Mixing Coolants?

[darkcloud784]

Hello,

 

This is my first real "question" post on these forums so I apologize if I'm not as thorough with my question. Also to note, this is my first water cooling build, I've done TONS of air cooled and closed loop systems but never a custom loop. That being said, is it ok to mix coolants? Example, I want to achieve a color like this https://mayhems.co.uk/coolants/pastel-coolants/pastel-concentrate-250ml/green-250ml/ without using any "dye", but I also want to have it UV reactive if possible. Glowing a neon green when exposed to UV in the dark and more of a pastel/matte color when no UV light is on it. Is it possible to mix pastel colored liquids with like a clear UV reactive liquid?

 

Thanks for any replys!

[Enderman]

yes you can mix mayhems coolants with eachother

 

just dont mix different brands

 

also a lot of the time fluids have different compositions and wont mix correctly, or one completely overpowers the other

 

so as long as you dont mind wasting some money, you can try it out and see if it works and you like how it looks

usually people test it out in small pieces of tube or test tubes first to decide what ratio of fluids to use and which ones look best

[darkcloud784]

4 minutes ago, Enderman said:

yes you can mix mayhems coolants with eachother

 

just dont mix different brands

 

also a lot of the time fluids have different compositions and wont mix correctly, or one completely overpowers the other

 

so as long as you dont mind wasting some money, you can try it out and see if it works and you like how it looks

usually people test it out in small pieces of tube or test tubes first to decide what ratio of fluids to use and which ones look best

 

Thank you for the information, as I'm no good at art and do not really do very good with color mixing. Are there any other people that have attempted to get a similar color as I listed in my original post with UV reaction?

[Enderman]

5 minutes ago, darkcloud784 said:

 

Thank you for the information, as I'm no good at art and do not really do very good with color mixing. Are there any other people that have attempted to get a similar color as I listed in my original post with UV reaction?

i dont think so

pastel and UV dont really go together

unless you choose to use UV tubing instead of UV fluid

but i hear UV fluid looks much better

 

whats really common is just UV green

[paprikman]

13 minutes ago, Enderman said:

i dont think so

pastel and UV dont really go together

unless you choose to use UV tubing instead of UV fluid

but i hear UV fluid looks much better

 

whats really common is just UV green

I've tried once to mix white pastell with blue uv dye, but it didn't light that much. I also think, that UV tubing is the best way to go here, but you might wanna change colors later, so... It's hard to decide

edited: grammar

Edited May 18, 2016 by paprikman

[Naeaes]

The way UV-reactive liquids work is they absorb the high energy from UV radiation and release it at slower rate and at smaller energy. The dip in the amount of energy translates to longer wavelength which in turn means a different color. By varying how much the energy output differs from the input they can vary the color. During manufacturing, they achieve it by putting different chemicals in to generate different colors. One chemical turns blue, one red, one green, one violet and so on. So it's pretty much set in stone which color will be shined back from the liquid and you can't change it by adding some non-reactive liquid. That's why mixing UV green with blue for example won't turn into UV-blue. Mixing UV-blue with UV-red does kind of work technically, but it doesn't look very great. And it's not what you're asking.

And even if you mix UV-green with green, won't turn into a cool effect. First of all, there has to be a certain amount of UV-reactive chemicals in the liquid for the effect to happen so if you add something else, you dilute the liquid and essentially weaken the reaction. Secondly, if you put anything in that's not fully clear and transparent, you hinder the UV light's ability to get to the UV-reactive chemicals. A pastel color is really the worst-case scenario.

[darkcloud784]

28 minutes ago, Naeaes said:

The way UV-reactive liquids work is they absorb the high energy from UV radiation and release it at slower rate and at smaller energy. The dip in the amount of energy translates to longer wavelength which in turn means a different color. By varying how much the energy output differs from the input they can vary the color. During manufacturing, they achieve it by putting different chemicals in to generate different colors. One chemical turns blue, one red, one green, one violet and so on. So it's pretty much set in stone which color will be shined back from the liquid and you can't change it by adding some non-reactive liquid. That's why mixing UV green with blue for example won't turn into UV-blue. Mixing UV-blue with UV-red does kind of work technically, but it doesn't look very great. And it's not what you're asking.

And even if you mix UV-green with green, won't turn into a cool effect. First of all, there has to be a certain amount of UV-reactive chemicals in the liquid for the effect to happen so if you add something else, you dilute the liquid and essentially weaken the reaction. Secondly, if you put anything in that's not fully clear and transparent, you hinder the UV light's ability to get to the UV-reactive chemicals. A pastel color is really the worst-case scenario.

Bah, I was really hoping this wouldn't be the case. I was really hoping to get a UV-Green in pastel when soft lighting. Anyone have any idea if there is a possible factory made coolant that offers the same color effects? I haven't been able to find any but of course I can't search the entire web, thats what crowd sourcing is for .

[Naeaes]

2 minutes ago, darkcloud784 said:

Bah, I was really hoping this wouldn't be the case. I was really hoping to get a UV-Green in pastel when soft lighting. Anyone have any idea if there is a possible factory made coolant that offers the same color effects? I haven't been able to find any but of course I can't search the entire web, thats what crowd sourcing is for .

You can get UV-reactive tubing too. I'd imagine that'd work best. You can also play with the lighting. The commercially available (legal) UV lights aren't very efficient. They aren't that intense, obviously, because who wears safety glasses while gaming? And they don't cut away the visible violet light. That's a huge bummer. The more UV-lights you get, the more visible violet you get. I've had best luck by placing lots of small lights like standalone LEDs near the componets I want to light up. Like zip-tieing them behind the tubes or by placing them in clear plastic caps and blocks. But your best bet is to plan to have it kind of violet or to use lots of matte black components. A white clear-coated case with LED strips in corners far away from the tubing is the worst.

[darkcloud784]

34 minutes ago, Naeaes said:

You can get UV-reactive tubing too. I'd imagine that'd work best. You can also play with the lighting. The commercially available (legal) UV lights aren't very efficient. They aren't that intense, obviously, because who wears safety glasses while gaming? And they don't cut away the visible violet light. That's a huge bummer. The more UV-lights you get, the more visible violet you get. I've had best luck by placing lots of small lights like standalone LEDs near the componets I want to light up. Like zip-tieing them behind the tubes or by placing them in clear plastic caps and blocks. But your best bet is to plan to have it kind of violet or to use lots of matte black components. A white clear-coated case with LED strips in corners far away from the tubing is the worst.

Do you happen to know if there is UV reactive PETG hardline tubing and where I can get some?

[Naeaes]

22 minutes ago, darkcloud784 said:

Do you happen to know if there is UV reactive PETG hardline tubing and where I can get some?

Yeah. Alphacool and Monsoon have UV-reactive hard tubes. At least aquatuning carries them.