One year on and my tubing and/or fluid is going green.

[Goose]

I put my first loop together last summer and just opened it up to blow out the dust. As you can see in the picture below there's a green tint to the tubing. Being new to this i've no idea if its the tubing or the fluid thats changed colour.

The tubing I used is Mayhems along with Mayhems Clear X1 fluid and all the rest of the components were purchased new and thoroughly cleaned/flushed before use.

My pump/res combo is an EK and that still looks OK which leads me to believe its the tubing rather than the fluid that's turned.

Is this anything to be concerned about?

Spoiler: Pic

 

[pugheaven]

Does look a little "acky" tbh, but it's hard as your whole picture looks a little bloomy. However, just drain it all over, get some good hot water in there and see if it flushes out... might be the water or it might be bits stuck to the tubing, it's hard ot say! Deffo needs flushing though no matter what!

 

[Goose]

Does look a little "acky" tbh, but it's hard as your whole picture looks a little bloomy. However, just drain it all over, get some good hot water in there and see if it flushes out... might be the water or it might be bits stuck to the tubing, it's hard ot say! Deffo needs flushing though no matter what!

Are you suggesting filling the loop with hot water and running it before draining? I might be wrong but i was under the impression that soft tubing doesn't like water above 50c?

 

[Brizzles]

If its performing the same with no issues, then i would leave it.

The only thing to look out for would be plasticising leeching from the tubing, which would clog up your block and you would see 'bits' ' cloudy' in your reservoir - if your reservoir looks clear and no drastic changes in temps, leave it

 

[Meridian]

Are you suggesting filling the loop with hot water and running it before draining? I might be wrong but i was under the impression that soft tubing doesn't like water above 50c?

It will soften, but re-stiffen once it cools down. The effect is not permanent (and is useful for getting the stuff on awkward fittings). It doesn't de-nature until at least 120oC.

 

[pugheaven]

Are you suggesting filling the loop with hot water and running it before draining? I might be wrong but i was under the impression that soft tubing doesn't like water above 50c?

Yeah I'm not saying boiling water or anything like that but warmer water around 50C+ or use a specialist cleaning fluid. Warmer water with some white vinegar in it may well take any grud off the walls of the interior piping and leave in the look for 12 hours... or, preferably but costlier is put specialist cleaning fluid in it and run it for a couple of days just to flush through. Drain, check your pipes and see if it helps... if that doesn't it could well just mean new pipes... but thats' worst case... some nice hot water, with something slightly acidic in it flush it through and drain off see if ti helps, it's what I'd do, but not saying it's the right thing to do.

You may well drain that lot out and the pipes look perfectly clear and it's all in the fluid... but you need to drain to find out really.

 

[Goose]

Thanks for the replies guys.

FWIW the fluid in my res looks normal and my temps haven't changed either. I did use the Mayhems Blitz kit prior to filling the loop so i'm a little disappointed this has happened.

 

[Brizzles]

Is it a windowed case with direct sunlight ?

Not excusing the tubing, but it could be external bleaching from sunlight.

 

[tyler_jrb]

Thanks for the replies guys.

FWIW the fluid in my res looks normal and my temps haven't changed either. I did use the Mayhems Blitz kit prior to filling the loop so i'm a little disappointed this has happened.

Likely the tubing. Clear from experience tends to go cloudy quite quickly and after some time its quite easy to see the difference between new and used stuff.

One reason i use ZMT, would fit quite well in your build i think especially a neutral theme with clear which is what i use. Never had an issue, great stuff. Cheap too.

 

[Goose]

Is it a windowed case with direct sunlight ?

Not excusing the tubing, but it could be external bleaching from sunlight.

Its windowed yes but it doesn't get any sunlight.

Likely the tubing. Clear from experience tends to go cloudy quite quickly and after some time its quite easy to see the difference between new and used stuff.

One reason i use ZMT, would fit quite well in your build i think especially a neutral theme with clear which is what i use. Never had an issue, great stuff. Cheap too.

Thanks. I might take a look at ZMT tubing when i eventually drain my loop.

 

[WantoN]

I’d be draining. Green often means something alive, it could gunk your blocks / pump etc and mean a horrible cleaning experience later on.

Could just be clouding, but it’s a clear fluid so I wouldn’t expect a green colour.

Did you use premix or concentrate?

 

[Goose]

I’d be draining. Green often means something alive, it could gunk your blocks / pump etc and mean a horrible cleaning experience later on.

Could just be clouding, but it’s a clear fluid so I wouldn’t expect a green colour.

Did you use premix or concentrate?

It was premix.

