Strange discoloration on GPU block

F

fx9

[H]ard|Gawd
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I'm seeing a strange discoloration on my GPU block, I run on pure distilled with pH neutral PT Nuke. Its sorta black and brownish where the channels are. Unsure what this is, Corrosion?

I have no aluminum in the loop. 3x120 Swiftech rad, XSPC raystorm, this Alphacomputer hawaii block on R9 290, and a D5 pump.

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Looks like a diatom your gonna need to take it to bits and clean it...
 
Strange for it to show signs of algae growth. I wonder what causes this?
 
Just pH neutral pt nuke, other than that, straight distilled water.
 
fx9 said:
Just pH neutral pt nuke, other than that, straight distilled water.
Click to expand...

Meh, fuck PT Nuke..I run plain distilled and a silver kill coil and when I tore my loop down to replace a dead D5, the water was crystal clear with no signs of anything in the blocks..Looks like you have a weekend's worth of cleaning to do..
 
Clean it out with vinegar... Switch to a silver coil... Distilled and deionized water should be ph neutral to start with the issue comes up as it becomes a sponge for carbon dioxide in the air that acidized the water which is why old air exposed distilled water becomes acidic... So if you have it in a closed loop there should not be enough carbon dioxide to shift the ph down
 
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That version of PT nuke is aimed at people who have aluminum in their loop.

If you're using all copper components and distilled water you should stick with cupric sulfate (blue PT nuke or just buy some copper sulfate pentahydrate online and mix it yourself, you can get a lifetime supply from Amazon for ~$10). Silver is just more expensive and less effective, especially after its been in there a bit and gotten tarnished.
 
Lunas said:
Clean it out with vinegar... Switch to a silver coil... Distilled and deionized water should be ph neutral to start with the issue comes up as it becomes a sponge for carbon dioxide in the air that acidized the water which is why old air exposed distilled water becomes acidic... So if you have it in a closed loop there should not be enough carbon dioxide to shift the ph down
Click to expand...


Never ever ever use deionized water in a loop. That shit is highly reactive and you'll likely end up with a very conductive leak as it will leach the metal.

Dude, lol. Perhaps you should crack your chem book back open. Distilled water has no reaction. Deionized has the CO2 reaction, and the reaction makes it acidic (~5.6), which is somewhere between coffee and urine.
Again, deionized water is bad juju for a loop and your computer.
 
alxlwson said:
Never ever ever use deionized water in a loop. That shit is highly reactive and you'll likely end up with a very conductive leak as it will leach the metal.

Dude, lol. Perhaps you should crack your chem book back open. Distilled water has no reaction. Deionized has the CO2 reaction, and the reaction makes it acidic (~5.6), which is somewhere between coffee and urine.
Again, deionized water is bad juju for a loop and your computer.
Click to expand...

It seems I'm not the only one who needs to crack the books open. Both types of water pickup co2 and end up at 5.6 pH distilled just does it right away in vapor state where as di does it after sitting open for any length of time. Di water is the only water that a point in time is 7 pH with 18 MOhm resistance that quickly drops to 1 MOhm as the pH settles at 5.6 due to uptake of atmospheric co2.

The only way to keep water above 7 pH is to add buffers calcium salts and magnesium salts are what these are...
 
Indeed!
However, di also leaches metal, especially during its uptake of H+
 
DeathFromBelow said:
That version of PT nuke is aimed at people who have aluminum in their loop.

If you're using all copper components and distilled water you should stick with cupric sulfate (blue PT nuke or just buy some copper sulfate pentahydrate online and mix it yourself, you can get a lifetime supply from Amazon for ~$10). Silver is just more expensive and less effective, especially after its been in there a bit and gotten tarnished.
Click to expand...


The PHN Nuke isn't meant specifically for Aluminum mixed metal loops. Glycol bases fluids already take care of that type of corrosion.

It's meant to be used in loops that have Nickle plated blocks because BOTH Silver and Copper Sulfate with steal electrons from Nickle, causing the Nickle to act as a sacrificial anode and erode away, and the reaction accelerates as the PH drops over time. In Marine applications, they apply Nickle Plating with its electron losing affinity in mind and use a thicker layer than what we see used in watercooling applications currently as there is an expected loss of Nickle plating. PHN Nuke tries to avoid using a metal based biocide to avoid accelerating this problem.
 
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