Well firstly, since a picture is worth a thousand words, well, I figured a video must be worth more. Especially since my tetras are incapturable lol

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDB0zsWlErI

Comments are not only welcome and desired, but required, please. =D

At the foreground is micro sword and corkscrew val, both are established in the substrate (regrettably) and growing in spurts at >1 wpg. Can I trim the msword on a regular basis...like a lawn? I like the look of it but it gets much higher than I was wishing for. I wanted between 1.5-2" high. Would this kill it?
Secondly the corkscrew...I'm sure the two bunches would look better bunched on one side, probably the side opposite the Amazon sword (which has babies! yay!) But I'm scared I'll annihilate it trying to move it again. Of all the plants in my tank the Val is the slowest growing and looked the worst before it became established.
Lastly how sensitive are Amazon Swords to trimming? Can I remove some very old growth which has been dormant for some time, but is still green and lively?

Thanks in advance. =D

amazons can be trimmed back, but not too much, if you have old growth that is green and lively then i would leave it, the corkscrew can be moved, what i would do and what i do when i move plants around in my tank is to use a cereal bowl and scoop the entire root ball up with the plant and substrate and transplant it into a newly dug hole where i want it to be, this causes less disturbance with the root systems, and tends not to shock the plants, it's a tedious process but well worth it when moving plants, as far as the micro sword i am not sure cutting it like a lawn is a good thing, if you had higher powered light it would stay shorter, but other than that i am not sure, i am don't proclaim to be an expert when it comes to micros or other plants but it just seems that this would harm the plant more than it would do any good.
hope this helps,
Brandon

That's a great tip Pi, hadn't thought of just preserving the integrity of the roots by moving it all at the same time. Hopefully it'll work without all falling apart, this'll be difficult and tedious with flourite. lol I guess I'm really in need of some higher wpg to get the msword to do what I want it to. Although my biggest problem is finding something over 15 watts to fit in a 19" wide space. -.-
Thanks a lot boss. :) That ball is called a moss or "marimo" ball, which is actually non-invasive algae that's supposed to outcompete algae in the tank. One of the coolest $6 investments I've made in this hobby, even if other kinds of algae still run rampant..lol :) And yeah, sorry for the quality of video there's actually about 6 shrimp in there. My tank looks so bare. lol so many places for fish and stuff to hide.
Anyone have experience establishing ''baby'' amazon swords? They're visible at the very top of my tank in the vid, sending out roots now. I just wanna know when I can detatch them and where I should be detatching them from. Thanks again.

oh i almost forgot, one more thing i have done in the past, take the shoot once it has several good babies on it and bend it down and cover it with substrate then make sure the roots of the babies are entirely covered, this makes a neat trailing effect on the bottom of the tank.
Brandon