never thought my tank would be this ugly

[mr_alberta]

Originally Posted by jess128

Recently I've got these light purple dots on the glass that are really hard to scrub off.

The purple dots of algae on the glass is called Coraline algae (the same purple stuff that's on your rocks).

Originally Posted by jess128

The substrate is dirty and has some algae spots, there are these brown algae plants growing on 2 of my rocks, and there are always salt deposits on the outside of the glass.

Salt on the outside glass would lead me to believe that you have a lot of salt spray coming from your tank. Either that or you splash the water onto the glass when you clean the tank. Do you have a lot of microbubbles in your tank that pop and spray a mist of water everywhere?

Originally Posted by jess128

I'm really frustrated! There's not much of a cleaner crew, just some turbo snails and hermit crabs. Is there anything I can add to help my problems? Any ideas? Thanks.
Jess

To control your algae problem you must control the root of the problem. I would suggest a few things:
a) regular water changes (preferably with R/O)
b) more snails (Ceriths, Nassisarius, Astrea, Trochus, etc)
c) less feeding
d) more skimming