Avoiding Anti Corrosion - help required

[Gill]

Hi All!

I really need your advice on adding anti corrosion to my water loop.

 

I couldn't avoid buying nickel plated GPU blocks and CPU block because there wasn't cooper based blocks.
The radiators are brass+tin+copper.
The fittings are chrome coated but I believe they are made of copper or brass at the end.

They are all similar metals but not "same" metals, which means I will get corrosion eventually. I read about it in Martin's liquid lab website.

 

If I'm looking at the long run, buying premix is expensive, so I'd rather stick to distilled water+biocide, but no one mentions anti corrosion as a must have / popular additive.

 

I've been searching forums and ebay and because I live in Australia, there are not much liquid PC speciality stores, it's hard to find anti corrosion additives. The one I could find has glycol in it and I can't use it due to Acrylic tube res.

 

Can someone please guide me here. What should I do?

 

[Skiiwee29]

5 minutes ago, Gill said:

Hi All!

I really need your advice on adding anti corrosion to my water loop.

 

I couldn't avoid buying nickel plated GPU blocks and CPU block because there wasn't cooper based blocks.
The radiators are brass+tin+copper.
The fittings are chrome coated but I believe they are made of copper or brass at the end.

They are all similar metals but not "same" metals, which means I will get corrosion eventually. I read about it in Martin's liquid lab website.

 

If I'm looking at the long run, buying premix is expensive, so I'd rather stick to distilled water+biocide, but no one mentions anti corrosion as a must have / popular additive.

 

I've been searching forums and ebay and because I live in Australia, there are not much liquid PC speciality stores, it's hard to find anti corrosion additives. The one I could find has glycol in it and I can't use it due to Acrylic tube res.

 

Can someone please guide me here. What should I do?

 

Get a silver coil for your reservoir. Easiest way. 

[Gill]

3 minutes ago, legacy99 said:

Get a silver coil for your reservoir. Easiest way. 

I'm trying to avoid introducing another metal which will expedite corrosion affect.

[Skiiwee29]

1 minute ago, Gill said:

I'm trying to avoid introducing another metal which will expedite corrosion affect.

ok, well you could go with something like PH Nuke

 

https://www.amazon.com/Petras-Tech-Nuke-Concentrated-Biocide/dp/B008EH4STK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466408134&sr=8-1&keywords=ph+nuke

[Gill]

2 minutes ago, legacy99 said:

ok, well you could go with something like PH Nuke

 

https://www.amazon.com/Petras-Tech-Nuke-Concentrated-Biocide/dp/B008EH4STK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1466408134&sr=8-1&keywords=ph+nuke

But that's a biocide. I'm looking into anti corrosion additive.

 

 

[Skiiwee29]

1 minute ago, Gill said:

But that's a biocide. I'm looking into anti corrosion additive.

 

 

Taken straight from that Amazon link that you apparently did not read.

 

 

Nuke -PHN is not acidic and will not drop your coolant's pH, making it ideal for use in poorly buffered coolants and situations where corrosion is a concern

[Majestic]

Not sure what you're expecting, it's galvanic corrosion. The only way you can stop this is having all metals completely isolated from eachother. 

Meaning no oxigen or conductive material can connect them.

 

You can't put some additive in there to stop this, the loop is acting like a battery.

 

I mean there are ways to stop galvanic corrosion, but I think all of them defeat the purpose of the cooler

[Gill]

11 minutes ago, legacy99 said:

Taken straight from that Amazon link that you apparently did not read.

 

 

Nuke -PHN is not acidic and will not drop your coolant's pH, making it ideal for use in poorly buffered coolants and situations where corrosion is a concern

I did read.

Read one of the comments:

"

By Garrett on May 15, 2016

Verified Purchase

Distilled water + PT Nuke = best coolant. Keep in mind that this does NOT lubricate your system nor is it a corrosion inhibitor. This will simply keep anything from growing in your loop."

 

 

[Gill]

9 minutes ago, Majestic said:

Not sure what you're expecting, it's galvanic corrosion. The only way you can stop this is having all metals completely isolated from eachother. 

