What's your pH, ALK AND CA+ levels? How much is your pH fluctuation from day to night? What is the flow rate in the tank?
Keep the pH up and stable, above 8.0 at all times and the higher the better. CO2 is your enemy. If your pH is dropping significantly at night its due to CO2 increasing. When your lights come on, the bad algae feed off the CO2. I know that OLD information states that you should dim, or not use your lights…that's old and counter productive. If anything, keep those lights pumping 24/7 and starve the tank of food. Keep your ALK above 8.5meq/l and CA+ at 450+ to encourage Coraline algae growth, and minimize free CO2 in your tank. The algae in your corals will get all the CO2 they need from the coral. Toss in a bag of chemi-pure pro with GFO to assist in lowering your PO4 and nutrients released from the algae die-off.
Keep the flow heavy to keep detritus suspended for the skimmer to remove.
You said you've tried hermits and snails. I agree that we should support local stores, but if you're looking to get a crew that will clean up your tank, go to the GARF website and get you're crew from them. Each critter is $1 so even when you figure in shipping, you're still better off than the local stores if you buy more than 20 critters. I recommend you get 3x the amount you think you'll need, let them clean up the tank, then sell them off to other members.
Good luck and keep us posted.
DD
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