Algae!

john_lickman

john_lickman

john_lickman

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Joined
12 Dec 2005
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53
Built my new system 3 months ago and filled it with Feser One Yellow. It looked great, but now I have green slime in there too!

OK, I guess I've got to clean it out and start again, but I thought Feser One was supposed to have an anti-fungal agent in it. Is this true?

I really like the colour of my fluid and am reluctant to swap to something else, so is there a general purpose bug killer I can safely mix with my Feser One?

If nothing else is possible, what fluid would forum members recommend that will keep me yellow, but not green?

Thanks in advance
 
are you sure its algae?

I would have thought that was highly unlikely, especially after 3 months. I must be getting on for 6 at least on my current load of feser, I had untreated deionised water for 12 months with no algae???
 
it would probably only turn green if there were mixed metals..

@ the op, what are the components? Be specific, you might be suffering from galvanic corrosion.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I'm pretty sure it's Algae, or something similar (I'm not much good with the David Bellamy stuff). It's green and looks like that slimy pond weed stuff. I can even see it wafting about in the flow.

My system has a Danger Den CPU block (copper) and EK GPU block (copper) and an ASUS Maximus Extreme Fusion Block (Copper'ish). The tubing is clear Tygon tubing. All of the barbs are Chrome plated and apart from a couple of nylon tube connectors, that's it. The only thing I've had in the system from new is Feser One, pure and undiluted.
 
The Rad is a Cape Cora passive cooler (10 cores). The pumps are Laing D-5s. I run 2 pumps in parallel. I also have a cold cathode white light in the case, which is probably what promotes the growth.

The whole system runs at between 28C and 35C, depending on load.
 
i had what you describe just a few days ago when i drained my system, i have copper blocks and used aluminium bulkheads to go to an external rad. my blocks were also very dirty with lots of oxidisation and that was only from using it for a few months.
 
took out the bulkheads and put the rad back in the case.

if you want to test then i used to use an algae treatment meant for fishtanks which worked very well, only costs a few quid from a pet shop.
 
john_lickman said:
The Rad is a Cape Cora passive cooler (10 cores). The pumps are Laing D-5s. I run 2 pumps in parallel. I also have a cold cathode white light in the case, which is probably what promotes the growth.

The whole system runs at between 28C and 35C, depending on load.
Click to expand...

bingo

I love being right :) there's no growth mate, I bet you're cooking the insides of your blocks.
 
Just read this thread a bit more and you don't seem to have understood what I'm getting at..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion

basically when you mix 2 types of metal ie aluminium and copper in solution they act a bit like a battery and corrode each other, what i expect you have is loads of bits of your blocks/radiator floating about in your water NOT algae. Feser is non conductive and I believe inhibits algae growth but it won't stop galvanic corrosion.

There are chemicals out there that can do that but really the best answer is to not mix metals.

EDIT:

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17892760&highlight=galvanic+corrosion

Check this thread out.. this is an example of the crap you get in your system with mixed metals.. this is a swiftech apogee GTX block which is supposedly military grade coated aluminium on the top and I guess WJA96 has a copper rad.

You have a copper block and a whacking great lump of uncoated aluminium.
 
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Also, don't bother with fluids like Feser - they're overloaded with crap. Plain distilled water with some biocide in a loop with non mixed metals.

If you really want bling, use coloured tubing with straight water.

Speaking from personal experience here, never been happier since I went to pure black R3400 tubing with pure distilled water with a bit of copper sulphate as biocide.
 
as above i use a mix of distilled water and some drops of iodine - never seen any growth whatsoever with this mix with loops running 24/7 for 12mths+.

dyes generally seem to break down after a period of time so i just avoid them now.
 
i might just keep saying it for fun, I would place a pretty large bet that this is not algae so yes you might prefer the purity of water and biocide but that would NOT have helped this situation one bit.
 
if he's mixed metals then no probably not, but we want to enforce the 'dye is ghey' principle on him....better he learn it now :)
 
marscay said:
if he's mixed metals then no probably not, but we want to enforce the 'dye is ghey' principle on him....better he learn it now :)
Click to expand...

Quite. You don't need to spend a fortune on stuff like Feser. I just use De-ionised water (£3.99 per 5 ltr container from Halfords) with Zerex in it. My loop has been going for 2.5 yrs now with no problems. The odd top up every now and then that's all.
 
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