Yeah... if you want to preserve the sense of scale in a mountain scape, its best to just stick to low lying small leaved plants. Once you add in any taller or larger leaved plant into the tank, it will tend to break the perception/illusion of scale and make the scape look smaller.
Check the similar scape layouts online and you'll notice they only use at most 2-3 types of the smallest leaved plants and mosses... many of them even just use only 1 type of plant.
Anubias mini or petite still have much larger leaves than MC, so it would be better to just stick with MC on its own. If you want some variety, you could also add small bunches of Eleocharis sp. mini (from Tropica, this hairgrass variety naturally stays short at approx. 3-5cm height) around the rocks to create a natural mix of vegetation.
Here are links to the 2 plants:
http://tropica.com/en/plants/plantdetails/Micranthemum'MonteCarlo'%28025TC%29/4442
http://tropica.com/en/plants/plantdetails/Eleocharisacicularis'Mini'%28132BTC%29/4571
To add more subtle accents in the scape, you can also tie small mosses like riccia fluitans or mini fissidens onto pebbles/rocks and lay them in the scape too.
As for not having enough plant density to combat algae during the initial cycling periods, its best to try and fill as much of the tank as possible with plants (to the limits of your budget). Bump up your Co2 injection higher so that it is non-limiting and helps to boost plant growth (since there are no livestock in the tank during cycling period anyways), dose additional potassium and trace/micro nutrients to support initial plant growth (helps prevent early grow-out stage nutrient deficiencies), control lighting (start with 6 hours photo-period, then gradually increase in stages) and if necessary do additional water changes to remove any excess ammonia that the initial density of plants can't use up yet.
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