I'm far from well versed on plants but I think you have a yard plant...the purple one.
Petco especially but also Petsmart is doing some lawn plants mixed in/w aquarium
plants so you might want to look a plant from one of them, up on a data base before
you get it. "Mondo Grass" is one of the ones they do this/w. It is used for garden
trimming.
You (most likely) have light in the high end of the med range or low end of the high range. Start/w 6 hrs per day. Lots more plants AND CO2 can use that much light at
more hrs but once you place ferts in there, without the Frog Bit, you likely will have
an algae outbreak without real CO2 and may need injected over the DIY kind.
http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=107303
The algae comment is if you are using the light for 8-10 hrs a day without CO2.
E-bay has some suction cups with a piece sticking up out theback of it that is used
for routing air line in tanks. You could use two of them to place a string across the
tank about 1/2" under the top of the water. If you use them from the back glass to
an end glass, it won't be as noticible. Then you can have as much shade as you want
to in there.
E-bay adds are not allowed but you already know how to get there and this is the item number like I was talking about. 160957720341