10k and actinic spectra?
 

So, on the craigslist by me, someone is selling a 4x54 watt system from a used reef tank. Its the Nova Extreme T5.

For the price ($100), its a pretty good deal, however since it is a reef setup, I'm not sure about the lights on it.

The questions I have are:
#1) Normal bulbs (t5 warm/cool) will be able to put into this thing?
#2) How "off" is the spectra of the actinic and the 10k. How much usable light it there for the plants? I know it might not be pretty to look at, but as long as the plants can absorb the light, and I can wait until I have to replace them, then I'll be happy.

Hi Aceetobe

I am fairly sure you will need to change your bulbs if you buy this unit. Actinic will be no use to the plants I think. Someone correct me on this if I am wrong. 10K wont be right spectrum either for good growing.

You will be able to change to lower kelvin T5 tubes with the Nova Extreme T5. I am thinking it must be a four foot long unit if the tubes are 54 watt. You just need to replace them with the same wattage T5 bulbs

I hope this helps with your question.

Brett

You can put normal T5 bulbs in a reef set up: the same set-ups are used for freshwater and terrariums, just with different bulbs.

The antinic lights are pretty, but totally useless for orchids. I suspect 10K bulbs could be used, but they are heavy on the blue, so you'd have to get something with a lot of red to compensate. Honestly, if its used, you want to replace the bulbs in any case, they start to go bad after about a year. You'll also want to carefully clean the fixture, a lot of old reef set-ups were not properly maintained, and have salt build-up that you'll want to get off. Generally, the salt won't have harmed the fixture yet, they are built for it, but you should get it off.