I have it in the open it gets a lot of lightCrypts and lilies rely a lot on their roots. However, crypts are notorious for almost completely melting down before proper establishment.
How much light is the sword getting? I've noticed mine tends to have leaf die-off if it's not getting enough light.
Sounds cool, I like my anubias and Java fern they are doing very well.I've had success with dwarf sag in a low tech, sand substrate tank with just root tabs if you want something smaller and sort of grass-like. I just switched to a bigger tank with a different substrate, but I had ludwigia super red mini in my sand tank for a little bit and it grew surprisingly well with just root tabs and a bit of ThriveC liquid fertilizer. It likes light though and grew right up to it (getting more red the closer it got to the light). You can also try java ferns, anubis, and java windelov ferns, but they need to have their rhizomes above the sand, do they require liquid fert and are better off being tied to a rock/wood out of the substrate.
Yeah I plan on getting aquarium co op fertilizer and root tabs soonVallisneria, Amazon Swords, and Crypt wendtii are all excellent choices. If your vals are only getting 6 inches tall, they are either not vals or something isn't quite right.
I see you use Seachem Flourish products. Seachem sells each of its fertilizers individually. This provided greater control, but if you're only using one product, you may be missing a piece of the puzzle as it were. In this case, Flourish provides trace nutrients but not macro nutrients. It may be that your plants are still lacking something. If you're not too sure what that might be, I suggest swapping the Flourish for an all-in-one type fertilizer like Thrive, Easy Green, or APT. At least that way, you'll know you have all your bases covered, nutrition wise.
Once you rule out nutrition, if your plants are still struggling, you can look to other things like lighting or something in the water the plants don't like, etc.
