I recently won a battle with this stuff myself. It hasn't completely disappeared, but now it's no more than a minor, minor problem. Here are the "attack" points I focused on...
1. Make sure to clean any type of mechanical filter at least once a week or even more if the filter picks up lots of junk. Also be sure to keep up with filter media changes (carbon, etc.) if you use that type of stuff.
2. Switch to RO/DI water or at least RO water. This helps a lot. In fact this is a must and I'm pretty sure almost everyone will tell you this should be one of your first steps in combating algae. Be sure to use the RO/DI water for top-offs as well.
3. Keep up with your water changes. I have gone with small weekly water changes. I do probably about a 5-7% change each week. That puts me at about 20-25% each month. I hope to reduce this as my tank matures.
4. Reduce feeding to everyother day. This seemed to make a huge difference for me. Also if you're using frozen foods rinse them before putting them into your tank. I use a small strainer to acomplish this task.
5. Put a refuge together and start growing macro algae. This may not be an option for you, but if it is go for it. This creates competition for your problem algae.
6. I fell victim to this one early on in my fish keeping career... stock your tank properly. An overloaded tank is almost certainly going to be an algae producing machine. It's pretty basic, but I thought I'd include this advice just in case.
7. Finally, have patience! If you're keeping up your tank properly you're probably going to win the battle. I didn't win this battle over night. It took me a couple of months before I got things under control. In my opinion there really isn't any one miracle solution that's going to clear up all of your algae over night (maybe some chemical, but I've decided not to go that route in my tank). I think this is one of the biggest reasons why people struggle so much with algae. They think there's just one little problem and once they fix it... bam, no more algae. I'm just speaking from my own experience, but that just hasn't been the case for me. It's a combination of variables that determine algae levels in your tank and ussualy more than one thing will be "out of wack."
All that you have read above are things that I've had success with. I'm not an expert. That means what I've shared is not the law and it may not work for you. I'm sure other people have different approaches / opinions, but I thought I'd share my experience anyway. Good luck with whatever approach you choose.
One more thing... it's my opinion that the algae clean up crews are just one more way to clean up the mess. If you really want to solve your algae problem you have to attack the source of the problem (high nutrients, etc.), not the symptoms of the problem (algae everywhere). Yes, snails and crabs are important and wonderful to have, but they've never solved any of my algae breakout problems. Just another opinion.
