Advice For Lighting A 54 Gallon Corner.

I am looking for advice on settings for my Fluval 3.0 on this oddly shaped tank. I'm having a bunch of issues with green hair algae and plants that I've read are supposed to be easy (swords, val) do not do well. I don't know if I'm putting too much light or not enough. Or maybe I just need to make the jump to CO2.

I've added my current settings to review. We have the tank in the living room and my wife only works 3 days a week and likes to be able to enjoy the tank so having the lights off completely during the day is not desirable.

I have sand for substrate, and I use NilocG Thrive, root tabs, and Enhance. And I do a 50% water change weekly.

I have or had the following plants that I can remember.

Java fern - does ok but lots of algae
Anubius - does ok but lots of algae
Jungle Val - covered with algae, no new growth
Val - covered with algae, no new growth
Ruffle sword- covered with algae, no new growth
Amazon sword- covered with algae, no new growth
Micro sword- covered with algae, no new growth
Ludwigia- covered with algae, no new growth
Dwarf hair grass - never grows or spreads.
Bacopa -melted without ever growing
Cobumba - does decent but seems to be reaching for the light
Some kind of Crypt - doing ok but lots of algae
Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus - grows pretty good
Aponogeton Boivinianus - grows really well

 

Lovely tank, hope our members can come up with some suggestions to cure the lighting issue for you today.

 

I went ahead and dropped the first high light period from 75% down to 50% and the second period that was all 75% now ramps up from 50% to 75%. I also dropped the siesta period down to 20% from 25%. We'll see if that helps, I was still growing Algae on the glass with the settings in the screenshots. Still would love some advice to see if I am on the right track or not. This tank is a bit oddly shaped so no matter where I put the light, there are some shady spots in the aquarium and it's about 24 inches from the light to my substrate, so I am not sure if I am getting enough light all the way to the bottom or not. Any advice about dosage of my fertilizer is welcome too. Should I be dosing every day with the amount of plants I have?

If this doesn't work then maybe I will get into CO2 injection. This is what I am looking at possibly using, though I will still need to find a place to buy the CO2.

Fzone Aquarium Co2 Regulator Big Dual Gauge Display with Bubble Counter and Check Valve Solenoid Plant Grow DIY CO2 System for 110V CGA320 Side Open Cylinder


JARDLI Pollen Glass CO2 Diffuser for Aquarium Planted Tank

 

I would get rid of the siesta and run maybe 50%. I don’t know about the par values tho so not sure about intensity.

 

The siesta allows me to have lights on all day, hopefully without growing Algae. Plus I've read elsewhere that two growth periods can be beneficial to the plants but not the algae. Are you thinking I could run at 50% intensity for 12 hours?