Algae HELP

I have a 12 gallon nano cube with two clown fish (one picasso and one black ocellaris), a goby, pistol shrimp, and a ton of crabs and snails. My first tank was over infested with bristle worms so I got a used nano cube from the pet store I always go to- Allquatics. I set the new tank up with new live rock and new live sand and my fish were doing GREAT. Then I started to get green algae on the glass. It was so bad I'd have to wipe it with my cleaning magnet/a tooth brush to clean the algae off of the live rock daily. I cut down the hours my tank is on considerably, it's not exposed to sunlight, and I cut down on feedings-nothing has been working!!! Then last week my water was ENTIRELY green. I did a ton more research and got a UV sterilizer. Still theres algae in the water and I can barely see my fish or the live rock. For filter I have three stage activated carbon, sponge and small bio balls with generic filter media and all of my water levels are correct (I brought it to the store to double check). It's still green and I'm getting so worried. Someone please help me

 

When you say you cut down on your lighting, how much is it cut down too?

Next question is what kind of lighting are you using and how old are the bulbs?

Next on the list is what kind of food are you using, how much and how often are you feeding?

You use bio-balls, when was the last time you cleaned them? If its been a while give that a try but dont wash all of them, you'll want to only do a partial wash as to keep some of the bacteria that has grown on them.

Same thing goes for the rest of your filter media, when has it been changed? In general you wan to consider about a monthly or so change out.

How often are you performing water changes and how much are you changing out?

Algae comes from excessive lights and nutrients in the water. This being elevated nitrates & phosphates. Are you testing for them and if so what is the levels?

You may want to consider picking up some chemi-pure elite and running it in your HoB filter for a while.

 

micro algae blooms are caused by high nutrient levels like mentioned ^, you should bring them down with a large water change using quality water that was derived from reliable natural sources or mixed with RO/DI water and salt. It is probably coming from your tap if there wasnt a very large feeding that was the culprit. There are lot of nutrients in some tap, and even more so in well water. If you dillute the nutrient source enough the water should clear up.

 

At this point I've tried many different lighting amounts. I have to turn the tank light on before I go to work (at about 8 AM) and try to turn it off every day at about 6 PM. I've had my family members turn it off earlier/have turned it off later trying to experiment with different times. There's UV lighting-I'm using the standard tank hood that came with my nano cube-it's only been used for about 2 months now (this is my new tank). I feed my fish 2 times a day (I break it up into small chunks-each feeding is around 2 minutes long). My clowns both prefer flakes but I also feed them brine shrimp every other day.
I'm pretty religious about keeping my tank clean. With my old tank I'd change around a gallon or two every other week-but now that my tank is 100% green I've been doing weekly changes of about a gallon (but it's staying consistently green).
I change my generic filter media every week, but wash everything off at least a little every other week and change my filter fully every month.
I've been putting in a product that's supposed to cut down on algae (they say to put it in every other day) and we even tried doing a HUGE water change (@ John). We also installed a flow regulator and a UV sterilizer.
The last time I had my water checked it was at the Pet Shanty (I went there to double check that there was NO chance of it being a problem with my water) and they said my water was perfect-just green. I use the premixed salt water (the type you can buy from Petsmart which is supposed to be 100% pure and clean and great for salt water fish).
I really love my fish!!! I just don't know how to rectify this problem and I'm trying everything!

 

Your phosphates are through the roof. Gotta get them down. The Store says its not your water, but they have been known to be wrong before. Post exactly what those numbers are, and you will get your answer pretty easy.