thye will not stay short really.
Hair grass or U. gramifolia are nicer lower mainteance weeds that get a defined height.

Not that fast growing at first, few foreground weeds are, but then it'll take over well from there and not pile up too much.

2sq ft is a lot of space. Gloss will fill in fastest I'd say.
It's fine in all water parameters.

Moss, rocks, wood etc also should be considered.
Caves and mossing/java fern, Anubias etc on the top of the caves makes a ncie look and nice for the fish also, wood or rocks may be used for this.

One of the large tanks I plan on doing will have these.
Pairie dog holes poking out of a lawn basically. Good for nocturnal catfish etc.

Regards,
Tom Barr

Regards,
Tom Barr