Are 420nm LEDs worth it???

OK, I am helping a friend design a "top of the line" DIY array. Meaning, I'm trying to capitalize on what we have available.

We're going to use the common (and, beautiful and effective) ratio of 1 neutral white XPG to 2 royal blue XTE. We may toss a few token "standard blue" and reds in on their own dimmable buckpuck just for giggles.


I'm confident that the neutral whites give us all the color we really want from the red/amber/orange spectrum, so the only spectrum I'm considering adding is a string of 420nm LEDs like the ones from LED Group Buy | CREE LEDs for DIY Aquarium Lighting


Now, here's the thing. In an array of 30 whites/blues, how many 420's do you think is sufficient? Meaning, as a supplement to the others, not as a major light producer.

 

sounds like a good plan, however it seemed like you say your only using Neutral whites? I would still add a couple cool whites to give you a better spectrum in the white area, the neutral whites are only listed as 3-5k, where this does help bring out reds, oranges. and such. UV is definately worth it.

I personally use cool white, neutral white. royal blue, red, True violet, and turqouise. The turqouise i find makes the colors really pop.
my ratios are 18 rb 5 nw 5 cw, 2 red, 2 turqouise and 6 tv. I find this works very well for me. The reds and greens can be a strong light so I recommend only a few of those strong colors. I use a 1:3 mix for the uv and find that blends very well with the royal blues.

 

The only thing cool whites offer (that isn't found in the neutral whites in abundance) is more blue, which we have plenty of with the royal blues. I've seen many tanks using only neutrals that look quite lovely.

My own 11g nano has 3 warm white, 3 neutral, and 12 royal blues, and it looks quite lovely--- the warm whites aren't nearly as harsh yellow as warm-white flourescents, they are much more amber, which gives the tank that "fiji-purple" effect when combined with royal blues.

I use a very similar setup on my freshwater tank (except, I have do dim everything waaaaay down lol). Royals, cools, neutrals, cyan/turquoise, and reds. The array was scobbled together from parts from a reef I took down a year ago.


Thanks for the suggestions, I will talk with my friend and see what he thinks on the cyans/turquoise. He may want to toss in a few.

 

I agree with you that you have the necessary spectrum from what you listed in the first post. Cool white and royal blues are practically the same diodes, just we see it different to human eyes. Still people like it more blueish, just personal preference.

Ive been running two kinds of UVs for two months now and I believe I started to see the ripen colors on my SPSs. The UVs are 398nm and 420nm to be exact, 8x 398nm and 6x 420nm, my DIY fixture consists of 60 LEDs total for my 90 gallon.

If he's going to keep any SPSs, Id HIGHLY recommend to include 420nm, at least 8 of them, all 3 watts.

 

Thanks, exactlyobp!

I'll discuss it with him. That adds considerably to the cost of the array but I'll see if he's wanting to be SPS intensive or not.

The 2:1 royal blue/neutral white combo is actually more blue than the 1:1 royal/cool white. It's just that the white light that's emitted contains more of the red/orange/amber spectrum.

On the spectral analysis thread, you can look at the two graphs of these two combos, and you can see that they have very similar plot lines/shapes, until you notice that the blue spike in the combo using 1:2 royal/nw is double the intensity (height).