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bad plant growth and algae problems



I have a 125 gal. tank, which I expected to be especially 
convenient for plant growth (it is a long, wide, low tank 
~ 18" high, and ~32" wide) - but I see very poor plant growth with lots of
algae. I have been doing my best to 
encourage plant growth in this tank - and no luck, especially compared with
my othe planted tanks, where I did nothing special. 
The substrate is 0.08-0.1" river sand, with laterite balls under the more
valuable plants. I have no substrate heating, I did try CO2 injection with
little or no success (perhaps, a yeast bottle was way too little for this
large tank). I fertilize my tank by PMDD, 15ml/day. There is no natural
sunlight falling on this tank, I use 4x40W + 1x80W fluorescents, which
makes a total of 240W of fluorescent light, plus two 60W incadescents,
dimmed to half brightness, to increase the output of red spectra. This
makes around 2W/gallon as recommended by other APD users. I have very poor
plant growth in this tank (I have C.pontederiifolia, C.wendti, Nomaphyla,
Ludvigia, Lobelia, E.tenellis, E.amasonicus, and a few other species in
this tank) - but I have got algae bloom - green and black thread algae
covering everything: plants, stones, tank walls. Many people say I am using
too much light - I use less lightning in my other tanks, there is almost no
algae, and the plants do much better, but this is what was recommended by
collective wisdom of APD, so I am trying to find out if I did something
wrong. Unfortunately, I can’t buy test kits (they are not available in my
country). I don’t think I have excess of phosphates - I feed mainly
livefood to my fish, do this sparingly, and there are not many of them
(fish) in the tank (8x1" synodontis, 3x2.5" labeo, 2 rainbows, and a few
other fishes at the moment). I do regular partial water changes, about 1/3
a week - still, the tank looks awful. ANy ideas on what am I doing wrong? 

- Vahe