Blue or Royal Blue for pop?

[Giovanni]

Which LED color provides the POP. Blue or Royal Blue?

I have a pico I am thinking 3 cool white and 2 Blue/Royal Blue for a 20k effect.

[NanoReefWanabe]

420nM adds the most pop as it is closest to "black light" which obviously makes thing very colourful and 420nm is an ideal growing spectrum for the corals as well...rapid led and others sell 420nm violet LEDs...barring using those royal blue will give you more pop then blue, as the spectrum of RB is lower....also i would use neutral or warm whites instead of cool whites, or one of each...

and for a 20k look you would need 3 rb to 2 whites...

[karimwassef]

A combination of colors gives a better distribution. Here's what I like:

36% white
11% blue
36% royal blue
5% green
5% red
7% UV

[Giovanni]

So if I skip the RB and just use white and UV will it make it pop without all the blue?

[karimwassef]

I don't have any experience running a white and UV only though without blue or RB. Corals need the blue (not just violet or UV) to function.

You may get "pop", but I don't think you'll get healthy corals.

[Giovanni]

What is the diameter of the rapid led pucks?

[Giovanni]

Here is what I am thinking for my long narrow 17in long by 7in wide 11in deep 5gallon build.

RB W UV RB W RB UV W RB

All driven by one dimmable driver.

RB = Cree XT-E Royal Blue
W = Cree XP-G 5W Neutral White or Maybe the brighter Cree XM-L Neutral White.
UV = C35-X (Rapid LED UV)
Driver = Rapid LED 0-10V Dimmable Nano Driver

What do you think? Will this give a decent mix in the 15K-20K look with good pop and color? Mostly keeping softies and LPS, so would this be plenty of lumens. The reason for the single driver is I want to keep everything on this setup as simple a possible.

[NanoReefWanabe]

I don't have any experience running a white and UV only though without blue or RB. Corals need the blue (not just violet or UV) to function.

You may get "pop", but I don't think you'll get healthy corals.


pretty sure the one of the spectrums corals grow best at is 420nm (or the violet 420nm leds, this colour is other wise known as true actinic)

[jagr201]

Royal blue.

[Giovanni]

Here (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2216743) is a thread showing how it turned out.