Custom Liquid Cooling Maintenance

Hey all. I'm soon to receive my new DS system that I ordered a few weeks back. I have the hydrolux custom cooling on my cpu, chipset, and my gpu. I would like some information on maintenance.
-Should I use the same coolant that DS filled my cooling system with? If so, what should I use?
-People have said to put some silver into your reservoir to kill anything that may want to grow. Is this optional? Would there most likely be a negative effect of not having silver in my reservoir?
-Any recommendations on how often I should tighten my tube fittings with everyday use?
-Any thing else I should look out for in the future with my cooling system?
Sorry for sounding so nooby. I'm new to this whole custom liquid cooling thing. Thanks

Edited by tzlopez - 31 Mar 2014 at 4:05pm

Hi tzlopez. I have no answers for your questions, but I do have a big HELLO! and Welcome to the family!!   

@fstcvc - Thanks for the info! It'll help me much.
@Snaike - Thanks you. It's good to be here.

Maintenance to a liquid cooling system is pretty easy. I'm going to assume in this case you only have one loop. Meaning everything is connected to each other. If you two loops, just apply the following recommendations to both.

First off, if you are just filling the loops up, then yes. It's recommended to use the exact same coolant you already have it. Now mixing different brands won't really cause you any harm or foul. But you can avoid a few possible issues if you end up mixing distilled water with a coolant. So just contact DS, and refill with whatever it already has.

Now when you're refilling, never fill the res all the way to the top. Once your res falls below the 50% mark, you'll want to refill. If it falls below the 30% mark, you need to fill asap. But until the 50% mark, there is no reason to refill at all. When you do fill, take it to the 90% mark, max. Don't over fill. If there are any air bubbles in your loop, they need this extra room.

Now when it's time to flush. Completely drain, like fstcvc said, at the lowest point in the loop. DS will probably build in a drain valve specifically for this. Run distilled water through the entire loop several times. So essentially flush it multiple times. Completely fill, run it for a minute, drain. Completely fill, run it for a minute, drain.

Then just fill it. It's easier than you think.

This is also a good time to add any coloring if you want. While people in the past have said color dyes aren't good because they "gunk" up, mayhem has changed that game. Mayhem makes some extremely great dyes of all colors. A couple of drops is all you need.

Good luck.