greetings from nyc

hi, i have two pico natural tanks in my apartment. the 2.5g is more heavily planted. By way of introduction, here is my current situation:

i discovered this site too late to prepare the tanks for adequate substrate for planting. so i only had general aquarium gravel, mixed with ammo chips.

i have no C02, and no filtration.

plants:some dwarf hairgrass, dwarf baby tears, wisteria, dwarf anubias and wild collected plant from the delaware river which seems to be doing well. i also have pothos [root only].

i got an attack of brown algae while cycling [i'm about 4-5wks in], and then what i think looked like bga. after a three day blackout algae seems to have come under control, also my wild collected ramshorn snail is working overtime - even laying eggs, which i think my betta is eating as soon as they hatch.

i have a coil fluorescent light 5500k 14w 12hrs, which i'm going to try to reduce to 9hrs to see if that reduces the algae problem.

nh3 = 0
n03 = 20
n02 = 0
ph = 6.5 [i think it's my manzanita, but from what i've read bettas like slightly acidic]
gh = 60
kh = 40
temp = 76

my HC [is that what you call the dwarf baby tears?] is turning yellow, and my christmas moss [i'm not sure if this is actually christmas] has never really come to life, it's kinda brown [and covered in hairy/beard algae possibly]. i may be the one person who can't grow christmas moss [i did put this in before cycling was complete. should i just pull it off and try a new batch?]. but the hairgrass, wisteria and anubias are doing well.

do i need to dose for the dwarf baby tears? if so, liquid or tabs?

[please, no comments about how i need to get a filter]

thanks!