The narrow fern is one of the easiest to grow. Pretty fast grower. I use it quite a lot
There is also some Philippine on the left here.
I wouldn't bother shading them. There is no shade for mine anywhere in the tank and they go from bare to as you see within 6 months.
Key is the lighting. I wouldn't increase lights while you are struggling. I would reduce them. Either less wattage used (1.5-2WPG) for the 9 hours and/or cut the photoperiod down to 6 hours.
This will slow things down (including the algae) and put less pressure on the CO2, circulation and nutrients. Maybe try removing the 'siesta' under this lower lighting and see if things improve. If they do then you have found that the CO2/nutrients were not up to the job. You can then gradually increase the lighting again and increase CO2/nutrients to match. You will maybe find a happy medium eventually.
Not overly sure on the colour of the water in your NPT. Mine is pretty young (1½months old) and is still pretty clear but it does have 20x filtration on it.
AC