How to Clean Light Algal Buildup?

[MiRai]

So, I either didn't put in enough biocide, or some natural light was hitting a tube somewhere over the course of the last 8 months, but I recently noticed some light green buildup on the inside of my water-cooling hardware. I won't be able to completely tear down the system for at least another month or so, but I just drained and re-filled the water (after changing a pump, which is where I noticed the light coating of green) and doubled the normal amount of biocide that the bottle calls for, to help hold me over until then.

I understand that I'll need to remove the blocks, open them up, and then scrub them clean—I find that to be the easy part—but what about the pumps and radiators? Are the pumps lost, or can they be cleaned? I'd like to save $150 in pumps if I can, but I'm not sure how to clean them.

What kind of liquid should I be using to remove the algae? Diluted bleach to kill the algae, and then maybe some diluted vinegar to help 'strip' all of it out? Someone pointed me toward Mayhem's Blitz cleaning kit, but I think it'd be simpler if I could just use some store-bought stuff instead.

Also, I plan to re-fill the loop with distilled and a good percentage (more than the bare minimum of 10%) of Mayhem's XT-1 Nuke.

Thanks in advance.

 

[thilanliyan]

Can you take a pic of it?
I thought I had algae buildup several times but it turned out to be the cheapo homedepot tubing I was using which was leaching plasticizer. I was using premix.
Bought some higher quality tubing from a PC shop and haven't had that problem since. Now I'm running distilled water with a silver coil in the res.

I took apart the pump and blocks to clean it as best I could with some soapy water and a toothbrush. For the rads the best I could do was try and run some dilute vinegar solution in it for a bit then purge with distilled water.

 

[MiRai]

Can you take a pic of it?

Not without draining a portion of the loop and removing some fittings or a pump.

I thought I had algae buildup several times but it turned out to be the cheapo homedepot tubing I was using which was leaching plasticizer. I was using premix.
Bought some higher quality tubing from a PC shop and haven't had that problem since. Now I'm running distilled water with a silver coil in the res.

I'm using straight distilled with biocide (Benzalkonium Chloride), and the tubing is Primoflex Advanced LRT, so I assume it's not a plasticizer issue.

Also, according to Google, it seems I can avoid the bleach and just go with diluted vinegar to kill the algae.

 

[Valantar]

Not without draining a portion of the loop and removing some fittings or a pump.


I'm using straight distilled with biocide (Benzalkonium Chloride), and the tubing is Primoflex Advanced LRT, so I assume it's not a plasticizer issue.

Also, according to Google, it seems I can avoid the bleach and just go with diluted vinegar to kill the algae.

AFAIK, you want to keep bleach as far from soft tubing as you can, unless you want it to break down and start cracking. Other than that, vinegar seems like a universal solution for water cooling issues (it clears out corrosion from copper too)

 

[ReignQuake]

I'd resolve the problem and continue. Putting anything with Mayhems name on it into your loop is just like urinating into your loop, and he knows that too.

 

[MiRai]

AFAIK, you want to keep bleach as far from soft tubing as you can, unless you want it to break down and start cracking. Other than that, vinegar seems like a universal solution for water cooling issues (it clears out corrosion from copper too)

Yeah, I won't be running bleach through anything at this point. Having read a lot of threads on cleaning loops, it seems that there are only a few people who mention it, and even then others in the same thread usually tell the OP not to use bleach.

Now I'm just wanting to know if it's alright to run a diluted vinegar mix through the pumps.

I'd resolve the problem and continue. Putting anything with Mayhems name on it into your loop is just like urinating into your loop, and he knows that too.

Well, I decided last night that I am going to fall back to just distilled and biocide. The Monsoon chain gun fittings I'll be using have an anti-microbial silver base on them, so there will also be silver in the loop this time too. I feel that this is probably going to be just fine, but I'll probably up the dosage of the biocide, just to be sure.