UV dye's impact on fluids?

[Xylo]

So there's a number of different fluids and additives out there...some of which are already UV reactive, but many of which are not...

Out of paranoia, I'm particularly interested in the non-conductive fluids, such as, Fluid XP, Innovatek Protect Pro, or MCT-5...

Anyone know what effects adding UV dyes that can be bought at various "mod" sites to such fluids can have? On conductivity? And other attributes like algae inhibition, anti-corrosion, etc.?

Thanks...
Xylo

 

[wwparrish]

UV dyes work by UV light hitting phosphors usually consisting of Strontium Aluminate and Zinc Sulfide which are metallic compounds and cant do the conductivity any good. However there have been huge strides in organic dyes made recently and frankly its all over my head. Unless you can find out exactly what is in the stuff, and then a chemist to provide an informed answer, you will never know.


The MSDS (material safety data sheet) from the manuf would be the best clue.

This may prove interesting.
http://www.overclockers.com/tips1153/index.asp

 

[Xylo]

hmmm...well, out of curiosity, I sent an e-mail over to the FluidXP folks asking them this, and got the obvious stock "use FluidXP dyes" reply...they claim their dyes are non-conductive??

I wonder about the others...

 

[Xylo]

No one has any idea on conductivity issues?

 

[Vertigo Acid]

Why again are we worried about the electrical conductivity of UV dyes?
Any of those water replacement fluids will eventually become conductive, as will distilled water and antifreeze or whatever additivies are your fancy.

 

[Xylo]

Why again are we worried about the electrical conductivity of UV dyes?
Any of those water replacement fluids will eventually become conductive, as will distilled water and antifreeze or whatever additivies are your fancy.

Hmmm....well, this leads me to another question:
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1028042295#post1028042295

 

[BellaCroix]

I'll be totally honest... I've never really understood the whole "electrically non-conductive" thing. I assemble and test my loop with the PC powered off. After test running for 48 hours (okay, actually it's usually more like 24 hours) and being completely certain there are no leaks (the paper towel test works) I stop worrying about springing a leak.

I've had a loop running continuously for 8 months now with no spontaneous leaks.

Yeah... I had a mess of leaks all over the place (the PC ran like a collander when I first assembled the loop) when first building. I fixed all the leaks, let the PC air dry for a few days, re-filled the loop, test run, then powered on the rig. It's all good.

Has anyone ever sprung a "spontaneous leak" in a completed and well-tested rig? Did the computer fry despite using "non-conductive" fluids? Did you save your $1000 SLI kit because you used that stuff?

Unless you're building a submersion/immersion cooling system where the entire PC is floating in an open loop (or tank) of non-conductive fluid I'd be more worried about what the minerals, additives, materials in the fluid will do to the blocks, radiators, and pumps before I worried about what a leak will do to components.

Innovatek will not accept returns on anything used with additives. They do not warranty the components of a PC regardless of what you use. They recommend Innovatek Pro Protect not because they don't want your computer to look cool with UV dyes... not because they want to make money on your investment in their fluid (okay, actually, that's probably a big part of it), but I think it's mainly because they don't want to deal with returns from people putting paint in the loop then complaining when the pump fails.

Am I just really lucky that I haven't sprung a leak? Is it really that much of a problem? Am I being naive?

Regarding wwparrish's post: "Strontium Aluminate and Zinc Sulfide" I'm no metalurgist but Aluminate (Aluminum?), Zinc, Sulfide (Sulfur?). I'd be more worried about what a buttload of metals and heavy elements will do to my pump and what the deposits will do to my blocks with a couple months of deposits. Screw the UV dye... just get UV reactive hose if you really need things to light up in the case.

 

[Xylo]

I'd be more worried about what a buttload of metals and heavy elements will do to my pump and what the deposits will do to my blocks with a couple months of deposits.

I don't know about "buttloads" considering most dyes are just a couple drops. But by the same token, I know it is very easy to affect the conductivity of something with just, say, a little bit of salt...hurm.

 

[Vertigo Acid]

Regarding wwparrish's post: "Strontium Aluminate and Zinc Sulfide" I'm no metalurgist but Aluminate (Aluminum?), Zinc, Sulfide (Sulfur?). I'd be more worried about what a buttload of metals and heavy elements will do to my pump and what the deposits will do to my blocks with a couple months of deposits. Screw the UV dye... just get UV reactive hose if you really need things to light up in the case.

Heavy elements eh?
Aluminum @ 13
Sulfur @ 16
Zinc @ 30
Strontium @ 38
Not really in the same class, as, oh say Mercury @ 80 and Lead @ 82
In any case, not only are the metallic properties of said elements moot as they're in solution, but the concentrations that they are present is unlikely to cause problems. You're not going to have any reaction between copper and either of those compounds, so no worries really

 

[BellaCroix]

In any case, not only are the metallic properties of said elements moot as they're in solution, but the concentrations that they are present is unlikely to cause problems. You're not going to have any reaction between copper and either of those compounds, so no worries really

Yeah, they're in solution while they're in the hose. That's mainly my point. Doesn't really matter much if you've got mercury pumping through the hose since it's not going to come in contact with the electrical components of the computer anyway. My concern is what would that do to the pump and what effect would deposits of those materials on the waterblocks have on cooling performance? Not really on a couple parts per billion of those materials in suspension and how they will react with the metal of the waterblock.

What happens if you spring a leak and the precious (overpriced) non-conductive fluids evaporate off? Now those elements aren't in solution anymore. When I managed a photolab we used to recycle silver from the silver halite used in film. As the film was processed silver halite deposits were washed off the negatives and held in suspension in the developer and stop baths. Sure, it took a few months before I filled a filter tank but there was enough silver in there that I still got $300 off each cylinder.

I'm not saying not to use anti-freeze, additives, distilled water, urine, whatever... just that worrying about the conductivity or non of said fluids is pointless unless you spring a leak. I've yet to hear a horror story about someone spontaneously springing a leak from a properly assembled loop unless they were moving the rig to a LAN or poking around inside trying to swap out a video card or something. I've never heard anyone say that they sprung a leak with the power on and saved their gear because they used Product X.

If you're that worried about conductivity just drop the big money and build a fluorinert immersion rig in a bathtub. (By the way, FluidXP is basically fluorinert (from what I understand) if you really are worried)