Check the manual to see if the light can reach intensity as high as 100 umol/m^2/sec.
Lesson 1
Essential Hatchery Components
Back to: Hatchery Equipment
Lighting
Kelp requires light to grow. Throughout the time that your spools are in the hatchery, you’ll want to adjust the amount of light they’re exposed to. We’ll describe more about this process of moderating light in the Hatchery Operations course. For now, suffice it to say, you’ll need a significant amount of light to grow your spools.
In the past, T-12 white fluorescent lights have been the tried and true way to produce light in the hatchery. Many hatcheries are now leaning away from T-12s toward LEDs to increase energy efficiency.
Parameters you should look for when purchasing lights
-
-
Have light with consistent distribution to prevent dead spots on your spools.
-
Lights should have a full white light spectrum with higher photosynthetic photon flux (PPF) levels of blue and red wavelengths. If the user manual does not show these levels, reach out to the company.
-
The ability to change light intensity. You can do this by purchasing dimmable lights or by physically shading your lights with cut mesh screens.
Lights are typically placed on the sides of your tanks to promote even distribution of light both horizontally and vertically on the spool. For culture tanks that don’t have clear sides, light can be hung overhead.
Just how humans need sleep, kelp also needs a break from light. The lights need to be switched on and off so that there is a 12 hours on/12 hours off daylight cycle in the hatchery. This can be done manually, or you can make your life a lot easier by using a pre-set timer.
Kelp at its early stages is very sensitive to light. The goal is to slowly increase photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) as the kelp grows. In the GreenWave hatchery, we aim to increase our PAR each week to levels of 15, 20, 45, 80, and 100. Light intensity can be slowly increased by adjusting the intensity of dimmable lights or by using a physical shading device that can be peeled back, layer by layer to let more light pass through. We make these shades out of cut window screening, grommets, and zip ties. The screening is cut to the length and height of the lights, plus a few inches for wiggle room. Four layers of screening are then held together using two to three grommets along the top of the shade. We then run a zip tie through each grommet and loop it to the back of the light ballast to secure it.
