EK Cryofuel Turned green

olegnewman · 24 Sep 2021 at 17:32

Hey everyone,

Almost two months after I've set out on building my first watercooled loop I can almost say it is finished, except, the liquid started turning green....

I've flushed the system with (in the order I did it in): vinegar+water, de-ionised water, distilled water run 1, distilled water run2 (for 2 weeks until I had cryofuel), then flushed it again with a bit of pre-mixed cryofuel and finally added in the concentrate mixed with distilled water....

A week later, this is what I see this...

Spent twice my original budget of 800 and still having problems. Please help.

pastymuncher · 24 Sep 2021 at 19:12

That could be leeching from the tubing or the rads needed further cleaning out. What are your blocks like? If they are bunged up it's probably plasticiser leeching from the tubing.

SirConfused · 24 Sep 2021 at 21:58

Doesn't look like anything is growing with a colour like and it's not got bits in so unlikely to be crud from the rad, so I'm going with pasty and guessing plasticiser leaching.
£1600 on WC kit though? That's a prety extreme amount of money to spend even for WC!

Ross Thomson · 25 Sep 2021 at 18:19

SirConfused said:
Doesn't look like anything is growing with a colour like and it's not got bits in so unlikely to be crud from the rad, so I'm going with pasty and guessing plasticiser leaching.
£1600 on WC kit though? That's a prety extreme amount of money to spend even for WC!

What the hell did you pay 1600 for?

im4gine3 · 25 Sep 2021 at 20:18

looking at the pic.. i wouldn't be surprised if £200+ are from BitsPower fittings.. then again not even i can spend that much on watercooling.. unless you have a couple MORA's or something.

As others have mentioned, i think its leeching from the tubes.. ad couple drops of biocide in it.. otherwise bleed, dismantle, clean, put back together

olegnewman · 27 Sep 2021 at 16:25

pastymuncher said:
That could be leeching from the tubing or the rads needed further cleaning out. What are your blocks like? If they are bunged up it's probably plasticiser leeching from the tubing.

SirConfused said:
Doesn't look like anything is growing with a colour like and it's not got bits in so unlikely to be crud from the rad, so I'm going with pasty and guessing plasticiser leaching.
£1600 on WC kit though? That's a prety extreme amount of money to spend even for WC!

im4gine3 said:
looking at the pic.. i wouldn't be surprised if £200+ are from BitsPower fittings.. then again not even i can spend that much on watercooling.. unless you have a couple MORA's or something.

As others have mentioned, i think its leeching from the tubes.. ad couple drops of biocide in it.. otherwise bleed, dismantle, clean, put back together

Hey everyone and thank you for your suggestions. Here is how the block looks: https://ibb.co/6nbjCM2 and https://ibb.co/bbxG8NL and https://ibb.co/smqM7wx

I am not too sure if there is something wrong, but from a quick google search and comparing the photos, it does not seem like algae then maybe plasticiser?

As for the costs, its a long story, but I've ordered wrong block for GPU, had to send back to Germany, then got myself confused with pump configuration (didn't think I needed a pump top, turned out, I did) Then about 20l of distilled burned through, tubing that didn't fit and a whole lot more like res mount etc. Really a terrible attempt. Oh, don't forget around £80 on sending items back.

I suppose gonna have to bleed and dismantle, would this be the recommended course of action? Also, if I leave this for a month or too, would this damage any components? Kinda short on PC budget atm XD

Ross Thomson · 27 Sep 2021 at 18:03

new tubing and get some mayhems fluid. Give everything a good clean.

Drumroll · 27 Sep 2021 at 19:25

Cleaning new rads, I've always simply plugged a hose to it and, at low pressure, let the tap do its job. Just for the last flush some deionised water. Quantity is king when flushing a new rad.
Vinegar I would only use, and carefully, on old rads or rads which have been used with pastel/odd coolants. You're more likely to have issues/reactions from the vinegar than from se previous clear coolant.
For tubing, either mayhem's or ZMT from EKWB. The ZMT needs to be flushed, loads of dust, but would last a lifetime.

Drumroll · 27 Sep 2021 at 19:27

Ross Thomson said:
new tubing and get some mayhems fluid. Give everything a good clean.

Always used Mayhem's, but the last few times, their pastel and their X1 wasn't as great as before. Left a slime/film on blocks. The EK worked great. Even the solid white.

pastymuncher · 27 Sep 2021 at 20:03

I have used Mayhems X1 red for years and have never had any film/staining or anything like that. Just a quick flush and the blocks are like new.

@olegnewman Try Mayhems tubing instead. It doesn't leech and is by far the best value for money tubing around. You are going to have to drain the loop down and give everything a real good clean. Distilled or deionised water and distilled vinegar for cleaning the rads out followed by a very good flushing. I would strip the blocks and give them a really good clean too.

clone · 28 Sep 2021 at 09:33

Zmt for the win fill her up and forget about it.

olegnewman · 28 Sep 2021 at 11:42

pastymuncher said:
I have used Mayhems X1 red for years and have never had any film/staining or anything like that. Just a quick flush and the blocks are like new.

@olegnewman Try Mayhems tubing instead. It doesn't leech and is by far the best value for money tubing around. You are going to have to drain the loop down and give everything a real good clean. Distilled or deionised water and distilled vinegar for cleaning the rads out followed by a very good flushing. I would strip the blocks and give them a really good clean too.

clone said:
Zmt for the win fill her up and forget about it.

Thank you for the suggestions everyone. I unfortunately can't use ZMT as my loop is 13/10 and ZMT starts at 16/10. I'd try mayhems, the tuving in the loop is currently EK duraclear but it is mixed with corsair hydro X as I didn't have enough.

On another note, I'm a bit short for time and need my computer running, would leaving this for a month or so cause many problems?

pastymuncher · 28 Sep 2021 at 12:57

It will get worse and eventually will clog everything up so make sure you always have flow. The longer you leave it the harder it will be to clear it all out. For a quick fix you could always remove the water cooling and go back to air cooling until you have time to sort it.

clone · 28 Sep 2021 at 17:38

I had to upgrade my fittings for zmt wasn't cheap.

Ross Thomson · 28 Sep 2021 at 22:00

Drumroll said:
Always used Mayhem's, but the last few times, their pastel and their X1 wasn't as great as before. Left a slime/film on blocks. The EK worked great. Even the solid white.

using X1 without any issue currently.

WantoN · 29 Sep 2021 at 12:06

£1600 absolutely blows my mind for a WC loop. For future reference, ask more questions here and buy second hand. I don't have a new components on my many year old loop.

ZMT is truly excellent, and I stro fly recommend it to anyone, along with XT1 Nuke if you can still get it.

Doesn't look like algae to me, and leaving plasticiser in your loop is bad news. You could absolutely get away with it for a few weeks, or you could clog your blocks and ruin your pumps.

If you need uptime now, I'd strip it down and fit air cooling.

That needs a full flush (you do not need distilled for this, de-ionised is fine) and I'd use Mayhem's cleaner too.

Get new matching tubing, new fluid and start again.

LePhuronn · 29 Sep 2021 at 13:33

olegnewman said:
I unfortunately can't use ZMT as my loop is 13/10 and ZMT starts at 16/10

Watercool do EDPM tube in 13/10, but post-brexit Germany are having issues shipping to the UK so that might not viable just now.

There's also quite a few sellers on eBay who sell EDPM tube in (as close as dammit) 13/10. I have a few sellers watched for an upcoming external radiator that will look silly with massive 16/10 chunky hoses, although I haven't checked with them if there's any markings on the tube (their pictures don't show any, but you can never be sure).