How to trim this plant?

[Chris45]

I want to trim this plant to keep it from getting too high and then overcrowding the top of the tank. However, all of it's new leaves shoot at the top which means I keep chopping off the new leaves instead of the old terrible looking ones further down. I don't want to keep choppingt the top half of the plant off and replanting it because it then has to grow new roots all over again etc. Is there some way of trimming this to keep it from growing too high without brutally ruining the thing every time?

[Mmiller2001]

Snip the healthy top portion and replant it. Discard to lower portion.

[JoeQ]

Try proactively trimming, it could either be, new growth is using nutrients in lower leaves to produce the new leaves, or its shading itself out and your lower leaves are dying/being culled from lack of light. Maybe a combination of both.

[nabokovfan87]

Purple squares: you've got a bit of an algae issue going on.  Given the appearance of that algae you've got some sort of nutrient issue.  Some of the leaves against the glass on the right look to be a bit pale and yellow as well.

The anubias wants lower light compared to other plants, and in the photo above it looks like it's dead center on the tank.  That alone could explain the BBA on the algae. 

The red line is where I would cut those stems.  You can leave any portions already planted in the substrate and just trim them as close to the substrate as you'd like.  Monitor those for growth.  The blue line is about where I would remove old leaves that look damages to allow for planting in the tank. 

I would start by adding in some root tabs or consider a planted tank substrate with nutrients.  Around the val, the stems, and the plants on the right you'd want to have some tabs focused there. 

If you want to work on the algae issues, please feel free to post further details on your setup, lighting, and fertilization setups.