Question Residue in reservoir

[Patrick_171]

I'm noticing some residue in my reservoir and I'm wondering what it is. The coolant I'm using is EK cryofuel. My loop has been running for over 3 months now. I don't know if it's some bacteria growth or just residue from the coolant. It is floating though if that helps. Also condensation does buildup a lot inside the reservoir so maybe that might be able to cause bacteria growth?

https://imgur.com/xU1Tv3Y

I'm not sure what to do other that clean out the loop I guess?
Any advice on anything else I can do?

 

[fry178]

part of the reason i never cared to use anything but distilled water and a few drops of dead water (silver solution) , this eliminates any possible problems.

i would say its from the loop (did you flush it before filling?), maybe "bad" coolant,
as i've seen tons of bottles (all kind of brands) on store shelves that had already gotten cloudy/growing mold like stuff, even when still within BBD.

i would drain it and check if the reservoir has a "film" (residue) on the inside.
fill only with distilled water and run it a day or two, drain and fill again,
run another day or two, drain and finally fill again (look at ultra filtered water online) and use dead water to prevent any growth.

i prefer to do a 24h cleaning cycle with a loop cleaning sysprep.
couple brands make those...
https://www.primochill.com/products/primochill-sysprep-cooling-loop-pre-treatment

 

[Patrick_171]

part of the reason i never cared to use anything but distilled water and a few drops of dead water (silver solution) , this eliminates any possible problems.

i would say its from the loop (did you flush it before filling?), maybe "bad" coolant,
as i've seen tons of bottles (all kind of brands) on store shelves that had already gotten cloudy/growing mold like stuff, even when still within BBD.

i would drain it and check if the reservoir has a "film" (residue) on the inside.
fill only with distilled water and run it a day or two, drain and fill again,
run another day or two, drain and finally fill again (look at ultra filtered water online) and use dead water to prevent any growth.

i prefer to do a 24h cleaning cycle with a loop cleaning sysprep.
couple brands make those...
https://www.primochill.com/products/primochill-sysprep-cooling-loop-pre-treatment

After draining the loop, it does stick to the tube. I did flush before filling the loop. So probably bacteria? That being said when I bought the coolant, I didn't notice anything wrong with it. So I'm more confused now by what this is. Also currently it's only limited inside the reservoir and not the rest of the loop.

 

[rubix_1011]

It is likely oils from the manufacture of the radiator as well as coagulation from your coolant/additives mixing with this muck. This is very common if you do not do a thorough flush on a new rad.

 

[fry178]

Yeah, because thats where its "staying" a bit longer (vs rest of the system).
And as mentioned before, most like from when they drilled/welded stuff,
and used oil/water as lubricant/coolant.

a flush without any additives is usually not enough, seen that when i purchased
the zalman reserator used (not being sold new anymore), and the guy didnt care to let it (air) dry
before shipping it.

the combo of the primochill cleaner with distilled water worked great.
i did another two flushes with just distilled water (each staying/running for about 24h),
before final fill with filtered lab water and a couple of drops of silver solution (usually 1-2 per quart water) and didnt have any growth/system was clean, even when i sold it 20 month later.

https://www.newegg.com/p/37B-002X-000C0
https://smile.amazon.com/LabChem-LC...955011&rnid=2470954011&rps=1&s=gateway&sr=8-2

 

[Patrick_171]

Ah, ok when I did the initial flush I just used some hot water and ran it through a couple times. I guess it wasn't enough. Thanks for all the advice, I'll have to use the cleaner.

 

[rubix_1011]

It's a good idea to also use something like dish soap to help break down any oils in the radiator.