White sludge build-up

[Nebulous]

I never thought it would happen to me, but it did! I got this white gooey sludge build-up in the lines, rad, pump and block, YUCK! :eek: The lines became spotted a week after I added a tablespoon of antifreeze and some biocide. I had to take the main apart, redo the lines and boil water to clean out the parts, dammit :mad:

Another thing is one of the fittings on my rad broke off. Not sure but I believe the JB weld did'nt dry rock hard or something because it was brittle. No sooner I sliced off the tubing, the fitting just popped right off. I'm glad it broke off now instead of while it was running :eek:. Now i gotta repair the rad as well.

Lets see if i can post a few shots of the mess :rolleyes:

[CGR]

Sounds like the biocide and anti-freeze had a bad reaction to whatever was in the loop.. This is one of the reasons I dont WC anymore... :(

[Nebulous]

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy watercooling, but this the very first time i ever expierienced anything like this. All I use is plain distilled water for years and I never got anything in my lines. Hell I would just flush out the lines twice a year and refil with plain distilled water. My lines stayed clean and clear.

Well about the pics, batteries to the cam were dead :-/, but I'll save the tubing so i can take shots of that at least.

[Nebulous]

*Update*

Finished re-plumbing the main @ midnight :-/ Filled and bled the system and now I'm back up and running full speed. Left the system on overnight to bleed.

It's so nice to actually see my tubing nice n clear again. Hell the entire system has been cleaned out. Hopefully I won't have to do this again for 6-8 months :)

[Nebulous]

Pics :)

[Nebulous]

Here's the white sludge with the fungal growth: YUCK! It had clogged up some of the jets inside the storm, some of the impeller's slots and of course the rad. If it wasn't because one of the fittings broke, i would have never seen the inside as I did. Several washouts with boiling water and Ajax Antibacteirial dish soap and compressed air from my compressor did the job :D

Then after all the parts were cleaned, I soaked the parts in 90% alcohol to kill off any survivors. Let the parts air dry and remounted.

I feel so much better now :cool:

[CGR]

Not as bad as mine was. My loop was fine until I decided to add some UV reactive dye to it.. Few days later my clear tubes were solid white throughout the loop...

[Nebulous]

Yeah. Pictures don't do it justice. The sludge was something like thick gooey slime. Chunks of it was comming out of the rad when i was flushing it out. A more detailed description would be like when a toddler has a cold with a stuffy nose and sneezes, lol.

This is the reason why I don't add anything to my lines.

[CGR]

That is a vile description :)

[saxile]

I use primochill products in my line, no problem what-so-ever with em either, and as a test I've had a bit of distilled water with primochill liquid utopia in it sitting open air and in sun light for about almost a month, nothing growing in it at all. Only minor quirk I've had with it is it foams up like hell when you first fill up, about 3 hous later it settles down tho, must admit my res bled with 1 hour using it and a tee line with-in 4 hours.

[Nebulous]

I use primochill products in my line, no problem what-so-ever with em either, and as a test I've had a bit of distilled water with primochill liquid utopia in it sitting open air and in sun light for about almost a month, nothing growing in it at all. Only minor quirk I've had with it is it foams up like hell when you first fill up, about 3 hous later it settles down tho, must admit my res bled with 1 hour using it and a tee line with-in 4 hours.

Maybe it must be location of state, position of the house, alignment of the stars, who the heck knows :shrug: I never had anything grow in my lines just using plain distilled water. A week after I added the antifreeze & biocide I got this. I know I'll stick with what works for me without the adverse effects.

That is a vile description :)

LOL ;)

[saxile]

I might be lucky I guess cause I found out the hard way that the thermal threshold works on my cpu twice and that distilled water plus primochill doesn't hurt nothing, first time, line blew off pump even with a hose clamp (my stupidity of moving the pump to much) sprayed down the mobo, video card, all pci slots, about an inch of fluid in psu, while running, board shut down due to heat, dumped all fluid out, test fired thinking was dead, but fired straight up, second time blew panel outta res (my fault again, only dropped the damned thing four times) dumped on dvds, secondary psu, and hdds, while running again, everything is a little red but works perfectly lol.

[apintojr]

luckly i havent had anything grow in my years of WC. just weird that u got it after putting stuff in that was suppose to avoid this situation.

[Sarsbaby]

luckly i havent had anything grow in my years of WC. just weird that u got it after putting stuff in that was suppose to avoid this situation.

Really wierd. Protein growth?

I just use Feser 1 Cooling fluid. Works great.

[Nebulous]

I might be lucky I guess cause I found out the hard way that the thermal threshold works on my cpu twice and that distilled water plus primochill doesn't hurt nothing, first time, line blew off pump even with a hose clamp (my stupidity of moving the pump to much) sprayed down the mobo, video card, all pci slots, about an inch of fluid in psu, while running, board shut down due to heat, dumped all fluid out, test fired thinking was dead, but fired straight up, second time blew panel outta res (my fault again, only dropped the damned thing four times) dumped on dvds, secondary psu, and hdds, while running again, everything is a little red but works perfectly lol.

Dayum! Then mad kudos to you for being lucky my friend :) I'm not that lucky tho :-/

[saxile]

Now that I think of it, it may be possible that it was already in there, and when you added that stuff it cause it to die and break up, I can't see pics as I'm mobile, but if you had a lot then it was most likely already growing and you murdered it. If it was a ton in the rad then it's been growing a long time, it takes months for alge to grow in a closed loop system.

