Cleaning out growth from a loop

[geronimo789]

Hi all ! First loop and post
 

So I've recently made the jump into dabbling with water cooling. As I am pretty big on just wanting my PC to work all the time I bought basically a second one from lower end spare parts mixed with what I had lying around.

 

Unfortunately it seems like I made two mistakes, I didn't clean everything thoroughly enough in advance (the gpu block had some brown residue and i took that apart and cleaned it, but the other loop seemed fine and I just rinsed it with everything assembled, the previous owner did use purple colorant ) and I used de-mineralized water instead of distilled (with an EK concentrate growth inhibitor though !)

 

So only a few weeks after building it I started to notice both a slimy/algae buildup, mold on the surface in the reservoir and the flexible tubes fogging up. So now I took everything apart again and i'm glad for my cautious approach to this with a spare system  .

 

Here is the question part: how paranoid should I be in cleaning and flushing everything ? I have now pulled apart the GPU and CPU block, flushed and cleaned the fins and blocks with a brush and left them to dry for a week now. Did the same for the pump/res combo where I took everything apart as far as I could and gave it a nice rinse with tap water and a clean with a brush plus a week to dry. Same for the fittings, disassemble, soak and dry. The only thing left is the readiators, I flsuhed and drained them as well as I could and then let dry air and gravity clear them out.

 

Before putting it all back together I am looking for a bit of feedback;

1) Should I go more thorough in cleaning like going over it all with detergent, isopropyl or ethanol ?

2) Should I put the loop back together and run the pump with a few gallons of distilled water and replacing the water a few times with the pump in operation ?

3) Would it be better to go with a premix instead of distilled + concentrate ?

 

Some more info on the hardware used:

Mostly corsair hydro X stuff (reservoir, fittings, am4 cpu block, 2x240mm rads)

A msi rx5700 gaming x with an o cool waterblock on it 

Lian li 011d mini

 

In terms of new stuff to pick up i'm thinking to pick up a pair of quick disconnects and install one in the tube connecting the pump output to the first rad. (pump/res combo > bottom rad > GPU > CPU > Side rad > pump/res combo is my loop) This will make draining very easy as I can just attach a spare piece of tubing with a disconnect on it as it is also sort of the lowest part of the loop. Other idea would be to do that in the tube feeding into the reservoir, but that would look much worse and the only advantage would be running the pump to clear out the loop much faster, although im pretty sure even if the pump is strong enough to push the water out all the way that implies running the pump dry which I believe to be a no-no.

 

Finally I'm considering picking up a byksky rx6600 waterblock since I have one lying around. It should perform identical to the 5700 but while being much smaller and using less power. Any feedback on the brand is welcome, but from what I gather its that it is fairly decent quality as long as you live comfortably knowing warranty and support are non existant.

[Shimejii]

4 minutes ago, geronimo789 said:

 

Finally I'm considering picking up a byksky rx6600 waterblock since I have one lying around. It should perform identical to the 5700 but while being much smaller and using less power. Any feedback on the brand is welcome, but from what I gather its that it is fairly decent quality as long as you live comfortably knowing warranty and support are non existant.

An absolute colossal waste of money on buying custom blocks for such budget cards. For the price of the block alone you can get a better GPU. Really makes little sense to actual do this.

 

Other then that regarding your question, you need a biocide for watercooling. Theres a few pre-mixed Biocides you can get and that should fix most of the issue youve had if you properly clean it and such.

[geronimo789]

It goes without saying that a waterblock for an RX6600 is a waste of money if its done for performance or overclocking reasons. I'm doing this because I have the card lying around, for the looks, fun of it and not for any practical reasons. My main rig has a 4090 in it and one could argue that is more wasted money than a 150 euro waterblock  My question was regarding experience and quality with the brand rather than 'does this make financial sense'

 

Thanks for the feedback though !

[SolarNova]

For the rads at least I always do a vinegar bath (leave filled for 30 minutes minimum), rinse with a baking soda solution (to neutralize any remaining vinegar), and then a final water rinse.