Life uh finds a way

[Pandora]

Last night my brother and I dismantled my watercooling loop for its annual cleaning and fluid replacement. 

To my horror I found gunk on the threads of a fitting. 

On further inspection I found algae in my gpu block. 

Damit, a 2 hour project just turned into 3 day. 

My solution scorched earth (littarly). I am not taking any chances with a biological that was able to grow in ekoolant. 

 

Plastic and delicate parts revived a bath in isopropyl. Parts such as rads were flushed with near boiling hot water and then hit with a heat gun to get them to near 100 degrees. Gpu and cpu blocks were thoroughly scrubbed with a tooth brush and isopropyl. 

Some new tubing and a combination of liquid utopia and sys prep and the loop is now cycling for over 12 hours without leaks. 

I plan on draining it again and going to another round of sys prep and ptnuke. 

 

[For Science!]

2 minutes ago, Pandora said:

 

Looks more like O-ring grease to me than algae.

[Pandora]

2 minutes ago, For Science! said:

Looks more like O-ring grease to me than algae.

That's what I thought for a bit but it had a slight smell to it and I am not taking any chances. It didn't feel like greese. 

[Enderman]

What coolant were you using?

When was the last time you replaced it?

[Pandora]

25 minutes ago, Enderman said:

What coolant were you using?

When was the last time you replaced it?

Ekcoolant and I replaced it about 9 months ago but I didn't do a through flush. 

[Enderman]

2 hours ago, Pandora said:

Ekcoolant and I replaced it about 9 months ago but I didn't do a through flush. 

What the heck is ekcoolant...

Are you talking about EK cryofuel? ek EVO coolant? something else?

 

Was it a concentrate or premix? Coloured?

[Pandora]

35 minutes ago, Enderman said:

What the heck is ekcoolant...

Are you talking about EK cryofuel? ek EVO coolant? something else?

 

Was it a concentrate or premix? Coloured?

It was a pastel white coolant by ek. It's discontinued 

[Enderman]

1 hour ago, Pandora said:

It was a pastel white coolant by ek. It's discontinued 

It was probably evo then, since it has been replaced with cryofuel.

[Pandora]

1 hour ago, Pandora said:

It was a pastel white coolant by ek. It's discontinued 

It was before Evo I believe it was just called ekoolant

[Pandora]

22 hours ago, Enderman said:

It was probably evo then, since it has been replaced with cryofuel.

Found an empty bottle 

[Enderman]

50 minutes ago, Pandora said:

Found an empty bottle 

Oh ok, that's the EVO stuff.

If mixed with distilled water correctly it should not have had any growth...

Do you remember what type of water you mixed it with?

 

It has been replaced recently by ek cryofuel though so maybe there were some issues with it.

[For Science!]

28 minutes ago, Enderman said:

 

 

1 hour ago, Pandora said:

 

This is the same as Mayhem's Pastel. EK collaborated on it in 2014 and released it under the EK-Koolant branding and is distinct from the Evo clear coolants of the same period.

Spoiler

https://www.ekwb.com/news/ek-launches-the-new-line-of-pastel-line-nano-coolants/

 

https://www.inet.se/produkt/5322413/vatska-ek-ekoolant-mayhem-pastel-vit-250ml-koncentrat

I still maintain that this is just O-ring grease and not algae growth. Algae is unlikely to localize in a region and would have taken over most of the loop if it was indeed there. Here are example photos of O-ring grease that have leached in various systems that to me resemble the brown stain on the waterblock close to the O-ring.

 

Now, I think EK O-rings are fairly notorious of doing this, while it has no performance issues, is aesthetically unpleasing - I don't know if this waterblock you have shown is EK, but if it is, is in strong support of this theory. Having said that during my 1 year maintenance, I cleaned the residue off and gave the O-ring itself a bit of a wash, and no further leeching of any grease has been observed in my systems.

 

Regardless, I am in strong support of you playing it safe and giving your system a good clean, but I do not think the coolant has failed you in any way, so I just wanted to put it out there.

 

 

 

 

[Pandora]

18 minutes ago, For Science! said:

Snip

The more I think about it the more I think you're correct, my Xpsc raystorm and Barrow fittings didn't have any gunk on them. Oh well now my loop is super clean. 

 

1 hour ago, Enderman said:

Oh ok, that's the EVO stuff.

If mixed with distilled water correctly it should not have had any growth...

Do you remember what type of water you mixed it with?

 

It has been replaced recently by ek cryofuel though so maybe there were some issues with it.

Sorry about the confusion. Anyway i used distilled water. 

 

What do you guys think about primochill true while pastel? I was thinking about going with that. 

[For Science!]

4 minutes ago, Pandora said:

 

I dont normally recommend opaque fluids, but if you must, I think you should stick with Mayhems Pastel.

[daimonie]

NB: I contacted EK over some brown residue, likely also O-ring oil, and immediately got sent a replacement O-ring and new fluid. 

[Enderman]

16 hours ago, Pandora said:

Sorry about the confusion. Anyway i used distilled water. 

 

What do you guys think about primochill true while pastel? I was thinking about going with that. 

Go with mayhems coolants instead.