Cooling pump = too powerful...what now?

alright, heres the deal. i just put together my first WC setup. its a simple job (one rad, reservoir, gpu block, and cpu block) i put it together last weekend and everything went fine...no leaks! but my problem came when i tried to get the air out of the system. my pump is too powerful and it causes the water in my reservoir to churn up which gets air caught in the system again. i already asked the electronics gurus and i ordered a fanbus to control the voltage goin to the pump. i'm just concerned that it wont be able to go slow enough to fix my problem. and if that happens...what are my alternatives? i know i'm probably not gonna like it, but any suggestions are welcome. thanks for the help

 

You need to put the case on its mobo side and run the system, this should push air around thats not escaping.
Also might want to try turning the pump on/off quickly consistently to push the air out.

You so can't have a too powerful pump, what are the specs of everything?

 

i know how to get the air out.....but as my first post says, the problem is coming from the reservoir. the water is spraying into the reservoir...mixing in just a little bit of air the whole time. if it helps the pump is a swiftech ddc-12v

 

To get the air out you'll have to fill the reservoir right to the top.

 

Someone (can't remember who right now, sorry) on here had a similar problem, and solved it by jamming a piece of sponge (eg, the one you get with an eheim pump) into the resevoir. It helps stop the bubbles from going straight back into the loop, and after a while, no more bubbles

 

Do you have the pump discharging into the reservoir? If so, switch it so as to have the pump draw fluid from the reservoir. That should work!

 

well those seem to be some helpfull ideas at least i got a few things to try before i rip everything apart...thanks. and stev....i am drawing from my reservoir....lol but it was a good suggestion from what i said my problem was lol i should be getting my fanbus today, so i'll post an update once i get that installed. thanks again

 

Like Leeum said, you really need to run+fill up quite a lot in some loops.
In my loop, I had a lot of air in my system for a few days. Its as clear as rain now.

 

I knew our pump had plenty of power, but no so much that a voltage controler was needed to tame it down.

 

It's dead easy to get all the air out the system without even turning anything on. Just seal the reservoir, and hold the case in various positions to get all the air bubbles in the tubing, then just guide them into the reservoir by turning and tipping the case. It took me about 3 minutes to do this when I first set up my system and after turning it on for the first time there was absolutely no air bubbles anywhere.

 

:UPDATE: alright i got the controller...and it works great ...but the bad news is that its still causing air to get it through the mixing in the reservoir so i'm not quite sure what i'm gonna do now....i think i'm just gonna buy a new reservoir

 

Which reservoir are you using?? Never had this issue with any of DD's bay res's or ThermoTubes... using stronger pumps...

Could well be barbs on reservoir aren't sealed and water is getting in at the inlet barb, resulting in bubbles appearing in inlet stream, which could be seen as the inlet water force churning and causing bubbles when in fact more PTFE may be all that's required... might not be bad enough to drip water (due to flow direction) but can still be enough to allow air to constantly be pulled into system.

 

The pump should NEVER discharge in the res.

 

good thought marci, but the fittings on my res are quick connect and i really cranked down on 'em do i doubt its that. i'm 99.9% sure its the air in the res getting churned up and sucked through the system again. now that i look back on what i bought....i guess i asked for it....(the res i mean) its that small, round, blue thermaltake one . yeah...i've made the decision to buy a new one but now i gotta figure out how i'm going to disconnect the old res and attach the new one w/o any problems if that doesnt solve my problems then i will be very surprised. thanks for all the help and if anyone has more suggestions...feel free

 

What about make a reservoir out of 1" PVC pipe?

 

well star, i could make a reservoir out of a lot of different things (including pvc...i just want to make sure it doesnt leak...and i dont trust myself that much lol i dont know if i'm gonna go for somethin fancy on top of my case or just a bay style res that i know will work the way i want it to.

 

PVC will hold up nicely. Remember that it stays together in plumbing at as much as 100PSI of pressure, with some high peaks due to water hammer.
Now that I think of it, to reduce the flow rate of the pump, you could connect a valve between the outlet and the reservoir, so it bypasses some of the water. Make sure it discharges below the water level to avoid putting bubbles in the water.

 

my eheim 1250 1200l/h made my Dangerden res churn up water, but a few days of use and all the air was out of the system

 

SPONGE. THe hydor and elheim pumps come with a sponge, most any sponge will do. All you do is put it right at the mouth of the inlet to the res, so that the water shooting in is dampened and disperesed. Also putting one at the inlet to the pump will prevent most any bubbles from getting in.

 

i like this sponge idea, but i dont know how i'm supposed to get it in there...sounds like it would take just as much work as installing a new res