What went wrong with my loop?

[DoubleTap]

I setup my MORA3 360 loop back in July 2020

Heatkiller copper blocks
ZMT
Bitspower fittings
Koolance 702 coolant

System ran fine, but 8 months later, I go in to uograde and the blocks are full of what I believe to be copper oxide.

The coolant has a light green tint and some dark sediment (not a lot)

Here is the weirdest part and I asked 4 people who all agreed; the coolant SMELLS LIKE YOGURT!

What went wrong and how can I prevent it happening again?

Everything cleaned up with vinegar and I think it was just (or mostly) copper oxide, but it stained the res and fittings pretty good. I think the fittings have nickel so I'm just going to use soap and water on them and I have a couple new rads I'll be using. If it was just discoloration, I could live with it but the cpu block had a lot of junk in it.

 

[Nobu]

What you have there is a petri dish with a live culture.

Maybe a bad mix of coolant, or not enough anti-corrosion/biocide in the mix, or it was just (past) time to replace the coolant. Clean the blocks and tubes real good, maybe run a loop prep/cleaner through, then flush and fill again.

Check again regularly, and replace the coolant if it gets cloudy or begins to smell. Maybe plan to change it early to get any leftover biomass out of the loop.

 

[DoubleTap]

What you have there is a petri dish with a live culture.

Maybe a bad mix of coolant, or not enough anti-corrosion/biocide in the mix, or it was just (past) time to replace the coolant. Clean the blocks and tubes real good, maybe run a loop prep/cleaner through, then flush and fill again.

Check again regularly, and replace the coolant if it gets cloudy or begins to smell. Maybe plan to change it early to get any leftover biomass out of the loop.

Oxidation and growth or just growth?

I guess it could be a bad batch of Koolance, I used it straight, as recommended. I'm sitting on a new 5000ml jug of the stuff, presumably from a different lot.

Not suee what to do to kill out anything left over or how to keep it from happening again.

 

[Nobu]

Oxidation and growth or just growth?

I guess it could be a bad batch of Koolance, I used it straight, as recommended. I'm sitting on a new 5000ml jug of the stuff, presumably from a different lot.

Not suee what to do to kill out anything left over or how to keep it from happening again.

The green stuff could be just copper oxide or it could be biomass, hard to tell just looking at it. You would be able to check easily with a half decent microscope–put a drop on a glass plate, sandwich and put under scope.

Koolance and others produce a solution for cleaning out loops– think they're a mix of biocides, surfectants, maybe some other stuff. Supposed to kill and strip them from the parts in the loop, but of course it won't get everything. Use one of those products, then flush and fill with coolant.

The chemicals in coolant used to prevent corrosion and growth will deteriorate over time, and eventually stuff will begin to corrode and grow in the loop. All you can do is pay attention and periodically flush and refill the loop. How often will depend on what's in your loop, how clean it is to start, and the product you use to protect it. So I can't really tell you how often to do it, but 6-12 months is probably a safe bet.

Since you noticed this at 8 months, you may want to check at 4-6 months or earlier, just in case. It's possible there was a significant colony of microbes which were growing in some part of your loop that will take a couple flushes to clear out before you get reasonable life out of your coolant.

 

[hititnquitit]

It could be caused by just about any kind of human contact with the insides of your blocks, fittings, tubing or res. Thats all it takes. Thats why alot of people used (some still do) to swear by swiftechs hydrx when all we had was copper blocks, automotive coolant basically. You still had to be careful not to contaminate anything but you didnt have to be quite as paranoid.

 

[DoubleTap]

Ordering some Mayhems biocide/inhibitor. Will keep a much closer eye on it.

 

[Smoked Brisket]

Coolant does need to be stored properly. Could it be that you got sold some coolant stored in direct sun or heat or that is just really old. No offense to Koolance fans but have they released anything new in terms of coolant in years?

 

[kamikazi]

I'm running Koolance 702 and I'm coming up on a year with mine. I hope I don't hit the same issues you did. I did run some of that primochill prep stuff through the loop for a couple of days before I flushed it and filled it with Koolance. Don't know if that stuff really makes a difference. All it has in it is soap and a very mild acid. It made my distroplate very bubbly. This is my second go at water cooling. The first time, the pump went bad and I got it replaced under warranty and just sold the whole setup years ago. I'm thinking of going back to another AIO if this one ever gets gunked up. ;-)

 

[RiffsThatKill]

I setup my MORA3 360 loop back in July 2020

Heatkiller copper blocks
ZMT
Bitspower fittings
Koolance 702 coolant

System ran fine, but 8 months later, I go in to uograde and the blocks are full of what I believe to be copper oxide.

The coolant has a light green tint and some dark sediment (not a lot)

Here is the weirdest part and I asked 4 people who all agreed; the coolant SMELLS LIKE YOGURT!

What went wrong and how can I prevent it happening again?

Everything cleaned up with vinegar and I think it was just (or mostly) copper oxide, but it stained the res and fittings pretty good. I think the fittings have nickel so I'm just going to use soap and water on them and I have a couple new rads I'll be using. If it was just discoloration, I could live with it but the cpu block had a lot of junk in it.

