Why you shouldn't use Fluid XP or Fluid XP+ (Pictures)

[cravy]

Awhile back (maybe a year or less) I came to these forums and lurked around for awhile looking for water cooling advice. Well after making this huge complicated Thermaltake Armor case with a raised platform I figured I would be problem free for awhile. It turns out I was wrong.

1st shot of fluid going into the lines, nice and blue:

Shortly after adding Blue UV Fluid XP to my lines I noticed it wasn't blue anymore . It was a kind of murky white. I eventually removed the UV lights because it didn't even glow blue or any color after awhile. I figured as long as my temps stayed low and it looked like the fluid was moving I was alright.

Much to my dismay eventually everything looked like it was solid coated in white florescent residue. So recently I removed it all and upgraded my PC/replaced the lines.

I used chemical grade tygon tubing that my work purchased around the time I made my PC so I knew it wasn't a reaction to the tubing (why would it be anyways heh). Here are some pictures.

My tubing with nothing in it:

After maybe 5-6 months of use(Its looked the same for the past 5 months lol):

Unbelievable. I would say a good 1/8 of the tubing had a wall of white florescent residue on it. It was also in my water blocks slightly building up in the small transfer holes. I couldn't even come close to cleaning out the tubing, luckily the water blocks, mini-res, and the radiator flushed out pretty easily.

For how expensive this stuff was I'm hugely disappointed in the performance of Fluid XP+. When I remade the lines I used Premo-Chill and later after no white residue build up I added some Premo-Chill Red UV dye. And everything has been looking much nice since.

Sorry for the rant, just wanted to warn people about this stuff... Someone in my old thread about my mod to my case said the same thing happened to his fluid heh.

 

[CGR]

I had the exact same problem when I added some UV dye to my loop. Wasnt using the fluidxp but just added some dye.. Within a couple days my tubes were covered in a flakey white substance.

Will NEVER use any kind of UV dye again.

I have been told that happens when raw aluminum touches the coolant.. Unfortunatly I had no aluminum in my loop when it happened.

 

[dicecca112]

this happens to all tubbing, unless the loop is perfectly sealed. Its bacteria growth, happens to everyone, nothing to do with what you put in the coolant. Yes you can add additives, but its not gonna completely prevent this

 

[CGR]

this happens to all tubbing, unless the loop is perfectly sealed. Its bacteria growth, happens to everyone, nothing to do with what you put in the coolant. Yes you can add additives, but its not gonna completely prevent this

That is incorrect. My loop was clean for 6 months and this happened a few days after adding the dye. The dye caused the white substance to form, whether it was algae or not I cannot say.

 

[cravy]

this happens to all tubbing, unless the loop is perfectly sealed. Its bacteria growth, happens to everyone, nothing to do with what you put in the coolant. Yes you can add additives, but its not gonna completely prevent this

Yeah bacteria grew in 3 days and in less 1 month ruined the entire line... OK. And how did the blue die magically disappear at the same time the lines turned completely white?

 

[Moto7451]

Looks like the dye stained the tubing then.

 

[Mycobacteria]

geometric progression, 1 bacteria can grow into 2 bacteria in less than 20min. two bacteria becomes 4 bacteria in 40min, four bacteria becomes 8 bacteria in 1.hour etc etc...

Bacteria can breakdown almost anything they want and use it as food. They think blue dye + ethylene glycol like a fat person thinks cup cake + frosting.

Time in Hours - Number of Bacteria
00:00 00:00 - 1
00:20 00:20 - 2
00:40 00:40 - 4
01:00 01:00 - 8
01:20 01:20 - 16
01:40 01:40 - 32
02:00 02:00 - 64
02:20 02:20 - 128
02:40 02:40 - 256
03:00 03:00 - 512
03:20 03:20 - 1,024
03:40 03:40 - 2,048
04:00 04:00 - 4,096
04:20 04:20 - 8,192
04:40 04:40 - 16,384
05:00 05:00 - 32,768
05:20 05:20 - 65,536
05:40 05:40 - 131,072
06:00 06:00 - 262,144
06:20 06:20 - 524,288
06:40 06:40 - 1,048,576
07:00 07:00 - 2,097,152
07:20 07:20 - 4,194,304
07:40 07:40 - 8,388,608
08:00 08:00 - 16,777,216
08:20 08:20 - 33,554,432
08:40 08:40 - 67,108,864
09:00 09:00 - 134,217,728
09:20 09:20 - 268,435,456
09:40 09:40 - 536,870,912
10:00 10:00 - 1,073,741,824
10:20 10:20 - 2,147,438,648
10:40 10:40 - 4,294,967,296
11:00 11:00 - 8,589,934,592
12:00 12:00 - 68,719,476,736
13:00 13:00 - 549,755,813,888
14:00 14:00 - 4,398,046,511,104
15:00 15:00 - 35,184,372,088,832
16:00 16:00 - 281,474,976,710,656
17:00 17:00 - 2,251,799,813,685,248
18:00 18:00 - 18,014,398,509,481,984
19:00 19:00 - 144,115,188,075,855,872
20:00 20:00 - 1,152,921,504,606,846,976
21:00 21:00 - 9,223,372,036,854,775,808
22:00 22:00 - 73,786,976,294,838,206,464
23:00 23:00 - 590,295,810,358,705,651,712
24:00 24:00 - 4,722,366,482,869,645,213,696

