The whitish film on the wood is just common mold/fungus feeding off the organic surface of the wood... its a normal effect that appears on most new wood pieces when introduced into a tank. You can manually clean it off if you find it unsightly, though it will usually also eventually clear up on its own. When you introduce shrimps into the tank later, they will also help eat it too.
Although you don't have algae growing on the wood yet, just note that based on your scape layout with the main bare wood price being closest to the lights, algae will naturally grow on it eventually, so do expect to be regularly cleaning algae from that area. The other option is to just let algae coat the wood and embrace it as part of the natural aquascape.
If you find that the plants are growing well with minimal algae issues, then by all means gradually increase the lights, Co2 and nutrient supply, then observe the effects. Its all a matter of trial and error... if too much light and you see algae growing quickly, then either reduce it, or inject more Co2 and add more nutrients. You can manage it either way.
The startup period is the best time to adjust and experiment with the parameters, can make mistakes and still recover from it easily. Once livestock are added, then it become trickier as they introduce extra variables to contend with.
If you find that nitrates are getting low, its okay to dose more of it... but do note that your tank is currently still cycling, so parameters are still unstable. Ammonia, nitrite and nitrates will spike up and down over the next few days and weeks as the various different bacteria colonies grow and develop, so what may seem low now might jump up higher the next day. So do track its progress further to determine if more of certain ferts really do need to be added at this stage.
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