Clear water cooling fluid

[racolvin]

With all these UV reactive colored additives out there I was wondering if there was an additive for the anti-corrosive and anti-bacterial aspects that left the water clear.

Anyone know of one that can point me in the right direction?

 

[mpilchfamily]

Bust you can hope for is a smoke white color to the water. If your running a clean loop and using just distilled water you should be fine. You don't have to have an additive.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Nothing perfectly clear that will act as an anti-algae besides a little alcohol but, that won't help with corrosion. Pure distilled water in a VERY clean and sterilized loop that gets monitored regularly and changed out at least every six months should be just fine.

 

[racolvin]

thanx folks I figured that would be the answer but with all the different options out there I thought it best to ask

 

[aigomorla]

do you have access to your res where you can put something in it?

a silver ingot in regular plain distilled h2o.

The silver ions leach out into your water and nuke everything, while keeping your water clear.

However your tubes will cloud once all the plasterizer has been used up.

 

[Rubycon]

I've wondered about this myself.

If there is a certain look you're after why not purchase tubing that's translucent that fluoresces a desired color when irradiated with blacklight blue? This way no matter what's flowing inside you can concentrate on keeping the system running at the best efficiency and have the desired artistic style. Using dyes in the fluid amongst other things - coolant tends to be slightly photochemically reactive AND when it becomes polymicrobial the degradation in its own is bad enough with room light. Black light with its peak around 400nm tends to augment algal activity even more!

 

[racolvin]

Rubycon:

Actually the look I'm going for is clear, as in water I would like to have the additives just from the protective standpoint but clear is a must.

I'm looking at using a 5 gallon hexagonal fish tank as a massive reservoir that I plan to configure as a fish tank - plastic plants, plastic fish, etc. All would be cleaned and sterilized first of course, before using distilled water as the coolant. I'm working on a custom design for the top of the tank that would be an aluminum heat-sink with lots of holes in the bottom, so the returning heated water would run through the heatsink and fall into the tank like rain.

It's been on my drawing board for a while and I'm still noodling with it, which is why i wanted to ask about the additives

 

[aigomorla]

no please dont mix metals.

please read about galvanic corrosion.


Stick with all copper or all alu. Never mix the two.

And just drop a silver ingot in your fish tank then. The silver will do the job you seek with just regular distilled h2o.

 

[racolvin]

What different metals? I mentioned using aluminum in the heatsink of the fishtank but I never mentioned any other metal in contact with it, which would be necessary for galvanic corrosion to occur.

 

[Rubycon]

So the effect you're trying to obtain is a fish tank? Your best bet is to use a water to water heat exchanger which will isolate the fluids properly. This way you can change the water in the fish tank without shutting down the PC (as long as it's under light load). You could even have fish swimming in the tank! (as long as the heat exchanger wet side facing the habitat is made of a metal that's not harmful to this environment). Copper is generally ok with freshwater species EXCEPT those living in acidic pH (discus, cardinals, etc.) 316 stainless and most titanium alloys would be the best bet to be wetted by acidic freshwater and/or marine species. Of course the minimum size system for marine is typically around 25+ U.S. gallons.

 

[racolvin]

Oh I don't want to care for real fish - been there, done that That's why everything was going to be fake, so I didn't have to mess with all that but could still have the fish tank effect

 

[Rubycon]

The heat exchanger is still a good idea as you want your loops to be closed i.e. oxygen free. This way the aquarium water can be aerated, trickle, whatever you want without fouling your cooling loop water.

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: racolvin
What different metals? .

what blocks do you intend to run? most blocks on the market unless you go with crap is made out of alu.

Ebay Silver Ingot

Thats all you need in that entire fish tank. 1 oz Silver

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver

"Silver is widely used in topical gels and impregnated into bandages because of its wide-spectrum antimicrobial activity. The anti-microbial properties of silver stem from the chemical properties of its ionized form, Ag+. This ion forms strong molecular bonds with other substances used by bacteria to respire, such as molecules containing sulfur, nitrogen, and oxygen.[9] Once the Ag+ ion complexes with these molecules, they are rendered unusable by the bacteria, depriving it of necessary compounds and eventually leading to the bacteria's death."

Thats all you need. A 20 dollar bar of silver which will most likely end up costing more when your done with your project since the price of silver per ounce always will go up.

 

[DerwenArtos12]

Originally posted by: aigomorla

Originally posted by: racolvin
What different metals? .

what blocks do you intend to run? most blocks on the market unless you go with crap is made out of alu.

Scratch that, what he meant was that most quality blocks on the market are made out of copper, only the crappy ones are made from aluminum.

In comparison to the total cost of this build, I'd say use either a copper heatsink at the top and make 100% sure that the water you're pulling from the tank is not aspirated or use a heat exchanger as ruby suggested. Just keep in mind when building that the metals do not have to touch to cause galvanic corrosion, it can occur any time moving water passes two different metals, they do not have to physically be in contact with one another.

 

[wwswimming]

vodka is anti-bacterial.

i don't know about anti-corrosive.

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: wwswimming
vodka is anti-bacterial.

That's abuse of spirits.

 

[wwswimming]

Originally posted by: Rubycon

Originally posted by: wwswimming
vodka is anti-bacterial.

That's abuse of spirits.

yes, who wants the ATF regulating water-cooling !?

 

[aigomorla]

Originally posted by: wwswimming

Originally posted by: Rubycon

Originally posted by: wwswimming
vodka is anti-bacterial.

That's abuse of spirits.

yes, who wants the ATF regulating water-cooling !?

ROFL also making it limited to ages 21 and over in most states.

 

[ChefJoe]

Can you just buy ethylene glycol (antifreeze component) on the web ? The ethylene glycol itself is actually clear. All the additives that colorize it are there so people notice a spill of the toxic substance.

http://www.mpbio.com/product_i...ords=ethylene%20glycol

 

[wwswimming]

Jagermeister ?