blue graumies

Question
I have 4 blue graumies 3 female 1 male for about 2 years now. my male is showing signs of fin rot and the females have eye cloud. also algie is growing very fast.so i got some melafix,water test strips and stress coat.test strips show high nitrate and ph is alkaline i know graumies like water slightly acidic.
i do a 50% water change every 2 or 3 weeks and feed them flakes and some times little shrimp i want them to have fry my male keeps getting worse.1 female is starting to show same symptoms. any suggestions?

Answer
First, the 50% water change so often is problem contributing to your algae problem and to the high nitrates and pH issues. Changing such a large amount of water so often does not give the tank time to develop its own eco-system. It needs to develop its own natural bacterias which help eliminate the nitrates and cycle to help cut down on algae. I would suggest getting some alage gone to treat your water and help reduce the algae. Also, change only about 15-20% of the water every 4-6 weeks. The only reason for you to change more water more often is for a major cleaning or to help remove the treatments, unless this is the reason try to cut down on the water changes. Also, I would not feed them th shrimp, as this may be adding to the nitrate problem with excess food. Keep feeding just enough of the flake food and only every two or three days feed a tiny bit of the shrimp if you still want to feed them that. Until you get the water conditions under control it will be difficult to help the fish heal. However, you till need to treat the fish. Make sure your treatment covers fin rot and the eye conditions, if it does not get a new kind. When treating, make sure to follow the directions exactly including the water conditions. Also, dont add the stress coat anymore, as sometimes it tends to build up in the water and cause excess waste and cloudiness. Other than these small steps, you will just need to treat the fish and wait to see what happens. Sometimes the disease or parasite is just to strong for the fish and other times the fish has no problem beating it. I hope this information is of some help. Let me know if you need more help.