Light Calculations in Odd Conditions

[Bearfan]

As some have noticed, I am building my waterfall paludarium. Now, I was trying to decide how to calculate watts/gallon when there is an airspace between the water and light source. The actual water volume is about 10 gallons or so, but there is a lot of land and a lot of air. I don't think the light would emit a true 30 watts in 10 gallons for example giving you a 3 watts/gallon, but I also do not think you would get a 30 watts in 45 gallons giving you a .66 watts per gallon.

Anyone have any thoughts on this. This is one of the reasons I call this an experiment.

 

[fishfreek]

Well one thing is that the further away the lights are from the water the more of a chance you have for these lights to dissipate.

For example as the light shines down it also shines out into the room. There is some huge mathematical formula for calculating the intensity of a light at a given distance but its way beyond my college education to know or understand it.

I would imagen that you would need to light the tank as if it was full of water given that the plants will still be at least 1/2 way down the tank's height.

 

[Bearfan]

That may very well be true. I am going to plant low light plants in this one as the frogs do not do well in bright light.

And the experiment continues...