virgin loop and brand new to water cooling

Hello all, this is my first post here and just wanted to ask a few questions. I just finished my water cooling loop and filled it up with some primo chill. Being a newb I thought this primochill coolant already had biocide in it. Well it doesn't and I've already filled up my res. I'm using a tube res from xspc. It's one of their combo ones. D5 pump on bottom and their glass res on top, all one unit. I also was under the impression that I could drop my kill coil in my res. However there is stuff blocking the fill port on top. I could try and wind the coil down inside but then i would never be able to get it out unless I disassembled the res which I would rather not do. My loop has only been running for a few days and only for maybe an hour or so at a time or 5 hours total. So this is where I'm at.

Basically my questions are:

Can I just put some drops of the biocide into the fill port on top of the res or did I need to pre mix it with my coolant before filling the loop?

How long do I have before algae will start growing? ( it is very dark in this room with the blinds closed but I do have uv leds in the case)

If I am able to get the kill coil in my res, why would I ever need to take it out?

Thanks in advance and sorry for the newb questions.

Welcome to the Forums Jaden!

Can I just put some drops of the biocide into the fill port on top of the res or did I need to pre mix it with my coolant before filling the loop? There is no need to pre-mix as the pump will do this over time. As long as you add the correct amount this will be fine.

How long do I have before algae will start growing? ( it is very dark in this room with the blinds closed but I do have uv leds in the case) This will depend on many variables, some which you have listed. It could be just a few days, it could be a few weeks. It's best to treat right away to prevent growth. Trust me, you don't want to have to do a full tear down and scrub everything.

If I am able to get the kill coil in my res, why would I ever need to take it out? You wouldn't necessarily. Maybe just for your annual cleaning. Just make sure it can't get sucked into your pump.


I hope that helps. Best of luck!

Thanks a lot for the answers! So ide rather not put the kill coil in the res because it would be a pain to get out later. I originally ordered a T fitting and valve from frozen cpu which they didn't ship out and I ended up building the loop without it, but they finally shipped them and I have them now. So I'm thinking my best bet is to drain everything, add in the T and valve fitting and then add the kill coil in with it then refill with distilled water. The problem is the parts I need to do this won't get to me till next week. The biocide won't get to me til next week either so is there something I can do in the meantime to help prevent algae until I get the stuff I need?

I guess what I'm saying is I don't want to drain everything to put the kill coil in the tubing, fill it back up and then drain it again to splice in the T fitting. I'm waiting on a female to female coupler so I can couple the T straight to the valve so there is no hose in between it'll be just like one fitting.

Can I just run down to a fish store and buy some algacide to put in the meantime to inhibit algae until I get the stuff I need?

Well, if I can be honest, I don't know if the fish algacide is the same as biocide. Also, I don't even use biocide in my loop.

I know what you're thinking "What?!?!" I only use a silver kill coil and distilled water. Every manufacturer will tell you to use both as a precautionary and it's probably a good idea. However, unless your loop is gigantic, Silver is a natural biocide and adding a biocide is really just an insurance policy. I've yet to have any growth but YMMV. If you add the silver now it would likely be OK until the biocide shows up, but there are no guarantees of course.

The silver is the biocide unless you're looking for the liquid form of it, "Deadwater" to put inside. I use both + two kill coils to silence the extra paranoia being a big loop that it is for my case. All you need is either deadwater or a kill coil. Eventually, I believe the deadwater will eventually dissolve and so the kill coils will come in handy.

What primochill fluid did you put in? Any manufacturer fluid usually comes packed with anti-growth and anti-corrosive inhibitors so I think you should be fine.

Also black, I'd recommend in a biocide.

It came with my kit I ordered, it's the primo chill base. I too was under the same impression that it came with additives already in it. Until I read their website and it says it has none. So another question...

Say a little bit of algae has grown and I can't see it on the res, if I use pt nuke or anything else that kills bacteria then no more algae should grow right? As long as I keep adding anti algae stuff to the water every now and then I should be good right?

I would say, in the liquid forum either every 6 months or annual, depending on the size of the loop and how many drops the directions say and yes, will stop any growth and should.

Jaden Ckast said:

It came with my kit I ordered, it's the primo chill base. I too was under the same impression that it came with additives already in it. Until I read their website and it says it has none. So another question...

Say a little bit of algae has grown and I can't see it on the res, if I use pt nuke or anything else that kills bacteria then no more algae should grow right? As long as I keep adding anti algae stuff to the water every now and then I should be good right?

Click to expand...

When you say "kit", what do you mean, exactly? Was it one of these kinds of kits, or were you referring to just the tubing? I ask because the tubing comes with SysPrep, which isn't meant (from what I understand) to keep the loop clean, just to do the initial clean on it.

It's an xspc kit. Came with a d5 vario pump and tube res combo unit as well as a triple radiator, cup block and came with standard tubing along with primo flex uv green tubing which i paid extra for. I bought it from performance pc's. This should be the kit I bought http://www.performance-pcs.com/hot-xspc-raystorm-d5-photon-rx360-v3-watercooling-kit.html

I never saw any system prep stuff. Just gave me the primo chill base fluid, clear generic tubing and then the primo flex tubing. I seriously just figured the primo chill had anti algae stuff in it already. Then come to find out it doesn't.

