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Thread: I can't keep the water clean.

  1. #1
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    I can't keep the water clean.

    This is driving me crazy. I can't keep my water from growing stuff.
    I just spend 3 days last month cleaning everything. I've replaced all the tubing, I flushed all the gunk out and I've ALWAY used distilled water.

    This last round I even put in a table spoon of bleach. And still my tube gets cloudy.

    I've got a 5 gallon bucket running into my chiller, through the laser tube, and back into the bucket.

    I'm really getting frustrated because I want to take care of things I have. I want to do the right thing.
    I just can't figure out how to go longer then a month without growing anything. Lord knows I can't grow grass but I can sure grass some algaeIMG_3833.jpg.
    Jeff Body
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  2. #2
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    Jeff,

    I haven't had algae problems yet but here are some thoughts on this problem for you anyway.

    You said you have a chiller but are feeding its water through a 5 gallon bucket? Just wondering why? Is that a true chiller like a CW5000 or is it a water circulator with a heat exchanger but no active chilling going on, like a CW3000? Just curious. If you are using an active Chiller can you dispense with the bucket? That is just one source of contaminent to the system.

    Assuming you need the bucket.....My first thought would be to do a ruthless cleaning of the system. Pull your "Chiller" out where you have full access to it and open it up. Remove any barbed hose connectors or hose connectors that can be removed without unsoldering things. You may have gunk hiding behind those connectors that are not being reached by your flushing methods. Get a bottle brush with a long flexible handle that will fit into the tubes of the chiller. Scrub everything out with a bleach solution and be brutal about it. Nothing cursory. Also scrub the heck out of your external tubing, soak the connectors in a bleach solution and scrub, and if you still need the bucket scrub the heck out of that too. Remember how when you were a little kid your Mom would scrub you down after you had played in the mud all day? Be worse than that!!! <grin> Anything that can be soaked in a bleach solution should be soaked.

    Then flush it all with distilled or ionized water. Reassemble it and then fill with either of those water types.

    Here is a link to a thread on SMC about using anti-freeze you might find useful.

    http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthre...ht=anti-freeze

    Lastly, I would try to eliminate exposure to light for any tubes or the bucket. (Dan Hintz didn't think that would help in another recent thread where I suggested it and I trust Dan implicitly, but you can do this easily without expense and it wont do any harm so you might try it just for giggles)

    For what it is worth, my laser uses a CW5000 chiller which I flushed with distilled water before assembling. I also pulled the barbed hose connectors and cleaned them at the same time. And when I assembled it again I used a black hosing that light wont penetrate. I filled it with distilled water, no antifreeze since my garage has never reached freezing temps. Since then I have not had any problems with algae. I have a CNC that uses water cooling. No chiller, just a bucket circulating water through the system as spec'd by the manufacturer. I have that setup the same way. Black bucket and black hosing. Cleaned and flushed before I reassembled it and filled with distilled water, no antifreeze. No problems with Algae in a year now.

    Hope this helps! BTW. Not growing grass is wonderful!! You have a lot more free time since you dont have to mow!! Enjoy it!!!!!! <grin>

    Dave
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  3. #3
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    Even thou I can't grow grass I still have to mow the weeds.......
    Thank you David for some insight


    I have the bucket because I use a 1/4hp aquarium chiller for cooling. The bucket houses the pump. IMG_3296.jpg

    I'll have to try cleaning it again. I pretty much did what you suggested about 1.5 months ago.
    I guess I can try switching all the tubing over to black tubing and see if that helps.

    Just sucks because it's a long process to have to clean everything every months or so.
    And then I hear people say they haven't had to touch their water for 6+months.
    Last edited by Jeff Body; 02-20-2016 at 10:57 PM.
    Jeff Body
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  4. #4
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    Anyone else out there have some thoughts for Jeff?? Like I said, I have not had algae in not quite a year yet, but I started with a pretty wicked cleaning to be sure I wasn't pumping something that came with the laser and CNC from China.

    Dave
    900x600 80watt EFR Tube laser from Liaocheng Ray Fine Tech LTD. Also a 900x600 2.5kw spindle CNC from Ray Fine. And my main tool, a well used and loved Jet 1642 Woodlathe with an outboard toolrest that helps me work from 36 inch diameters down to reallllllly tiny stuff.

  5. #5
    Silly question, but do you have a lid on the bucket? How are the hoses connected?