[andyl33t]

I would second using the feser 1 stuff. Had been using it for a while now and no build up. But I do replace it every 6 months - when I drain the loop after a while the water really smells like algae.

[Nebulous]

Now that I think of it, it may be possible that it was already in there, and when you added that stuff it cause it to die and break up, I can't see pics as I'm mobile, but if you had a lot then it was most likely already growing and you murdered it. If it was a ton in the rad then it's been growing a long time, it takes months for alge to grow in a closed loop system.

Yeay true, but as a clean and neat freak that I am, i would doubt very much that stuff was in my loop and i did'nt notice.

[RollingThunder]

Yeay true, but as a clean and neat freak that I am, i would doubt very much that stuff was in my loop and i did'nt notice.

Neb,

Are you sure you didn't cross connect your water cooling lines with your beermeister? :screwy: :D

[saxile]

I'm 99% sure it was either in there, a chemical reaction of what you added, or that stuff the tubes are coated with reacting, cause no way your rad would be full within a week from normal algae growth, neat freak or not ;) but next question, what kinda rad are you using?

[Nebulous]

Neb,

Are you sure you didn't cross connect your water cooling lines with your beermeister? :screwy: :D


Sry RT, not me ;)

I'm 99% sure it was either in there, a chemical reaction of what you added, or that stuff the tubes are coated with reacting, cause no way your rad would be full within a week from normal algae growth, neat freak or not ;) but next question, what kinda rad are you using?


Then it had to be some chemical reaction. I'll bet my left one my lines were clean and clear before I added that crap. Again I've never has anything grow in my lines. Worse that has happen was i had to top off and that was it.

Using a modded koolance rad for ages.

[voigts]

I've used a few drops of fish aquarium algaecide with 6-8 drops of alcohol free povidone iodine with 10% Pentosin for 3+ years now. I typically drain and refill two or three times a year or so. I've never had the first issue with growth or anything else for that matter. This last fill about a month ago in my new loop I dropped the Pentosin. I have never understood why people don't use a few drops of algaecide. It is dirt cheap and just works.

What kind of biocide did you add?

[Nebulous]

I got this stuff: Algae Destroyer Liquid Advanced 8 fl. oz.

[Kilyin]

first time, line blew off pump even with a hose clamp (my stupidity of moving the pump to much)

Wait a minute, you had a tube come off with a worm drive clamp on it? I've moved my pumps quite a bit while leak testing. Those tubes ain't coming off unless I take that worm drive off.

[voigts]

I got this stuff: Algae Destroyer Liquid Advanced 8 fl. oz.

That's the exact same of algaecide I've been using for over 2 years.

[Th3 F4ll3n P1mp]

Ew, thats nasty. I am glad I redid my loop with just straight distilled.

[Nebulous]

That's the exact same of algaecide I've been using for over 2 years.

Crap! Something had to make it react the way it did, I just can't figure it out :shrug:

[Th3 F4ll3n P1mp]

Something in the radiator maybe?

[Nebulous]

Something in the radiator maybe?

When I first got the rad years ago, it was bone dry and dusty. I spent 2 days flushing it out with boiling water and alcohol, so I would doubt it. This is the very first time I ever got anything grow in my lines. That's what i don't understand.

[muddocktor]

I'm thinking it might have been a chemical reaction between the antifreeze and the algae stuff, Neb. As for my watercooled system, I don't drain it nearly as often as you guys. It's lucky if it gets drained every 18 months or so. It's been going a solid year now since the last rebuild and temps are still where they've been since putting it back together. But I'm also using the black tygon R3400 instead of clear tubing too, which probably keeps the greenies from growing (can't get light through the black tubing). And I don't know that it helps any, but I've always run an once or so of Water Wetter in my loop.

[Th3 F4ll3n P1mp]

Hey muddocktor, can you pm me some pics of your liquid cooled pc? It sounds nice.

[saxile]

Neb, just for farts and gurgles, have you tried that mix out side of your loop? Like put it in a milk jug or something and shake it up real good and see if it happens outside of loop? Btw the biocide would have been more than enough, antifreeze is useless unless you're mixing metals or using tap water.


Wait a minute, you had a tube come off with a worm drive clamp on it? I've moved my pumps quite a bit while leak testing. Those tubes ain't coming off unless I take that worm drive off.

kinda off topic, but I don't use a standard pump, I use an iwaki dual headed pump have 1/2 line streched over 5/8 barbs and still came off.

[Th3 F4ll3n P1mp]

@ saxile
I use a pump with 1/2 inch perfect fit barbs lol. The tubing is 7/16 ID. I guarantee that it will never come off lol. Speaking of which, I hope I dont need to take it off, it would mean a huge pain to get it off and an even bigger one to get it back on lol.

[repilce]

Which type of anti-freeze did u use neb? The green/red/yellow ? they all have a bit different properties.. on my old WC'n setup i used about 5-10% green stuff all the time and never had any buildup issues (although this is not any kind of algaecide) but loops always ran fungi-free and no buildup in blocks (KAHEM) corrosion either ;)

[Nebulous]

I used some prestone.