Got some funky growth

airborne spoon · August 15, 2021

I was walking by my computer today and noticed a dark spot in my res. Thought it was like a dark spot where light was just not hitting it and looked closer and bam funky ball of nastyness.

The water is 34c, CPU idling at 50c, GPU mining, core at 49c and VRAM at 43c

All the blocks are clean so it's not impeadimg the cooling or anything and it's only growing up at the top it seems.

I'm 99% sure I used swiftech HydrX mixed with distilled water. But I can't really remember but the bottle looks familiar online.

So now I won't buy EK fluid because that crap gunks up my blocks, 3 different times I tried EK and this was my first time using a different brand. Who makes good coolant? I want green like bright green and uv reactive, any recommendations?

For Science! · August 16, 2021

I agree it looks funky, but I do not think it is biological growth. To me it just looks like precipitate+foam probably due to excess of air exposure. I don't recommend leaving such a large airgap as that can become the seed for precipitate formation.

I do recommend EK coolants, but as you say you have reservations against it, the next I recommend is usually Mayhems. Homebrew solutions are not recommended as they are just more prone to error and is ultimately the same as a pre-mix if you understand what goes into a coolant.