This shows the power of geometric progression at play. We are only at 48 hrs and I have 4.7 million trillin bacteria! Can you imagine the amout of build up and scum in three days?! This is why the build up of scum can happen so dam quickly.

The white scum that is stuck to your tubes is just bacterial cell mass as they like to grow and adhere to things. Be proud you have feed them well like a fat person at in a cup cake shop!

 

[Mycobacteria]

No this problem does NOT happen to all of us. (At least it does not happen to me)
Yes you can complety prevent this.
The dye disapeard because the bacteria used it as food.
Yes as illistrated it can happen quite quickly.
Yes this amout of bacteria can clog up a storm water block.

You should start moving to silver tubes (only 30c more) or use some iodine (only $3.50).

Also remember antifreze is not an antimicrobial agent.

I have been using silver and distilled water (with no additives) and everything is good with no problems. And no signs of turbidity in the water, no build up of scum on my clear acrylic res, or on any of the clear segments of tube that is in my loop.

 

[Valkillmore]

The ideal location for bacteria growth is in a warm and moist place. Inside of your loop would seem like a fantastic place for bacteria to grow. Think about what happens every time you stick your finger in your mouth!!! I believe iodine is a good idea or any other high quality antiseptic could help keep tubes clean. And to make life easier, bacteria grows at the rate of 2^n where n is any positive integer 0, 1, 2, 3,...

 

[Mycobacteria]

Oh man that makes life so easy!

In that case on the 3rd day we would have:

3.04224198874620747791134929958e+433

the e+433 means we move the decimal place 433 times to the right...?!?

 

[Valkillmore]

If you were calculating in base 10 that would apply (10^n), but I'm not sure if it works the same way with all geometric series. You might fiddle around with the exponential growth equation Y = Yo*e^kt to figure it out. Yo = initial population of bacteria, e = constant (2.71...), k = rate, and t = time. Oh, and you'll need to cancel out "e" by using the natural log, "ln"

 

[OCnewbee]

Well i have had the Fluid xp Extreme bloodred in my loop using tygon tubing and have had no fogging of the lines or any issues? Temps stay nice an cool even underload or at idle. Had it in my loop for rougly 3 months. Here is a link to the first time i put the liquid in the loop. And here are pics of the loop right now.




Looks like the color just got darker, but the lighting in the room is not the same and i took the new pic with my Canon 30d opposed to the 6.2mp sony point and shoot. So, so far so good. It might of been the uv version of the fluid. I know the PC ICE uv blue that i used before was not uv reactive and after i drained the loop it fogged the tubing, i was even using the thin wall tygon in the old loop.

 

[icantfindone]

I also use FluidXP Extreme in Phantom black. Been in for nearly a month now I guess, and my tubing looks fine, have no problems at all. Maybe your case was simply a bizarre reaction with something in your loop, or an isolated incident.

 

[Moto7451]

If you're using an old, contaminated (by the air, your hands, etc) bottle of distilled water your chances of bacterial growth become greater. Just buy some biocide from the aquarium and everything will be peachy keen.

 

[Automata]

I had a slightly different experience with FluidXP. Mine did not turn white, but the pump sheared the water, seperating the coloring from the fluid! It left blue residue on the res and tubing (and the inside of the pump when I opened it). So mine was not bacterial, it just sheared...

 

[Mycobacteria]

man that blood red used to look neat now its looks too dark....

 

[voigts]

I have seen several cases of Primochill clogging up CPU blocks.

I have never seen distilled water with a bit of antifreeze and some biocide clog up anything or even "separate" for that matter.

 

[OCnewbee]

man that blood red used to look neat now its looks too dark....

The lighting in the pic is different, on the original post i had a lamp on top of the case firing down, now that same lamp is about 10ft away from the case lighting up the hole room, also the camera used to take the pictures is different like i stated, It is actually the same color as be fore maybe a hair darker, but it looks and still performs killer in my loop.

 

[ogboot]

Antifreeze is not a biocide?!?

 

[WonderingSoul]

I use MCT-40... I have had the liquid in my tubing (masterkleer 7/16") for about four or five months and no fogging or buildup...