Reservoir contamination question?

[ammuica]

I've had my loop for about a year and I do a flush about every 6 months. I run distilled water with the appropriate amount of additive. Is this buildup normal/bad? If this is bad, if I just drain my loop, refill it with distilled water, let it go for a couple hours, then drain/fill it again, will this solve the issue?

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Welcome to OCFs.

This looks very interesting. When you say flush, do you mean just drain and refill with a fresh batch of fluid? If that's the case my guess atm is it looks like to be debris from your parts. Assuming you didn't do a full clean on your parts before assembling the loop together originally, that's the stuff I'd see when doing the "radiator dance", profusely shaking my radiator for a min or 2 numerous times before I know the liquid is coming out clear. On my 240mm and 360mm rads I did it 4-6 times each. On my 480 on the other hand was a different story. Took me 12-15 times to clean it.

Could it be flaking?

You'll need to give us more information. What is your PC specs and what are you using for your water cooling loop. Clear tubing or Colored? What biocide are you using? Blocks, res, pump etc.

A few more pics of different angles of your loop/system and the trouble looking areas would be nice.

 

[ammuica]

I have a lot more details about the PC and loop in these posts

https://www.reddit.com/r/watercooling/comments/26h461

and

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlestations/comments/1xycfk

and yes, when I say flush I meant I drained it, refilled it, let it run, and drain/refill.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Not trying to be an *** or anything but, why do I want to pour through threads on another site to get information to help you when you could just post the requested info here? I'm not doing your foot work for you.

 

[ammuica]

Sorry. Here is my kit. http://www.xoxide.com/xspc-raystorm750rs360watercoolingkit.html
Here is my GPU Block http://www.ekwb.com/shop/blocks/vga...e-titan-series/ek-fc-titan-acetal-nickel.html
Here are the fitting http://www.xoxide.com/xspc-g14to12id34-odcompressionfitting-chrome.html
Here is the Tubing http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1..._Tubing.html?tl=g30c99&id=78SVaKD4&mv_pc=1368
Here is the Additive http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...ate_Biocidal_PC_Coolant_Additive_-_15_mL.html

The specs are ;
-i5-3570K @ 4.2GHz (Liquid Cooled)
-GTX Titan (Liquid Cooled)
-16GB 1800MHz RAM 9-10-9-28
-4 1920x1080p 2ms Monitors
-2 Samsung 840 Evo Pro 250GB's in RAID0

Here is an album of pictures of the PC

https://imgur.com/a/9z1TL

I've included pictures of inside the resvervoir from different angles.
Sorry about formatting issues, I'm new to the forum

 

[Mr.Scott]

Thank you.
Nice rig BTW.

It most definitely looks like just a cleaning issue. Parts were not rinsed well enough on install.
I'd strip all the components and do the 'dance' with every single one. That includes opening the blocks and brushing out the debris from the pins and channels.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Thanks for the information on your system and loop specs.

Now did you clean out your parts before assembling the loop originally? I am leaning towards loop debris but it might be possible of nickel flaking.

Your best bet is to do a complete tear down and clean out all your components and go through the beginning process again. Prime, bleed, leak test etc.

Your fluid and biocide choice is fine.

 

[ammuica]

Is this necessary for the health of the computer or just the aesthetics?

 

[GTXJackBauer]

All of the above. It can cause clogs. Your pump doesn't like having debris because it can damage its impeller and can impede the waterblock water ways which would cause a increase in temps. It must and should be done.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Is this necessary for the health of the computer or just the aesthetics?

Well......pending how much junk is in there, It could plug channels in the blocks resulting in less than desirable temps, or worst case scenario damage the pump internals.

EDIT- ninja'd by Jack lol

 

[GTXJackBauer]

EDIT- ninja'd by Jack lol

 

[ammuica]

Thanks for all the information. I will do this when I get around to doing my next drain/refill. Can you tell how urgent this is based on the current information?

 

[Mr.Scott]

Watch your temps, listen for pump noise. That will dictate the urgency. I wouldn't wait too long, but I'm anal about stuff like that.

 

[ammuica]

My CPU never gets above 40-50C under full load (depending on ambient temps in room) and my GPU about 35-45C. It seems a bit higher than normal recently, but I think that is because my area seems to finally gotten into Summer temperatures.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

You will need to open up your blocks, rinse out your rad and run your pump outside of the loop till it is clean. That's a lot of debris in that reservoir for my comfort. I would do it asap.

Did this all just come to your attention from the look inside reservoir, your temps had spiked or did your pump sound louder?

Edit - Dammit! Ninja'd by Mr. Scott!

 

[ammuica]

My temps have gotten a bit higher because of summer, but I just decided to look in my reservoir out of curiosity. My pump has not gotten any louder than it has since I bought it.

 

[Mr.Scott]

Edit - Dammit! Ninja'd by Mr. Scott!

We're even.

 

[GTXJackBauer]

Sounds good. No damage has been done yet. Just clean everything out and you should be good to go. Just keep an eye on those pumps. Some tend to go bad for some reason. I mean they are only on revision 4? Nonetheless you should be good to go once you clean it all out.

We're even.

 

[ammuica]

One more quick question. Does this "Radiator dance" require distilled water to be cleaned or can I just wash it in the sink and shake it. I could try to find a good tutorial real quick, but I won't be as good at spotting a good tutorial from a bad one. So if you could link a good tutorial real quick, that'd be great/

 

[ammuica]

I'll probably do this in a couple weeks. I'd rather not do this right before a two week vacation in case the connection aren't secure after I redo them.