landscape question Set up quest

[factoryphoto]

Hello everyone,
Well ive been shooting sports photography for a living for about 4 years now and it's been a great time. Ive been wanting to learn some landscaping stuff, I purchased a cokin filter holder pluse 3 or filters along with it.. My question is when you say a 20 second picture what exactly are you setting your camera too? Yesterday I put the filter on and shot the sunset then some running stream water.. Im looking for the real smooth water look I see in some of these pictures.. What are you setting your cameras up at? I use a 20D .. Any set up tips would be greatly appreciated.. Ive been trying to shoot on manual and setting the apt between 8-11 and the shutter speed is where I am confused with this "delay" I keep reading on this forumn about.

[lomond]

OK what I do for ND filters is set up the camera and tripod for the shoot.
Add the Cokin filters to the camera.
Adjust the filters up or down to suit .
Let the camera decide on the exposure.
I normally set it to AV and shoot.

[sparker1]

I find that 1/8 sec or longer will give the silky look to water, depending on the look I want.

[factoryphoto]

for 1/8 what does it look like on the dial?