Reconditioning E Tenellus Lawn

[karlp]

Hi Guys

I did touch on this a little while back, but I'm beginning to think this could be imminent...

The thick E Tenellus carpet is getting a bit shabby as time goes on and is attracting algae. I get some green beard algae that gets caught in it below the surface and there's some black bear algae growing on some of the blades of 'grass'.

I cut it and thin it occasionally, but it's getting to the stage where i'm tempted to pull it all out and replant it to get it to grow nicely again or replace it with something else.

If I were to replant it, how do I do this without introducing algae back into the tank ? Do I just try to pick any 'algaefied' bits off the plants and replant (very difficult to do), bleach the plants before putting them in to try to kill the algae or just throw the lot away and start again ?

Thanks

Karl.

 

[George Farmer]

Hi Karl

Personally I would take the whole lot out, remove the worse affected leaves by pulling them from the rhizome and re-plant the healthiest plants, discarding any real unhealthy ones. If there's loads of algae i.e. more algae cover than not then a bleach dip may be the way forward.

If you trim the roots to around an inch then this will make for easier planting and stimulate new growth.

Most carpeting plants are a PITA for this high-maint reason, the constant pulling up and re-planting. However, I actually found this process quite therapeutic, but then I am weird that way!!

IME if you do a 100% re-plant every few months or so (depending on growth rates) then this should prevent a re-occurance of the algae build-up. It also gives you the opportunity to do a bit of gravel vacuuming which is helpful if you have a "healthy" fish load.

 

[karlp]

Thanks for that George.

I think I'll give it a go and maybe do a mild bleach dip as well.

What bleach do you recomend and at what dilution ?

Cheers

Karl.

 

[George Farmer]

What bleach do you recomend and at what dilution ?

No idea mate. Never tried it myself. Might be worth a "Google".