Switching from premix to distilled water and colored tubing. But how do I color my reservoir?

TheRealBeandip

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Im switching from premixed coolant and clear tubing to some colored Primoflex Advanced LRT tubing and plain distilled water with a silver coil in each reservoir (dual loop)

The one issue ive run into is my reservoirs are still going to be clear and I think this looks bad. What can I do to add color to the reservoirs? Ive considered LEDs but Im not sure how good that works, does anybody have an example of how that looks?

I value function over form so I have switched to distilled water however I still value the appearance of my setups.
 
Solution
Skip the killcoil, there hasn't been anything that proves it is definitively effective. Copper and silver are both natural anti-microbials due to their ionization into water and given that there is far more copper in a loop than silver (even though silver is supposedly more effective) the overall difference in the amount of copper *should* make up for this.

Just get a good antimicrobial, either chemical or metal-based and be done. I use some stuff I bought at a pet store for prevention of algae growth and have used it for 5+ years...never had anything grow. Distilled water and several drops of that...nothing more.

Deuce65

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Leds work well, the brighter the better. Get some acrylic stop plugs with 5mm led holders and then leds to go with.
As well, Monsoon makes some nice inline LEDs for tubing but only really works well with clear tubes (and is kind of annoying to setup).
 

TheRealBeandip

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Unfortunately I am running a mixed metal loop. So im not sure if that solution would work.
 

TheRealBeandip

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Alright, Ill try this. I appreciate the advice.
 

TheRealBeandip

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Ive actually got one more question if you guys are still around this thread. Is a silver coil enough to prevent corrosion and other problems in a mixed metal loop?

I always hear about the horrors of premix coolant and how distilled plus a silver coil is the best option. But then I came across this from EK: http://support.ekwb.com//index.php?act=article&code=view&id=24

It seems EK recommends the opposite.

So what should I do

Use Distilled water and a silver coil or use a premixed coolant?

I am using 3 EKWB Nickel waterblocks and a copper fin radiator in one loop. And 2 Koolance waterblocks ( cant remember which metal) with a copper radiator and 2 copper/brass radiators in the other loop.
 
I stopped using the silver coil because it reacted with certain metals when additives were added, in one case the reaction was so bad the cleanup was a total breakdown of the loop and clean to get rid of the contamination, once that happens to you, no one will ever have to tell you not to use a silver kill coil!

My original recommendation of using PT Nuke, after doing some mixed metal research is only to be used for a full copper loop.

In your case of mixed metals I would absolutely use a premixed coolant, with no additional additives or silver coil.

Koolance will not honor their warranty if you do not use their premixed coolant with their nickel plated water blocks, so go from there and decide what you're going to do.

http://koolance.com/general-warranty

Edit: Personal info to share.

All of these issues are based on my personal reasoning behind staying away from any nickel plating in my loops and running strictly copper water blocks and radiators that way I can run 100% steam distilled water and BioCide IE (Copper Sulfate).

That doesn't help you now, being an owner of mixed metals in your loop, but maybe will help in your future decisions.

Steam distilled water is the best thermal conductivity of all the coolants, the more you add to it the less cooling thermal conductivity the coolant has, and that's why to me BioCide is perfect 1 drop per 1 liter has zero negative thermal conductivity.

One last thing I had a Swiftech MCP655 pump failure after 3 years in operation, the one thing I can say is BioCide works!

The flow internals of my present graphics card (which has been in the loop 2 years), were remarkably clean after that long of running.



 

Deuce65

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Couple quick things. As you know, distilled water is the best. A mixed metal loop however is one of the exceptions, because you will need something with anti-corrosion in it. However, in this day and age, mixed metal loops are really really rare. For example, your loop is almost certainly not a mixed metal loop, unless there is something else in there you didn't mention. The EKWB "nickel" waterblocks are all copper on the parts that actually touch the water. Same thing for the Koolance blocks. As for the rads, brass is right next to copper on a galvanic chart. (in fact, brass is mostly copper anyway). So this isn't really a mixed metal loop (think like, a copper water block with an aluminum rad with aluminum water channels). So a drop or two of PT nuke or a silver kill coil would both work. Realistically, with distilled water, you could actually run nothing in it and it would be fine but most people aren't comfortable with that.