Meaning no oxigen or conductive material can connect them.

 

You can't put some additive in there to stop this, the loop is acting like a battery.

 

I mean there are ways to stop galvanic corrosion, but I think all of them defeat the purpose of the cooler

So what do you suggest?

What should I be doing if I'm using distilled water? or I have no choice but buy premix?

 

[Majestic]

17 minutes ago, Gill said:

So what do you suggest?

What should I be doing if I'm using distilled water? or I have no choice but buy premix?

 

The only way to stop galvanic corrosion is to either use the same metal throughout the loop, or remove the electrolyte (which would mean removing the water and making the loop a vaccuum (pointless).

 

or

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion#Preventing_galvanic_corrosion

[Limecat86]

I'm using copper, nickel and brass in my waterloop with only distilled water for six months. No traces of corrosion here...

Just stay away from aluminum and you should be fine.

[W-L]

2 hours ago, legacy99 said:

Get a silver coil for your reservoir. Easiest way. 

2 hours ago, Gill said:

So what do you suggest?

What should I be doing if I'm using distilled water? or I have no choice but buy premix?

 

Don't use silver with nickel blocks they are borderline dissimilar metals in a loop environment. For those metals you have in the loop however you will have no problems running them together with  distilled water and a biocide or either with a premixed fluid. 

[Gill]

On 6/20/2016 at 8:22 PM, W-L said:

Don't use silver with nickel blocks they are borderline dissimilar metals in a loop environment. For those metals you have in the loop however you will have no problems running them together with  distilled water and a biocide or either with a premixed fluid. 

Yes I'm fully aware of not using silver kill coil.

Here is the other deal, EK doesn't recommend using biocide with is Copper Sulfate if you run Nickel in the loop.

All biocides I know are Cu based. Maybe the exception is PT Nuke PHN, but I can't get it in Australia. The only thing I can get here is Mayhem's Biocide Extreme which is Cu based.

Other than that, my only two options are:

1. Mayhem's X1 - that is if I can find it in Australia

2. Mixing distilled water with PEG car coolant. 90% water 10% coolant.

 

Using premixes are way too expensive.

[W-L]

6 hours ago, Gill said:

Yes I'm fully aware of not using silver kill coil.

Here is the other deal, EK doesn't recommend using biocide with is Copper Sulfate if you run Nickel in the loop.

All biocides I know are Cu based. Maybe the exception is PT Nuke PHN, but I can't get it in Australia. The only thing I can get here is Mayhem's Biocide Extreme which is Cu based.

Other than that, my only two options are:

1. Mayhem's X1 - that is if I can find it in Australia

2. Mixing distilled water with PEG car coolant. 90% water 10% coolant.

Using premixes are way too expensive.

You can always get a concentrated premix  like X1 or EKWB Evo which are usually the most affordable in terms of premixed fluids if you can't get a hold of something like Petra PT nuke. You can do an anti-freeze mix as long as the anti-feeze has a biocide built into it. 

https://www.pccasegear.com/products/33166/ek-ekoolant-evo-clear-concentrate-100ml-coolant

[Gill]

12 hours ago, W-L said:

You can always get a concentrated premix  like X1 or EKWB Evo which are usually the most affordable in terms of premixed fluids if you can't get a hold of something like Petra PT nuke. You can do an anti-freeze mix as long as the anti-feeze has a biocide built into it. 

https://www.pccasegear.com/products/33166/ek-ekoolant-evo-clear-concentrate-100ml-coolant

I think I'll use anti freeze and mix 10% of it to 1 litre of water.

thanks for the help.

 

[shibbs]

I've got a buddy running a super ghetto cooling loop in his PC. He's using literally the cheapest stuff he can find---I'm talking aluminum radiators, brass heater cores, (from his old racecar) nickel plated cpu blocks and regular copper blocks and a PVC 3-gallon reservoir. He's running green automotive coolant (50/50 premixed bottles) with a biocice and has no traces of corrosion a year later.