MILLIONS maybe billions of BUGS attracted to the glow of my reef

[andrewkw]

I live out in the middle of nowhere northern Ontario. I just moved out here a little less than a year ago and it's been a real hard adjustment, lack of LFS right up there with no pizza delivery ect. Never the less I'm still keeping a reef tank and a fowlr. I lost a lot of livestock when I was in limbo between moving out of my old house and moving in here, but the tanks are going good again a good 10 months or so after settling in.

I already know you can see the blue lights of the tanks from far far away since the only thing that glows at night around here is the milky way. The bugs apparently know this too. Check out the video. I would have posted a picture too but have not found a photobucket replacement yet. I've never seen so many bugs in my life. This is actually the second time this has happened it's not an every night kind of thing. It happened about a week ago and we had the windows open. Of course there are screens but some of these guys are so small they got in. I actually had to net them out of the reef, probably 100 or so made it into the water plus who knows if the fish ate some. The good thing is I don't have to worry about pesticides here but it got to the point where there could be enough tiny dead flies to cause an ammonia spike. Since the tank was first priority I didn't think to take a video of the bugs floating in the water. This time I got them on video.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8b3KKxscPdw?ecver=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Ztous]

It's just the lights. Maybe it's because I'm from Canada but that just looks like outside to me.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

video not showing for me, but bugs do LOVE blue light. The higher the temp color the more they're attracted to it. That's why bug zappers have an ultraviolet/purple color to them. It attracts the bugs the best. Low temp colors like red and amber attract bugs much less, but of course are no good for a reef tank. Probly the best thing you can do is just make sure no light from your tank is making it outside.

You could also try spraying a type of insect fogger outside or bug repellant to try to reduce the amount of bugs. There's mixed reviews on the stuff. I think if you expect a miracle you'll be disappointed, but they do reduce the amount of bugs around for some time.

good news is you'll be that interesting guy with the cool reef tank that nobody around has ever seen before.

 

[andrewkw]

The good news is they won't be back tonight. The bad news is they are all dead on the windows. I don't want to close the blinds because my tank gets a lot of sunlight and I'm not getting up at 4:30 to open the blinds.

We'll see what happens this is our first summer here and this only happened the one other time.

 

[DivingTheWorld]

Yuck! What about hanging some electric bug zappers from your eves. It may get loud with all the zapping, but it would be satisfying.

 

[karimwassef]

I live in Texas, immediately on a massive lake (Dallas reservoir too)
My tank is physically in my garage and when we open the garage doors at sunset, the mass of bugs is thick enough to choke a grown man...

I used to worry about it. Used zappers (so much to clean), and nets...

Then I realized that my fish ate them. And my tank was doing great with more bioload. So I stopped worrying about it.

The fix for me was a massive scrubber that sequestered any food that turned to inorganic N and P. Then I feed that algae back into the tank... all good

So. Add a scrubber and let nature do her job.

 

[DasCamel]

Free food lol.

 

[ReefsandGeeks]

I don't want to close the blinds because my tank gets a lot of sunlight and I'm not getting up at 4:30 to open the blinds.QUOTE]

Odd you want your tank to get a lot of sunlight. Typically, natural sunlight causes a lot of algea growth. To each his own though. I've heard of some tanks that use natural light with a blue filtered window that filters out a lot of the long wavelength light that causes algea that worked out well.

 

[karimwassef]

Sunlight is great! Just need a way to manage the algae. I use a scrubber

 

[DarkSkyForever]

I have gray tree frogs that climb my windows and eat bugs that walk around on them at night, fun watching them do it too. A few shaded areas that remain moist during the day are all you need to keep them around your house. Maybe something to consider if you're on a wooded lot?

 

[andrewkw]

I have gray tree frogs that climb my windows and eat bugs that walk around on them at night, fun watching them do it too. A few shaded areas that remain moist during the day are all you need to keep them around your house. Maybe something to consider if you're on a wooded lot?

I just saw my first gray tree frog the other night! I hear several types of frogs at night. Obviously I knew there would be a lot more bugs here. I did not know that the reef lights would attracts walls full of bugs.

There are no new ones tonight so it's probably just an occasional thing.

As for the sunlight thing, I don't think I've closed the blinds in the 10 months I'e been here. I love watching the tank in the morning when the tanks getting direct sun and during the day the sunlight just adds to the visual appeal in combination with the led's. I don't think I am getting coral growth from the sunlight just the tank is visually more appealing. No algae issues as it's a pretty clean tank.