wow thats such a nice report! Thanks for your help. I basically love nickel plated waterblocks as they look very nice in my system, but of course the corrosion problem is always a pain in ass.

So as i understand it is better to buy copper waterblocks as it would not corrode in the system? or would it still be okay to have nickel plated but have to refresh distilled water from time to time with addition of PT nuke? what would you suggest? And are you using any nickel plated wb or all copper?

Hey Igorek247! As I see it the last paragraph of that report says it all really:

Recommendation:
Corrosion can be avoided by the use of a low-conducting, anti-corrosion liquid (which,
in principle, is also distilled or deionized water). It is recommended to exchange the liquid
with a fresh one after a period of time to remove the possibly dissolved ions from the closed
water-cooling system. The introduction of additional metals into the system (silver, etc.) or
the use of ionic algaecides (copper sulfate, etc.) even in minor concentrations can trigger the
corrosion processes.

I have Nickel plated copper or brass blocks. The Nickel plating will protect copper and brass from corrosion..the only thing is, occasionally a small piece of the plating may fail and then your block starts to corrode but plain copper will corrode faster with no protection. The thing is that you will always have some small amount of corrosion the trick is simply to limit it. I run deionized water only and simply change it every eight to ten weeks. I have looked at my blocks recently and see barely any sign of tarnishing....

Hey Arne, Thanks for clearing things out for me. I 've read that EK recently halted their water block production due to high amount of people complaining about the nickel plated problems. Hopefully the new series of waterblocks have better nickel plating.

I still don't see why would plain copper corrode faster? Since the system is almost all copper (except the brass chambers in radiator) wouldn't it be better that way since we have no different metal mixing? I'm sorry maybe I'm just really dumb at this but it just seems copper should be better than nickel

It's all about oxidation and the electrical potential for doing so. Nickel is much more inert than copper so a thin layer over the copper and you have all the heat sink properties and a barrier against oxidation. The Brass in the radiators is probably copper zinc tin + impurities like iron etc. (depending on exactly what alloy) where you have different metals connected in a circuit (as it were) by the water, galvanic corrosion can/will start....Aluminium is the worst for this...Aly radiators with copper blocks etc. is looking for trouble. This happens as ions enter the water so the more often you change your deionized water the better. Really, you are only ever slowing the process down..

I currently own koolance waterblocks which are nickel plated. I was thinking of getting new waterblocks that are copper inside to minimize corrosion. As I understand Im better off with the ones I have?

Nickel & copper play fine together. Don't worry about switching unless you are having problems with something.

Well I actually have a problem and I described it earlier. I opened up my CPU waterblock and found that the nickel on the fins was removed as if someone scratched it. Im pretty sure if I opened it up now the area would be much bigger. Thats why I cosidered getting copper wb in the first place. But I guess I should be changing the water more often. I'll see how it goes for the next 6 months and if no improvement then I'm definitely buying copper water blocks.
Thanks guys for your help! I appreciate your answers.