Is it safe to remove nickel plating from a cpu/gpu block

[Ken7331]

I have nickel ek blocks on my cpu and gpu and after the first year of running my system they have started to look like they're either slightly corroded or the nickel plating is flaking off, not sure. Either way I was wondering if anyone had ever attempted to soak a block in vinegar or citric acid solution to just remove the nickel plating in order to just have a straight copper block. Would this turn out looking like crap or create a high risk of a leak?

[W-L]

39 minutes ago, Ken7331 said:

I have nickel ek blocks on my cpu and gpu and after the first year of running my system they have started to look like they're either slightly corroded or the nickel plating is flaking off, not sure. Either way I was wondering if anyone had ever attempted to soak a block in vinegar or citric acid solution to just remove the nickel plating in order to just have a straight copper block. Would this turn out looking like crap or create a high risk of a leak?

Your going to need something much more caustic to completely remove the plating, while being careful to not damage the underlying copper base. I would personally suggest to leave it as is as it will not affect performance if it's just lightly corroded. Do you have photos, what does it look like now? 

[andrewmp6]

Are you running a silver kill coil ?

[Ken7331]

19 hours ago, W-L said:

Your going to need something much more caustic to completely remove the plating, while being careful to not damage the underlying copper base. I would personally suggest to leave it as is as it will not affect performance if it's just lightly corroded. Do you have photos, what does it look like now? 

Here is a pic from about 5 months ago when I tore down my loop to mount my gpu vertical. Prior to that it had been running for about a year with some mayhems additive. When I tore the loop down and rebuilt it I had a white film buildup on everything and I wasn't sure if it was the nickel+silver kill coil or just plasticizer leaching from the tubes. It didn't gunk up my system really, no performance difference but I still ran mayhems blitz through it just to be safe. I also removed the coils and stupidly forgot to get another additive for the water so I just used the liquid utopia that came with the primochill LRT tubes I'm using. 

Also I have access to extremely strong bases such as sodium hydroxide however I think I'd rather attempt it with something milder such as vinegar, maybe soak it for a whole day checking on it every half hour or so.  

5 months ago:

Today:

[W-L]

2 hours ago, Ken7331 said:

-SNIP-

You can try using electrolysis to remove the nickel it would be much more effective than regular vinegar. As for what caused that if you used a silver kill coil or a copper sulfate based additive from mayhems it will affect the nickel. Nickel is a fairly picky and must have the correct additives or concentrates for it to play nice in a loop.

[MrWittel]

Did you ever try this? I have used Acetone to strip nickel before if you are still interested

[andrewmp6]

On 2/16/2018 at 4:01 PM, Ken7331 said:

Here is a pic from about 5 months ago when I tore down my loop to mount my gpu vertical. Prior to that it had been running for about a year with some mayhems additive. When I tore the loop down and rebuilt it I had a white film buildup on everything and I wasn't sure if it was the nickel+silver kill coil or just plasticizer leaching from the tubes. It didn't gunk up my system really, no performance difference but I still ran mayhems blitz through it just to be safe. I also removed the coils and stupidly forgot to get another additive for the water so I just used the liquid utopia that came with the primochill LRT tubes I'm using. 

Also I have access to extremely strong bases such as sodium hydroxide however I think I'd rather attempt it with something milder such as vinegar, maybe soak it for a whole day checking on it every half hour or so.  

5 months ago:

Today:

Its probably the silver that did it.All nickel blocks say not to run a silver kill coil.