Stripped down my rig today ready for the upgrade and there's some odd discolouration along the edges of my res chambers. The chamber on the right is worse and was the Cpu loop. I opened up the block and that wasn't too bad: A little bit of gunk but not bad considering I've been running the same fluid since April 2015! Would this be caused by bacterial growth or something else, possibly excess heat from the pumps? I had the pumps running with some water round to give them a rinse and they got pretty bloody hot with no airflow on them. They didn't get much air when installed and the Cpu pump would have got the least amount of cooling.
It could be growth or just muck. Unfortunately when you plastic weld something you get patterns in it (you can't help it) and thus whatever that is in browny red has seeped into the joins. For the whiteness etc just use distilled white vinegar. It will get rid of anything scale related. Also not sure what coolant you were using but I swear by XPSC EC6. It has everything in it you need, plus it's non toxic. I just drained my green rig today after about 18 months and all I got in the coffee filter was a couple of small bits of black plastic from the acetal 90 degs (tiny shavings from the fittings going in).
2-3 hours soaking in a dilute solution of warm water/white vinegar should lift the worst of it. DDC's I've found do benefit from heatsinks, D5's are cooled by the coolant itself as it is pumped through.
DDCs do run incredibly warm due to what Paul said. They don't run the fluid through them as part of their operation (D5s actually use the fluid as lube and to cool them at the same time) which means a heatsink is definitely a good idea. I'd shove them in whatever substance that is acidic. My go-to for blocks is usually ketchup or coke, but white vinegar will do the trick just fine.
It was Mayhems pastel white. I've got some blitz kit to run through it for a few days before all my new bits turn up, should clear it up hopefully. Heatsinks maybe something I need to look into in the future, although for now it's staying on shoggy sandwiches to quieten them down. Might have an old dominator ram fan to point at them somewhere.
They've been on the shoggies for 3 years without blowing up so far, but I'll be looking into making some adjustments in their cooling. Although will have to be without spending any money as I've already blown my wages on ram, ssd, some bit's for the aquaero I got for Christmas and bits and bobs for redoing to loops. Might have to make a vent/fan mount in the side panel or something. Takes me back to my first ever mod, drilling speedholes in the front of a Thermaltake Soprano to stop my 7900gto's from burning up.
I'm using pastel now in one of my rigs. I must say I don't trust it half as much as I do EC6. Still, I did drain it out and put it back after six months of use and it was fine then.. I don't use Blitz. It's very strong acid, and completely not worth it. I use straight distilled (white) vinegar and it's never failed me yet.
It's probably ott, but I'm a belt and braces kind of guy. Since I'm switching colours and the length of time the last coolant was in, I'd rather make dam well sure. Might even give some a whirl through the new blocks.
