Help cleaning my loop

[Benji_w]

Hey, I'm new to the whole custom waterloop thing and all of a sudden my temps have shot up, some of my tubing has turned green but the other tubing I used has not. Also because I'm a noob I flushed my rads with tap water, yes I know, foolish am I!

 

Pic of offending tubing:

 

The loop is only a few months old, I'd say 3 months max and I used Alphacool coolant not tap water to fill the loop up. 

 

So what is the best way to clean out my loop? I'll be replacing the tubing with PETG tubing next as I can't be bothered with flex tubing, but could I also ask what is the best way in maintaining a good coolant and how?

[Sauron]

@Ghost @Gmac see if you can help this fellow out

[Spev]

Do you have 2 radiators cooling just your CPU?

[Benji_w]

Do you have 2 radiators cooling just your CPU?

 

Yes an FX8350 @ 4.9ghz - 1.56v, soon heats my room up tbh, but I started lowering a load of voltages in my system to see how low I could go and even when I got it down to 1.53 the temps still sat at the same as 1.58v when I was going for 5ghz around 70c+

[TBNRunity]

I would suggest draining the loop then filling it back up with distilled water and let the loop go for a little while then rinse out that water and repeat as much times as you want. I would recommend 2-3 minimum. And once that is all done fill it up with distilled water and not a colored coolent or some other coolent. Distilled water is pure therefore it has much less materials in it that can gunk up your system, color your tubing, and it just makes your system cleaner in general. And if you want the distilled water to be cleaner you can get a silver kill coil which just makes the water cleaner but it is not necessary.

[Ghost]

You can clean tubing, I recommend just replacing it as it's not that expensive.

 

If your CPU temp spiked after time it could have been the thermal paste drying out which is unlikely. Alternatively some gunk may have got into the CPU block so you should disassemble it and clean it out.

 

The green is either just leaching plasticizer which is normal, or it could be algae. If you used any of the popular coolants, or distilled water with a silver coil/biocide it shouldn't be algae.

 

I suggest Primochill LRT advanced tubing or if you don't mind the looks, norprene tubing is regarded as one of the most reliable types of tubing to use. You shouldn't need to replace coolant more than once a year.

[timothy]

Are you sure that you didn't use any aluminum rads.

You should disassemble your waterblock to see if any gunk is in it and clean it then replace your tubing and run some distilled water (if you can't distilled water use battery water its the same) find  through it with system turned off just power your pump. 

Run it until all the gunk comes out and then use coolant with a silver killcoil.

 

It should stop the system from gunking up and I would recommend that you clean your loop at lease once a year or every 9 months.

 

The killcoil :

http://www.performance-pcs.com/featured-products/mayhems-silver-coil-99-999-pure-fine-silver.html

[Crion]

It's possible that the coolant reacted with the tubing you used.  Can't say for sure without knowing what you used.  For example, Mayhems Pastel can react and turn a nasty green with certain tubing.  Ghost's recommendation of Primochill Advanced LRT is probably some of the best clear tubing you can get at this point.

[Benji_w]

It's possible that the coolant reacted with the tubing you used.  Can't say for sure without knowing what you used.  For example, Mayhems Pastel can react and turn a nasty green with certain tubing.  Ghost's recommendation of Primochill Advanced LRT is probably some of the best clear tubing you can get at this point.

 

I just used Alphacool branded distilled water tbh, I think not cleaning the rads correctly and then not using some form of silver coil or PTnuke has caused me issues. I'll get some Primochill for my drain and fill ports when I go PETG and if I ever go flex again I'll just use primo from now on with some form of anti bacteria protection. First time building and using a custom loop so I kind of expected this lol. Do I just use white vinegar to clean out my rads with a mix of distilled water then flush several times with distilled to remove the acidic vinegar?

[Daryan23]

I just used Alphacool branded distilled water tbh, I think not cleaning the rads correctly and then not using some form of silver coil or PTnuke has caused me issues. I'll get some Primochill for my drain and fill ports when I go PETG and if I ever go flex again I'll just use primo from now on with some form of anti bacteria protection. First time building and using a custom loop so I kind of expected this lol. Do I just use white vinegar to clean out my rads with a mix of distilled water then flush several times with distilled to remove the acidic vinegar?

I'd recommend just using Mayhem's Blitz pro cleaning system. It works, takes 24hrs to complete the clean, but worth it.