Ok so another question, I'm getting the primo chill liquid utopia. Is that all I need or do I also need to put nuke first and then add the utopia afterwards? Cuz I looked this morning and unfortunately I have a couple little dots inside my res I would rather wait for a couple months before doing a complete flush so my goal is to just keep anymore algae from growing until then.

Also as an update, I disassembled my res to clean the inside of it and it was a lot easier than I anticipated. I only saw 1 rubber gasket and was very careful when removing the glass so I know I didn't miss any. The only rubber gasket I saw was at the bottom of the res where it meets the pump. And the gasket stayed on the glass res so I didn't have to worry about the direction to place it back on. I'm not sure if it's an updated design or not but the xspc pump/photon tube res combo is super easy to clean. Some of the articles online made it seem like there was a lot to it but there's really not. Maybe this is old news as I'm new to the forum but just thought I would share.

Just in case no one has told you Stay away from coolant that has dye in it. I know from experience even after being told by the guys on here not to use it. I would run PrimoChill or EK BLUE coolant through my system as me and my wife liked how it looked. I also didn't mind the ADDITIONAL time required to properly clean the system every 6 months. I had health problems before my major heart attack last Oct, so the cleaning schedule was not followed properly.
Here are a list of problems that I had:
1) If you use a 90 deg fitting in your loop, they are prone to fouling/sludge build up.
2) If the coolant gets warm (temp unknown) the dye will separate from the base coolant as tiny blue specks and collect in the pump, rads, and blocks.
3) This is the same as #2 but the opposite. If the coolant gets to cold (not frozen)(temp unknown) the dye will separate from the base coolant as tiny blue specks and collect in the pump, rads, and blocks.

As you already know, this will drop your flow rate. This leads to less cooling capability by your system. Additional wear on your pump and blocks and other things that I can't remember right now.
All you need is:
1) Distilled Water
2) Kill Coil
3) PHN Nuke

Thanks For Reading

MM

EDIT above post:

PHN Nuke, replaced PT Nuke over 6 years ago, maybe more. PT Nuke was for loops with odd stuff when WCing was the wild frontier. Now, PHN Nuke, IanH DeadWater and another (I forget the name) are for modern loops.

Conumdrum said:

EDIT above post:

PHN Nuke, replaced PT Nuke over 6 years ago, maybe more. PT Nuke was for loops with odd stuff when WCing was the wild frontier. Now, PHN Nuke, IanH DeadWater and another (I forget the name) are for modern loops.

Click to expand...

EDIT DONE

I had the name for the third one until I was asked for it. Now I can't remember it either

LOL me neither....

Sound advice up there.

Thanks for the info. Ya I saw all these different nukes and all I ever heard about was the pt nuke so I ended up just getting that along with the liquid utopia. I used the liquid utopia since it came in the mail first. So far no algae and water is crystal clear. There is a little leftover uv green from the first primochill fluid I had put in but when I drain again in a few months that should come out. I'll take your guys suggestion and only use distilled with no dye. Just as another subject and maybe a dumb question but is the primochill uv green fluid the same as getting distilled and adding uv green dye? The one they sell is already mixed and added is all right? Therefore it would have the same issue of the dye separating and clogging?

Jaden Ckast said:

Thanks for the info. Ya I saw all these different nukes and all I ever heard about was the pt nuke so I ended up just getting that along with the liquid utopia. I used the liquid utopia since it came in the mail first. So far no algae and water is crystal clear. There is a little leftover uv green from the first primochill fluid I had put in but when I drain again in a few months that should come out. I'll take your guys suggestion and only use distilled with no dye. Just as another subject and maybe a dumb question but is the primochill uv green fluid the same as getting distilled and adding uv green dye? The one they sell is already mixed and added is all right? Therefore it would have the same issue of the dye separating and clogging?

Click to expand...

YES.
I was told that if I wanted the look of blue in my tubing, buy blue tubing. At that time I was only looking at the basic economics. The color tubing was running about $2.50 per foot, total length needed 20ft = $45.00.
I could buy 3 1LT colored coolant for < $20 and then pick up my 20ft of tubing from Lowes/Home Depot for < $10.00. I will chalk it up to using colored coolant. When I did my cleaning after 4 - 6 months of use, the tubing would be colored blue. (I never thought that this might also be happening else where) It was a lot easier to buy new tubing than to try and clean the old one. I would also have to purchase new coolant.
I can now look back and see that the Investment of buying blue tubing would have saved me money.

Yes, you'll have the same issue either way you go.

Ok fortunately I actually bought uv green tubing so it's just the res that would not have any color next time I flush the system. No biggie tho, I guess I could get a green led for the res and then it'll somewhat match the uv green tubing. Thanks again guys for the help.

Make sure its PrimoChill Advanced LRT tubing and the choice of your color. Many of us have been growing strong with it and it hasn't been an issue for those that follow distilled, biocide and scheduled maintenance. Any other tubing, you're taking a gamble, let alone colored fluids.

Some LEDs like the NZXT Hue+ or whatever static color can be used to give you the colors you always wanted.