Plant size & non rooted cutting questions

nursie said:

And how do you arrange your plants in relation to the filter intake...I tried to keep tall stuff away from the intake thinking it would suck stuff to it, and my tank looks lopsided.

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IME, it takes a bit of trial and error to figure out which plants will do best in your tank and where you'll want to place them to make the tank aesthetically pleasing to you.
I use stems to hide my intake but try to leave a few inches on either side of the intake and don't plant the stems too thick, so the water can circulate. There are some general shapes that many people use when it comes to aquascaping, one is a triangle where plants are highest on one side and may taper down to just foreground plants on the other, like a little field. If it's done well, it can be absolutely breathtaking, but sometimes having less plants on one side can result in that 'lopsided' feel. I've seen quite a few tanks aquascaped this way where the filter intake is completely exposed, and I really dislike the look of beautiful plants on one side, with a piece of equipment constantly drawing my eye to the open area - I find it takes away from the natural feel. I'd be inclined to hide it on the 'high' side of the tank, but there may be a reason this isn't desirable that I'm unaware of.
I re-did my aquascape yesterday. I like rounded 'concave' and 'convex' designs, so I've planted fast growing stems on the sides at the back, with lower plants between them. The Bacopa in the centre will probably be replaced with something mid-height and slower growing. The only problem with this may be that the bogwood is in a convex shape - it may be better to make the entire tank this shape, I'll have to play around with it

Three stores, holy cow! Glad you found everything you needed
Check the nitrates in your tap water, it's not uncommon for water straight from the tap to have enough NO3 for plants. Yes, there are probably nitrifying bacteria on the plants, but I wouldn't count on them as a significant source. Once your plants settle in and start to grow they'll take up ammonia as well, acting as an additional biological filter - many heavily planted tanks go through a 'silent cycle' - there are no readable levels of ammonia or nitrite, the plants use it up so fish are safe even in a new tank. I'd still recommend constant testing for the first while, just to make sure levels aren't rising beyond what the plants can use up.
Thanks for the compliment The tank needs a while to settle in and I'm sure I'll be making some adjustments, but I'm pretty happy with it now that I've gotten rid of the unnatural piece of carved/cut driftwood and replaced it with bogwood.

And back to some of the original questions:
Yes, 8" is 'dwarf' for a val.

Anacharis will not root, or at least not to any appreciable extent. Anchor it in the substrate and it will grow just fine. It will put out one root at a time from certain nodes from which is will also branch. When it comes trimming time, the easiest way to know a good place to cut is just above an aerial root (then remove the root). Upon close inspection you'll also probably be able to see a tiny bud starting to grow out from the same juncture. The best way, IME, to encourage branching is to let the plant grow so that it flops over on the surface. Alternatively, I suppose you could just leave it floating, but I find that an unattractive alternative, JMO.

With alot of the stem plants like hygrophilia and anacharis, they will grow floating.
If I want a larger plant, I'll let a few pieces grow floating closer to my lights, for a month or so,after they attain the size I want (faster than just sticking them in the substrate) I'll find the spot thats throwing off roots and cut just below the root juncture and then stick it into the substrate. It has a better chance of lodging itself firmly into the substrate and then my fish have less chance of disturbing the plant and sending it back up to the top Just a lil tip.
Anacharis is nice at the sides of the tank, mine grow like lil arms, reaching to the light and then I nip them when they're surfacing. Anacharis has antibiotic properties (just aother lil note) I am also a Nursie

Some crowns with rhizomes, like anubias and java fern, are best just tied down to wood or a rock. You can even let them ride around the tank a bit until they latch on to something. I had a tiny piece lodge between 2 rocks and it just took off from there. Don't bury the 'crown' of plants with bulb or rhizome roots.

Blinky? Is that your myrophilium floating on top in the pic? I just got another bunch to try again, since my last one didn't do well under the freaking blue actinic bulb lol, live and learn. :idea2:

IME, the burried will turn translucent and there's really nothing to be done about it. It's really more of a floating plant than a stem plant. But it grows so fast that it doesn't matter. The plant will easily grow much faster than the inch or so that's burried will turn pale. It doesn't really 'rot' that I've noticed, it just fades. I imagine that given enough time it would decompose and float up, but by then you'd have a plant as long as your tank or longer. After christmas break I had let it grow in my fast growth tank for about 2 weeks, I had several stems that were about 3ft. long. On a weekly basis though, just pull it up, chop off the bottom part and replant the top. As far as anacharis goes, leave the leaves on when planting, they'll help anchor it.

Most stems get most of their nutrients from the water column, or have the ability to do so. Anacharis basically gets next to nothing from the substrate, if it did it would have a much better root system.