 

[WantoN]

It was premix.

I've found premix to be a little light, so tend to use concentrate. That's because I want more freeze resistance generally. Plenty of people use it without issue.

I also tend towards XT1 Nuke.

You could try adding a biocide to see if things clear up.

 

[Goose]

@WantoN

I've taken another couple of pictures, this time of the reservoir. As you can see it doesn't look too bad but the O-Ring in the screw top has gone green. There's no visible gunk buildup that I can see, just the discoloration of the tubing and, presumable, all the O-Rings.

Could the colour change be the result of some sort of contamination or is it 100% something growing?

 

[WantoN]

@WantoN

I've taken another couple of pictures, this time of the reservoir. As you can see it doesn't look too bad but the O-Ring in the screw top has gone green. There's no visible gunk buildup that I can see, just the discoloration of the tubing and, presumable, all the O-Rings.

Could the colour change be the result of some sort of contamination or is it 100% something growing?

Honestly mate I can't say, watercooling is as much art as science. For me, I'd be quite sure that it's growing. You won't tend to find it where there's fast running water, hence why it's on areas of less flow; the o-rings and walls of the tubing. It could be that contimanation was the initial cause, but the issue is it looks like you've got growth.

My next step would be a full drain, dissasemble, clean, blitz and rebuild with new tubing. As before you could try adding biocide, but that matter is there, so even if you dislodge it it's going to end up somewhere. On the next build iif you've still got pre-mix, try adding a little more biocide.

Loops are never sterile, it's impossible with human hands building at home. Hence why we use organic inhibitors. But a clean start and some additional biocide should hopefully prevent it in future.

 

[Goose]

Honestly mate I can't say, watercooling is as much art as science. For me, I'd be quite sure that it's growing. You won't tend to find it where there's fast running water, hence why it's on areas of less flow; the o-rings and walls of the tubing. It could be that contimanation was the initial cause, but the issue is it looks like you've got growth.

My next step would be a full drain, dissasemble, clean, blitz and rebuild with new tubing. As before you could try adding biocide, but that matter is there, so even if you dislodge it it's going to end up somewhere. On the next build iif you've still got pre-mix, try adding a little more biocide.

Loops are never sterile, it's impossible with human hands building at home. Hence why we use organic inhibitors. But a clean start and some additional biocide should hopefully prevent it in future.

Thanks for info. I forgot to include the pictures in my last post so i'll add them here.

https://imgur.com/a/sMYMfnY

I emailed Mayhems about this and got the following response.

This can happen with the tube in a hot environment. Because the tubing doesn’t contain plasticizers it turns green over time. Tubing is a thow away item hence why its not priced high.

I dont think my loop has gotten all that hot and its only been a year. Plus it has changed the colour of the O-ring in my res.

 

[WantoN]

Thanks for info. I forgot to include the pictures in my last post so i'll add them here.
https://imgur.com/a/sMYMfn
I emailed Mayhems about this and got the following response.

I dont think my loop has gotten all that hot and its only been a year. Plus it has changed the colour of the O-ring in my res.

Mayhems are good, no question, but I've seen them be a little evasive.

I've not seen non-plasticizer tubing go green before, and I certainly don't see why it would end up on your o-rings. Looking at the photos my first thought was something biolocigcal. That being said, I'm no expert, I'm just an enthusiast like you. So who knows.

For me it's a fresh start either way, if there's things in my loop that shouldn't be there, I'd want to see just how far it goes. Better to be scrubbing 'clean' parts rather than filthy ones

 

[pc-guy]

Green in water usually is algae. Either the original tubing had spores or the liquid you had put in was contaminated.

green can also be oxidised copper residue. But copper green and algae green are quite distinct.

If it is algae it’s quite annoying to wash out. You need to bleach everything. And wash everything out. I would just use distilled water with some corrosion inhibitors and none of those fancy pants liquid. Don’t know what half of them do in any case.

 

[WantoN]

Green in water usually is algae. Either the original tubing had spores or the liquid you had put in was contaminated.

green can also be oxidised copper residue. But copper green and algae green are quite distinct.

If it is algae it’s quite annoying to wash out. You need to bleach everything. And wash everything out. I would just use distilled water with some corrosion inhibitors and none of those fancy pants liquid. Don’t know what half of them do in any case.

Freezing resistance, biological and corrosion inhibitors. It's not much different to anti-freeze. I use XT1 Nuke and distilled water.

 

[Goose]

Freezing resistance, biological and corrosion inhibitors. It's not much different to anti-freeze. I use XT1 Nuke and distilled water.

Do you mean the concentrate mixed in to distilled water?