Bug-Attractor for Fish Food
Early one morning on the way to work I noticed quite a few bugs had accumulated in the tank throughout the night because of the porch light being lit all night. When I came home that afternoon the tank was clear of any bugs and the pump did not have any stuck to its filter. So my idea was to create some sort of bug-attracter to reel bugs towards a light under the water to inevitably get stuck and get eaten by my fish. It would cut down on the cost of feeding the fish, if I could run the light with some low energy-consuming LEDs. Using a bulb similar to the porch light would not be worth it due to costs of electricity. Here are some images of my "bug-attracter" contraption:
I built it around a plastic milk jug with a simple circuit consisting of 4 rechargeable AA batteries, a resistor, switch, and few UV LED bulbs. I cut that opening in the side to allow it to sink and provide a little hideaway spot for the fish. And it turns out that it was completely ineffective for attracting bugs. After doing some research I found that bugs are not attracted to that range of light in the color spectrum. While they are attracted to UV light, LED ultraviolet apparently does not have a high enough light intensity, or at least my setup did not through the plastic. At least it made a nice little hideaway for the fish.