Yassmeenam, that's an old shot, the current scape is in post one. The java rock was kept on the right until the other plants settled in. I might have to remove that image to avoid confusion. Thanks for the compliment.
Organic sideburns, the sub is about 4" deep in the middle so the sticks just held on their own after shoving them in, they did eventually sag a bit, though. I stuck them like that to keep them off the plants till they were settled. Was experimenting a bit too, I guess, not natural enough for what I wanted to create here.
Yes, that's V. nana. As far as I know, any Val will grow in low tech. The above specs have been in place for over two months now and it's still spreading runners, but not nearly as fast as with CO2/ high light. It does tend to propagate more BBA on the upper blade now (famous Val problem), but my SAE takes care of that.