It won't be hard to notice... it'll start elongating stems and adding leaves that will look funky at first... then inordinate amount of branching will occur, any existing buds will stretch out along elongated stems etc etc... it's be a fucking mess, lol. if you caused it, reverting back won't even fix it.. it'll have to go through it .
If they are autoflowers, this will not happen.
they general like consistency. I'm not saying it can't cause 'some' stress changing it's daily routine, but should be fine. ~7-10 days after the change to routine start searching for nanners and pollen sacs, i guess.
18h of light.. did you also decrease intensity? If you were giving 'max' DLI relative to local variables, then bumping up to 18hours and retaining existing intensity of light will eventualyl cause light damage. So, you likely need about 67% of what you were giving over 12 hours while operating 18h a day. Again, this assumes you had your light well-adjusted relative to your temps, rh and atmospheric CO2 conditions. "Max" DLI varies due to these factors. if they remained the same and all other relveant things ar the same - power and sdistance - then you need 67% of whatever you gave before... if 80%, then .67 * .80 .. simple as that. if it was at 100%, then it is obviously needs to be 67%.
If you are experiencing a nitrogen deficiency, yes you should increase how much you provide. Otherwise don't overthink it. Your leaves look slightly lush already, i doubt you need or want to give more N. Good to remember that grow lights make things look paler than they actually are.