Tiny Black Flies Around My Tank (not in it)

[Maxcmo]

Woke up this morning to the room that my tank sits in full of tiny little flies the kind that fly very slow and can be sucked up with a vacuum. Covering the top of all four walls in the room. I am guessing maybe they were attracted to and laid eggs in my skimmer cup since I have been draining and not cleaning it. Has anyone else dealt with this? I am vacuuming them only I guess until they are gone but crazy how it exploded overnight.

 

[Maxcmo]

 

[ZoWhat]

I say Fruit Flies Gone Wild

 

[Big Smelly fish]

Sounds like some kind of gnats

 

[brandon429]

I have to keep all drains covered in warm months to prevent these. I thought my terrarium was pumping them out seasonally but at my place they are drain gnats

totally good reef food and if one lands in my oatmeal no panic, just microwave it again

 

[Karen00]

They look like drain flies/gnats. I have the same problem that @brandon429said. Your pics look the same. They gravitate to my tanks (fresh and salt) but I don't get a lot of them. I find putting Drano (or some sort of cleaner) down the drain clears them for awhile. I hate doing that but I also don't want these guys getting out of control (if that can happen). I never used to get them. They started appearing last year so not sure what's going on.

 

[PandorasChalk]

Definitely drain gnats, I get them in the kitchen and around our 90 gallon freshwater tank yearly. I found that draino or bleach in drains helps, also setting up a trap for them near the area that is a small cup with apple cider vinegar, sugar, and a drop of dish soap on top. Gnats will go down and get stuck to it and perish.

 

[Maxcmo]

I have been vacuuming them up and I think I found there breeding area. A planted olive tree in a vase in the tank room. The base was covered with them so we took it outside hopefully that does it! All of our faucets in that area are used daily and besides the skimmer I think it would tough anywhere the tank with so much water movement.

 

[vetteguy53081]

May be sewer flies which are attracted to moisture. A fly ribbon should attract them and put them away

 

[flourishofmediocrity]

This uses UV light to attract bugs and it works at night. It has a fan that sucks them into it when they get too close to the light and there’s a small sticky pad in the bottom that you can replace.

 

[vetteguy53081]

You must be careful what you place near the tank

 

[G Santana]

May be sewer flies which are attracted to moisture. A fly ribbon should attract them and put them away

First thing that came to mind