I haven't tried these yet. My understanding was the sticks are to eliminate sludge and hidden wastes and should be used as maintenance after you eliminate the source of the algae and the algae itself to prevent the algae from coming back.
I recently used Dr. Tim's
Cyanobacteria Bundle to try to deal with a cyano problem and a little bit of hair algae. I will say, after the treatment, my water is much more clear. It also eliminated the hair algae completely and knocked back the cyano. It didn't completely eliminate the cyano but did reduce it significantly. The remaining cyano is only in low light / low flow areas of my tank. So, I think if I can increase the flow in my tank I might get rid of the cyano completely.
All that said, I plan to add these sticks as ongoing maintenance to reduce sludge in the sand bed and other wastes.