midge fly infestation...

[_brokenglass_]

any advice on how to get rid of these would be most appreciated...

i've got a 55 gallon planted tank w/ 12 fish (2 balas, 3 pictus cats, 1 pleco, 1 cae, 1 green tiger barb, 3 clown loaches, and 1 other cafish). have had a problem with the flies for a few months now. i cut the feeding back to 1x per day, have been doing 30% water changes every 2-4 days for the past couple weeks. last week i completely disassembled and cleaned the filter (aquaclear200), put new media in, and put it back in there. was trying my best to clean any of the gel-looking masses of eggs off the edge of the water. went to do a water change today, and took the filter out to check it... the ammonia cartridge and the foam block are both filled with blood worms.

any ideas? this is kind've frustrating.

 

[dskidmore]

Sounds like most of your fish are bottom feeders. A top feeding fish will likely make short work of any eggs floating in the tank.

As for the filter, do everything you can to sleal it off so the flies can't get in to lay eggs there.

You can cut feeding back to as much as once every other day while you're fighting this.

Is there any way you can seal the top of the tank better?

 

[BillD]

I wih I could get that to happen. Bloodworms are great live food.

 

[_brokenglass_]

great live food, but when they're clogging the filter and you have flies around your head all day, not so much fun ^^

i feel kinda bad cutting their food back so much, cause even now they seem hungry all the time (i used to be feeding 2x a day), but i'll give it a try. would you suggest getting a top feeding fish? i'm not sure what a good choice would be for that.

as far as sealing it better... i mean, i could throw a towel over the top of the tank or something instead of the lid. i read somewhere that the flies need bright lights in order to reproduce, but i worry about my plants if i cut out the tank light altogether.

thanks for your help =)

 

[MiamiFishy]

Hey, here is a thought,

Get some black tape, about 2 wide and very neatly seal any oppenings between the lid and the tank top. Go all around, even seal the gaps between the filter and tank edge. Just leave the hood lid unsealed so that you can feed your fish. DO NOT SEAL the light's vents, but do seal everything else. You can use mosquito mesch to put over the light's vents and the filter vents so you wont cut out the oxygen for the bacteria in the filter. Or just use the mosquito mesch to cover the whole tank/ lid top portion! LOL

Hope this works, if your neat and do it slow, you might not even notice the tape around the tank and the flies wont have a way to enter to lay eggs.

Good luck.

 

[_brokenglass_]

hey that's a good idea if my current plan fails, i'll definitely try that. right now i have 1/2 of a filter floss? i think that's what it's called, the bag that you put carbon in for some filters i ripped one of those up and it's attached to the front of the filter so nothing gets in but water gets out... hopefully it works