tons of little flies in my 55gal!!!

[ufvj217]

Whats up guys, decided to finally look for a freshwater forum to post this and get some help. ive had my 55g tank for about 1.5 years in my room. I've got about 15-18 african cichlid fish in it. i've NEVER had a problem with flies, until about 3-4 months ago. i bought new filters, took out about 75% of the water, all the gravel, rocks, plants (artificial plants), tank lids, etc. and cleaned it all outside (hosed it down good)

refilled the water (mixed Prime in it before putting in, ive done this like 3 times now and luckily no fish ever die) and there were no flies for about a day. the next day, they slowly start coming back. my inside tank walls were dirty and nasty, and looks like little larvae is on them, within a week to two weeks. i cannot keep the tank clean. i open the lid to feed them, and flies come out. luckily no fish have died from this yet, but one of my fish has been doing bad the last week or so, and is most likely going to die soon. i need to fix this before i loose the rest of my fish

ive heard of boiling the pumps and anything like that in water, but else can i do? should i just put the fish in something else for the day with the current water, and leave it filtering, while i take my 55g outside, and just pressure wash the inside and all the rocks and everything?




one other thing i'd like to mention is- i have a 30g tank about 4 feet away from the fish tank, with 6 Fire bellied toads in it. a few flies gather around the water pump in there too. i THINK the flies started coming around once i got the frogs. ive cleaned both tanks on the same day and got rid of the flies like i said for a day, then they're back.


hopefully someone can help me out on this one, i need to get it back looking good!!! :dance2:

 

[ufvj217]

anyone?

 

[dbosman]

A bunch of flies - doesn't give us much to work with. If they are developing under the water, that's one thing. If they are developing between the water and the hood, that's another possible issue.
Cichlids should be eating them.
What color are they?
Fruit flies or house flies?
How large?

 

[ufvj217]

Theyre very small, like little mosquitoes/nats.

they look like just little black flies. no other color to them. they fly above the water under the hood, and sometimes around the pumps. every day, i see more and more die around my window sill when i get home from work (assume they fly there becuase the sunlight coming through the window during the day)

but under the water, theres little squiggly lines on the walls, looks like thats where they're developing. ill try and get pics today of the stuff under the water, and a close up of the dead flies.

 

[smitty]

I never knew of flies wanting to around good clean water. Which makes me think maybe that tank is overstocked and the water is getting foul quickly.

 

[ufvj217]

It is getting foul rather quickly. why, i dont know. never has before, and ive had the same amount of fish for over a year.

i guess my question at this point would be, whats the best way to clean it and kinda start over? something is making the tank get dirty very quick. none of the fish look sick or in-active at all, except one of my Peacock cichlid's (just started looking sick as of recent), which i just took out last night and put it in a clean 10g for it to recover.


should i completely drain the tank, take it outside and scrub it clean and all? i know its gonna rid all the bacteria, but i dont think i have a choice at this point.

 

[prober]

With 25 cichlids in a 55 gallon tank you really need to keep up on water changes. How often are you changeing water and how much? What type of substrate, gravel? How much filtration?

It sounds like your water quality has been bad for awhile and it finally started showing the signs to you. I would suggest finding a new home for about half of the fish and changing water more often, maybe twice a week. and don't change the filters at the same time as you change water, wait a day for the bacteria to catch up. Until you take some of the load off of the tank it will not clear up. Once your water quality is good consistently it should lessen the amount of critters.

 

[ufvj217]

Thanks for the advice, i have a couple extra 30g tanks, ill try and get those running and split up the fish for a while.

 

[ufvj217]

heres an old pic of the tank, looks the same now, except with dirty water, and the fish are bigger.

 

[CWO4GUNNER]

It could be a number a factors like for example location if you live in an area where there are lots of insects like if you live near the Great Dismal Swamp. Or terrestrial potted plants near the aquarium due to rotting pot soil or even that you don't use screens on your windows.

The most likely cause however is that IF like most people your tank is overcrowded and you are overfeeding your fish. make sure you are honestly follow the 1 inch per gallon fish rule OR that you are feeding your fish no more then when they can eat in 15 minutes once every 3 days (my method), and I guarantee you you'll have a healthy looking tank and fish..From the photo of what appears to be a tank not overs-stocked. overfeeding is probubly the cause unless the drift wood you placed in the tank is too soft and the wrong species if you found it and is rotting all the way through fast over-reproducing bacteria bloom.