Second, I have no doubt EK recommends their special mix. ALL the cooling companies do. But understand that it isn't really special, it's just distilled water with anti-freeze in it. It won't by itself prevent corrosion anyway. As well, EK will say use only EK stuff, Koolance will say use only Koolance stuff, Swiftech will say use only swiftech stuff, etc. (there is an enormous markup on the coolants incidentally) but obviously, you can't please them all. I have been doing this a long time and I have never heard of any manufacturer voiding a warranty for using distilled water. What I have heard of is them voiding warranties for using a different companies coolant, which is just another reason to not use it at all.
 

TheRealBeandip

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Yeah I was aware of brass being very similar to copper, Im a metalworker, its the nickel I was worried about. However I wasnt aware that EKs nickel blocks used copper interior surfaces. So based on this information I could actually go with distilled water and a couple of silver coils? The radiators are in aluminum enclosures but the fins themselves are copper so its the same situation as the nickel EK blocks.
 

Deuce65

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It depends on the exact block of course. To clarify, it always makes sense to check your specific block. A lot of EKWBs older nickel blocks were made with lots of nickel corrosion issues. As far as I know, they fixed that issue years ago though.
It should be noted however that either way, the anti freeze (Propylene glycol) both koolance and EK use is not an anti corrosive and actually in itself is corrosive.
So it wouldn't really help. As well, while none of these companies will void your warranty if you use no coolant at all, they will all typically void your warranty if you use someone else's coolant (even though they are all typically the exact same thing).
I would just use the distilled water and a drop of poison and be done with it tbh.
 

TheRealBeandip

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Ok thank you, I knew that about brass and copper due to the fact that Brass is an alloy consisting of copper and zinc. However silver and nickel surprised me. And gold just gave me a headache.

So if my loop is only copper/brass and nickel I could get away with using distilled water and a silver coil or PTNuke?
 

rubix_1011

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Skip the killcoil, there hasn't been anything that proves it is definitively effective. Copper and silver are both natural anti-microbials due to their ionization into water and given that there is far more copper in a loop than silver (even though silver is supposedly more effective) the overall difference in the amount of copper *should* make up for this.

Just get a good antimicrobial, either chemical or metal-based and be done. I use some stuff I bought at a pet store for prevention of algae growth and have used it for 5+ years...never had anything grow. Distilled water and several drops of that...nothing more.
 
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TheRealBeandip

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Great, lots of help and I really appreciate it.
 

rubix_1011

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No problem, good luck on your swap over. I've personally liked the look of crystal clear water to any colorants, but that's just my preference.

You could consider some food coloring or just some dye, but you still have to consider that it may stain plastics (like tubing) and can leave residue on acrylics (reservoirs), but shouldn't stain those. Shouldn't have issues with it staining metals, but I have seen some long-term usage stain copper in some instances.
 

TheRealBeandip

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I think I will use lighting in the res to give the illusion of it being colored. And colored tubing for the rest.

This is my biggest build yet though. A phanteks Enthoo Primo with 2 loops.

One loop for memory and an i7-5820k. 60mm thick 480mm radiator
Another loop for 2-way SLI Titan X, with plenty of room to add more to the loop. 60mm thick 480mm radiator in push pull, and 2 40mm thick 240mm radiators.

And I still need to sleeve up some cables


And how often should i drain and refill the loop when using a chemical solution in distilled water?
Is it the same 6 months as usual?

 

rubix_1011

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I've had loops in operation for 2+ years like this without changing anything. I keep a close eye on the reservoir for growth and I don't see any growth so I don't mess with it. Given that I'm using distilled water, there isn't really anything that needs to be addressed if the water remains clear.