I have done the same as sciencefiction with crypts, seems to work well with aquasoil, not sure about heavy rooting plants in sand though.
When removing sagittaria runners i trim around the runner plant roots and remove, this works because the rest of the plant mass is usually interconnected to other roots, i doubt it would work with swords as you are taking out the only plant attached to the root system and it would result in all the roots dieing off.
Might have to bite the bullet and rescape it.
You could always cut the plant down to the rosette but that wont solve the root problem.
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