Making a black box into fuge light? Can it be done?

[Cliff717]

OK guys so I have a spare black box sitting at home with very little use on it and I am in need of a refugium light. I would like to change out some of the diodes to make it more effective for growing algae. What diodes would I change? And what spectrum should I be replacing them with?

 

[Crabs McJones]

OK guys so I have a spare black box sitting at home with very little use on it and I am in need of a refugium light. I would like to change out some of the diodes to make it more effective for growing algae. What diodes would I change? And what spectrum should I be replacing them with?

You could keep the blues, and remove the white and greens and replace them with reds, try to shoot for the 642-660 range for the reds, the blues try to shoot for 429-455. I believe the black boxes come with 450's or 460's blues already so you should be good. This is the spectral graph for the Kessil H380 from BRSTV Investigates, and the H380 seems to be the gold standard in refugium lighting right now, so I'd say try to match this as close as possible.

 

[Cliff717]

Awesome thanks

 

[MaiReef]

The Black box will work as is. Just use the white channel higher than the blue. Shoot for a 6500-8000K spectrum and cheato will grow fine.

 

[Daniel Waters]

Crabs_mcjones is dead on but that is probably more work than it is worth. As MaiReef stated, the black box will work as is with more white channel. Ideal spectrum might be nice, but the black box will be able to provide more than enough light to grow macroalgae adequately.