Algae ruining hobby for me

I have some dark green algae in my tank that is the cause of much
anguish.

The algae grows so fast that I have to thoroughly scrape my glass and
scrub my (plastic) decorations every week when I do my water change.

I am at my wit's end with this problem.

Initially, when I set my tank up after moving 8 months ago, I wanted
to buy new live plants, so I lined the bottom of my tank with some
lateralite which I then put the gravel over. I suppose the algae was
introduced to my tank from the plants that I bought, because I did not
have serious problems until I bought these plants.

Everything was doing ok at first, and then this algae appeared and
quickly covered everything in my tank - including my plants, which
then died.

Shortly after the algae problems began, I upgraded to an Eheim
Professional II, and added a Custom Sealife 9w UV sterilizer in an
attempt to curb the algae growth. The sterilizer definitely helps
slow the growth - I know, because one time I accidentally left it
unplugged after cleaning.

I bought a plant book, and tried to make some modifications to my
setup.

- I realized that my lighting setup was woefully inadequate for
growing plants, so I went from a single 40w fluorescent bulb, to four.
I also reduced the time my lighting is on. I think I'm at about 10
hours a day.

- Water pH/hardness became also became a concern. My pH is somewhere
around 7.5-8.0 and my KH was 15 with a GH of 7. In an attempt to get
the hardness down, I started using 90% RO water from the grocery store
when doing my weekly water changes. While the pH hasn't changed, the
KH now hovers around 10 with the GH about 4.

- A fellow aquarist I met while getting RO water at the grocery store
suggested that I remove my air stone, so I did that too. (Although I
would have after the next thing I tried anyway).

- I started supplementing with a homemade CO2 kit, and a store-bought
bubble diffuser/counter (so I know it's working).

After all that, I decided I was ready to try plants again. I had read
that buying an abundance of plants can use the nutrients the algae
relies on, and kill it off. I bought $100 worth of (fast-growing)
plants, and again, the algae grew all over them and killed them.

I was pretty ****ed off, because it seemed like I was throwing away my
money. So I spent an entire day draining my tank and I did exactly
what you're not supposed to do - I bleached EVERYTHING in a desperate
attempt to kill the algae. I also figured that the lateralite that I
added before was providing the nutrients for the algae, so I washed as
much of it out as I could.

I bought a few more plants, and again they're dying, but the algae
lives on.

One thing I didn't mention earlier is that I've been treating with
AquaPharm "AlgaeFix." It seems to help slow the algae growth a bit
too.

I can't take it anymore. I'm very close to giving up on fish keeping
as I cannot beat this algae. My post here is a last resort.

Last Sunday when cleaning my tank, I took a few pics with the digital
camera.

Here is what one of my Amazon Swords looks like
http://www.yakhair.com/temp/algae-001.jpg

(Notice that every leaf has algae on it. If I trimmed off the
infested leaves, there'd be nothing left!)

Here is what my 5 gallon bucket looks like when it's filled with
water. I always scrape/scrub before I do my water change.
http://www.yakhair.com/temp/algae-002.jpg

Please help!

Here are the other details:
55 Gallon Tank
2 Clown Loaches
6 Bronze Cories
3 Red Wag Platties
3 Zebra Danios
1 Wide-mouthed Pleco (he doesn't like this algae)
6 Lemon Tetras
I change 10-15 gallons of water religiously every week
I should also probably mention that the algae comes off in sheets
when I scrape my glass.

Plants I've tried to grow:
Mondo Grass
Amazon Swords
Radican Swords
Java Ferns
Hornwort
Moneywort
Micro Swords
Anacharis
and a few others I can't think of right now