Unstoppable Green Aquarium Slime....any ideas?

[Timmy35]

One of my little projects has been to setup a very satifying 'rockpool' aquarium stocked with locally caught invertebrates....some shrimp, prawns, whelks, anemone etc. A while back I decided to try some caulerpera as a bit of greenery and to soak up nutrients, this was a mistake as shortly afterwards I noticed a greenish algae spreading over the gravel.

Since then I've removed the caulerpera and replaced it with native sea lettuce...but the green slime algae will not go.

I've tried reducing the lighting hours, frequent water changes, scraping/scooping it out, replacing the filter medium more often, even some non algaecide treatments, the bloody stuff will not go, and keeps coming back even stronger.

I've decided it's probably time to set the stock free and effectively nuke it from orbit, total cleanout, complete re-stock.

What I'm worried about is that the algae will be hiding in the pump mechanism, and tubes and just make yet another come back when I've re-stocked.

Have any of you lot ever managed to get rid of slime algae? Even the local specialised aquarist shops agree it's a nightmakre to get rid of.