Still looking...

I've been out of WCing for a while... My systems are gunked up by failed water additive experiments. 4 systems, so many clouded tubes. ><

So my question is... what is the best solution to keep the tubes looking good with antibacterial properties?

I have not tried the dash of dish soap only or the fancy Water XP.

Also, is anyone willing to post pictures of a new system vs. the system a year later, and tell of the used additives if any. =P

-L

WELLCOME!

I ran an open system for a while,

and ill tell you that it wasnt much more than a 7' humidifier/air cleaner/heater.

my tubing got so crudded up that flakes and chunks broke off.
If you have anything resembling "nozzles" in your system, i reccomend AGAINST trying additives to clean it.

because if you get your wish, all that crud might break loose and become a major issue. especially if you arent using hoseclamps. yeah, bad.

best bet is just to replace the tubing, and clean the blocks as per the instructions that came with them, and try not to put anything in there that isnt listed in the stickies...

The first system I used a heater core and I did not flush it out and my tubes became pink! (only distilled water)

Another system I used only distilled water and green highlighter. The tubes are now a darkish gross green.

I used bateriastat (sp?) and distilled water... tubes are now dark deep cloudy.

Never was I able to keep a solid color. Perhaps I should just get colored tubing and completely forget the insides.. except anti-bateria measures.

Pics anyone? I will get some myself in a few.

the tubing clouding issue is one that remains unsolved to my knowledge and not completely avoidable. Tubing will cloud over time to some degree. Some additives are worse than others about this. First off, in an all copper loop you really don't need antifreeze anyway as corrosion is a non-issue. But if you want some color, the pentosin antifreezes work very well at being slow to cloud tubing. I am personally using some red Toyota antifreeze (which is basically pentosin antifreeze) for the color more than anything. Otherwise, you can use any of the good water soluable dyes from places like cool-cases-usa or Frozen CPU. They work well and don't cause problems. I would highly recommend staying away from stuff like highlighters, food coloring, clothing dye, etc. Go with what for sure works.

Tubing is also a factor in the clouding issue. I have used Tygon R3603, Clearflex 60, and Masterkleer, and of the three, Masterkleer takes a lot longer and doesn't could up nearly as much as the other two.

Colored tubing is of course always an option. I haven't used it myself, but many here seem to like the Primoflex tubing also, and it comes in colors.

I should have flushed my heater cores before i rigged up my loop. I didnt and had to strip everything down... But now things seem to be less crud filled lol.

thanks for info

*edit*

Anyone out there use the precolored tubing? How does the color hold up over the months and UV exposure.