  6. #6
    Well, you _could_ replace the water cooled tube with an air cooled one and totally eliminate the problem ;^)

    Or you could add disinfectant such as chlorine, although you'd want to check with someone knowledgeable as to what levels might cause problems if you overdo it

    Or you could put a UV light in the loop, one of the type used to treat fish ponds or drinking water, and that would control the algae without requiring you to periodically add chemicals.

  7. #7
    I'm an avid boater, and what boaters (and a little research online) will tell you, is that algae needs a light source to grow. Hard to tell for sure from you picture, but it looks like your tube is exposed to lots of ambient light. If so, there's your problem.

    I've had my Triumph for 27 months now, and I'm on the original distilled water. My tube is completely shielded from outside light, and the water tubing that came with the machine is similar to surgical rubber, if it's not totally opaque it's close to it. The machine is in my garage shop with very little sunlight, and the chiller and tubing is very close to the wall and pretty much doesn't get overhead light either. Last time I looked, only thing on my tube was a little dust, but that was awhile back...

    So now I'm curious, so when I get a few minutes I'm going to check my tube...

    Meanwhile, anything you can do to shield your tube from light will only help...
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  8. #8
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    What we used to do on commercial water towers for AC units, massive dose of Chorine let it circulate and kill the algae, then flush with clear water a couple times and clean up the dead stuff.

    Then use a small amount of chorine a couple tablespoons in distilled water. Keep your bucket covered, even the dust in the air can start it growing again.
    Retired Guy- Central Iowa.HVAC/R , Cloudray Galvo Fiber , -Windows 10

  9. #9
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    The only contamination I have had is from stuff growing in the translucent hoses. A few months ago it got so bad that the gunk sloughed off the inside of the hoses and collected in the tube, blocking flow and setting off the alarm. I don't think that a UV light would help - isn't the laser tube already a source of UV? Besides, the stuff growing inside the hoses isn't passing by any UV source to kill it off. I now addd chlorox to the water.
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  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kev Williams View Post
    I'm an avid boater, and what boaters (and a little research online) will tell you, is that algae needs a light source to grow. Hard to tell for sure from you picture, but it looks like your tube is exposed to lots of ambient light. If so, there's your problem.
    The amount of UV light a DC tube puts out dwarfs anything from ambient... a DC tube is, essentially, a grow light with a side-benefit of being able to cut things.
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  11. #11
    I'm not much of a brain on such things, but since laser light is monochromatic, coherent and travels in a straight line, which I take to mean the opposite of ambient "scattered" light which travel in all directions-- doesn't that mean the water in a glass tube laser barely "sees" the laser light?
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  12. #12
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kev Williams View Post
    I'm not much of a brain on such things, but since laser light is monochromatic, coherent and travels in a straight line, which I take to mean the opposite of ambient "scattered" light which travel in all directions-- doesn't that mean the water in a glass tube laser barely "sees" the laser light?
    Have you ever watched the tube while lasering? It emits lots of scattered light - you wouldn't be able to see it if it didn't. And that light you see is after it has passed through the water jacket.
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  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by Kev Williams View Post
    I'm not much of a brain on such things, but since laser light is monochromatic, coherent and travels in a straight line, which I take to mean the opposite of ambient "scattered" light which travel in all directions-- doesn't that mean the water in a glass tube laser barely "sees" the laser light?
    The coherent beam is what escapes the end-mirror. but that is a mere fraction of the energy that goes into making that beam. If the beam was everything, you would see a black hole where the tube sits. The glowing plasma surrounding that tube is a mini UV light factory... also a good reason not to stare at it for any length of time.
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  14. #14
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    This has been a recurring problem on different forums/threads. It is also a recurring issue for me. You just learn to clean it out once in a while and live with it The general thought seems to be to add a couple of teaspoons of bleach to the water, but the growth still returns after a while. I have two “sealed” chiller units, no open buckets.

    Takes half an hour every six months or so to clean it out, so not a huge issue really.

    Kind Regards, John
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  15. #15
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    One quick thought. I could be wrong here, but one observation I had reading this was the people that seem to have little problems are using a real chiller, he's using and aquarium pump. Also the people without problems are likely using their laser pretty consistently every day. Jeff is your laser use less than 20 hours a week and is the pump off when you are not using it?

    Could part of the problem be the water is not being circulated fast enough it's almost stagnant increasing fungal growth? (think how fungus grows in stagnet pond vs much less in a river) This combined with the other causes mentioned might explain it further....
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