks are universal ones and are over 10 years old. i'd say my methods are working well.
 
I drained the contaminated fluid and ran distilled vinegar for maybe 10 min after that broke everything down and washed it clean with hot water. I did replace all the tubing, scrapped the tank res and went with a pump block and a cylinder reservoir that feeds into the pump and my god this is so much easier to drain and fill now!!!. Running so far with straight distilled and a few drops of PTnuke. It's almost been a month since I did the cleanup and rebuild and so far so good!

I will post a few pics when I get home. I would still like to get some of that primochill vue, I'm really itching on that buy button but $25 for 32oz is pretty steep when I'm sure I will need 3 bottles to completely fill the loop and huge res
 
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