You can cover the soil with diatomaceous earth, and put a pair of panty hose on the bottom of the container to cover the drain holes. The DE will cut them up. Even just one of those yellow sticky-card traps can keep their numbers in check.
I'd do those rather than have a competing goal of drenching the soil while recovering from overwater. Considering the auto's fixed lifespan, I'd go for dryer soil and a less abrupt end for the gnats.
Do you measure your runoff ph? I gotta feeling that will come in handy. The plant's stressed already. Soil ph has been held lower (not experiencing the higher range as it dries). You're entering the common ca/mg deficiency phase as well as when the plant (normally) cannibalizes its stored nitrogen. And, organic nutes tend to acidify soil. If/when you see these things and you post, you're gonna be asked for your soil ph. Might as well start watching that now. (You might even get in front of a problem too.).
Keep in mind how long it takes for the runoff to occur. If you wet the soil, let it saturate, then wet further until runoff, keep in mind how long that runoff sat in the soil. It will influence how you interpret the runoff's ph. The longer it sits in the saturated soil, the more it will reflect the soil's ph. If you just water straight through to runoff, the runoff ph might be only halfway to the soil's actual ph. (You might have to double the difference between input and output, adding that difference to the runoff ph to extrapolate the soil's ph.). If you let it sit 30-60 minutes before displacing runoff, the runoff will be close to actual soil ph. Anything in between immediate runoff and 45-minute soak requires a little adjustment to runoff value.
You want it to be up around 6.5.