Did you ever figure out what this was or the cause? I literally just set a MO-RA3 up on Saturday, and today I'm looking at some nasty chunks that color, AND the holes in my reservoir base (also a HK Tube) look just like yours, same color too. The acrylic on my Heatkiller GPU block is now stained, and my tubes are yellow/gold. My loop water (distilled) looked great for 6 months, 2 days after the MO-RA3 is connected to my loop it looks like someone dumped beeswax or pollen into my loop.

 

[hititnquitit]

Did you ever figure out what this was or the cause? I literally just set a MO-RA3 up on Saturday, and today I'm looking at some nasty chunks that color, AND the holes in my reservoir base (also a HK Tube) look just like yours, same color too. The acrylic on my Heatkiller GPU block is now stained, and my tubes are yellow/gold. My loop water (distilled) looked great for 6 months, 2 days after the MO-RA3 is connected to my loop it looks like someone dumped beeswax or pollen into my loop.

There's obviously some kind of flux or manufacturing leftovers in the rad that's escaping into the loop but I've never heard of or experienced anything on such a large scale. Or so quickly after only adding a rad to a loop. I honestly can't say what it is. I would contact Watercools customer service and or their social media contacts and provide them with pictures and everything you can think of that may help them, help you figure out what that mess may be.

 

[Tsumi]

I'm running a silver killcoil in mine. I have yet to see any form of growth in my reservoir and it's been several years since I last changed the coolant (just straight distilled water). YMMV though.

 

[kamikazi]

Did you ever figure out what this was or the cause? I literally just set a MO-RA3 up on Saturday, and today I'm looking at some nasty chunks that color, AND the holes in my reservoir base (also a HK Tube) look just like yours, same color too. The acrylic on my Heatkiller GPU block is now stained, and my tubes are yellow/gold. My loop water (distilled) looked great for 6 months, 2 days after the MO-RA3 is connected to my loop it looks like someone dumped beeswax or pollen into my loop.

The MO-RA3 has aluminum fins soldered to copper tubing. You think there's any chance there are some quality control issues at Watercool? Aluminum contamination in the radiator? Mixing Aluminum, Nickel, and Copper in a loop could cause some bad things to happen corrosion wise. However, I'm guessing the most obvious problem is some sort of flux in the radiator.

 

[DoubleTap]

Did you ever figure out what this was or the cause? I literally just set a MO-RA3 up on Saturday, and today I'm looking at some nasty chunks that color, AND the holes in my reservoir base (also a HK Tube) look just like yours, same color too. The acrylic on my Heatkiller GPU block is now stained, and my tubes are yellow/gold. My loop water (distilled) looked great for 6 months, 2 days after the MO-RA3 is connected to my loop it looks like someone dumped beeswax or pollen into my loop.

I never figured out the cause. My original loop had a nasty smell like spoiled yogurt.

I got a new gpu and cpu block, both nickel plated. I reused some of the fittings as well as the pump and reservoir (after much cleaning).

I retired the 360 and I'm now running dual 420 rads (with eight 200mm Noctua fans) got more Koolance coolant.

Loop has been running perfect for like 18 months.

 

[Smoked Brisket]

I do not intend to disparage Koolance, but do they still make coolant? Havent they moved on to industrial solutions rather than personal pc's? I would guess that if you bought Koolance coolant from an online retailer that it has been on a shelf, maybe moved around for years. Coolant has a shelf life, no longer than two years on most bottles I have seen. 8 months is too fast to have "liquid yogurt." I am going to guess you started with bad fluid.

 

[Nobu]

I do not intend to disparage Koolance, but do they still make coolant? Havent they moved on to industrial solutions rather than personal pc's? I would guess that if you bought Koolance coolant from an online retailer that it has been on a shelf, maybe moved around for years. Coolant has a shelf life, no longer than two years on most bottles I have seen. 8 months is too fast to have "liquid yogurt." I am going to guess you started with bad fluid.

They still sell bottles (and bulk) coolant, but no telling how old the product was with retail, especially amazon market sellers. https://koolance.com/liquid-coolant-bottles

 

[kamikazi]

They still sell bottles (and bulk) coolant, but no telling how old the product was with retail, especially amazon market sellers. https://koolance.com/liquid-coolant-bottles

I bought some last year direct from koolance. I had to backorder it, so I'm pretty sure I got some fresh product. I bought a 5 liter bottle. So far, so good. I'll be testing out the rest of that bottle in a month or two when I rebuild. I just checked, it's still on backorder, pretty much the only thing that is. https://koolance.com/liq-702-liquid-coolant-high-performance-5000ml-clear Performance PCs has two units in stock https://www.performance-pcs.com/wat...colorless-5000ml-169-fl-oz-liq-702cl-05l.html They have the smaller bottles as well.

 

[Tsumi]

Welp, had to break down my loop (partially) due to a failed D5 pump. Didn't seize up or anything so I assume the electronics broke down. Manufactured in 2005 so it is a 17 year old pump. When I drained the reservoir, it was as clear as the distilled water I put in.