Please....there is nothing stupid about that. Sometimes the obvious is the least obvious, I made the very same mistake and had the lights on for 13 hours a day and was changing 25% water once a week. Once you get the light and water change schedule dialed in, you should have no problems. I do still get algae, but only enough that it needs to be scraped off the glass every other week. And whatever algae is growing on rocks and stuff has not gotten out of control but actually looks good in my opinion.
Not sure what to do about your feeding schedule if you leave that early for work and wanna do a morning feed. Myself, I don't like to turn on the lights before they come on themselves with the timer. I have some blue led lights I bought at Pep Boys and wired up to a 12v adapter for moonlights (you can find these cheaper at a computer parts store FYI). Early in the morning when I feed my fish with only the moonlights on, the fish can see the larger food I feed them (peas, algae tabs, crickets), just not the small pellets. Just shooting an idea at you if you wanna try it. It works for me, I drop my Chocolate cichlid food midnight snacks under the led moonlights all the time. Best of luck!
thank you. i sound stupid now, but thats again, what i was thinking!.. i figured my lights being a lower temp, would allow a little longer on time, but i didnt look at the picture of on at 6:15 am, off at 11:18pm 
ill definitely cut back and will probably be kicking myself for not doing so
and i do a 25% wc every sunday religiously, and at the moment am doing about 30%, and will shorten lights. reason being theyre on for so long is because i have to get ready and feed them and they are...lazy when the lights first turn on, and at evenings im busy, so it was convienent, but i guess adding a break in the timer would do it! 
