Middle of March in North Georgia (and I’m still getting over whatever the government put in the flu this year), I walk out to my Japanese biotope fully intending to tear it down. Over the winter it’s been getting hammered with sun, and the whole underwater section is absolutely infested with green hair algae. It’s the kind of algae takeover that makes you question every decision you made when you set the thing up. But then I notice something important: a lot of my out-of-water plants are waking back up. Creeping jenny is popping everywhere, the wire brush plant is coming in, and I’ve got Ludwigia and Rotala showing signs of life again. The Japanese maples are leafing out, the privet’s growing, and I also pulled a big shrub from nearby to turn into a bonsai—meaning the shade situation around this area is changing fast. So instead of ripping everything apart, I’m considering draining the water down almost all the way and letting things dry back a bit to see if the algae dies off, then letting the new leaf canopy shade the biotope through summer. The catch is this setup is too big (and too rock-heavy) to move without scratching my porch tile, and those stones aren’t cheap or easy to replace. So I’m putting it to you: do I tear it down now while the plants can transition cleanly, or do I stick it out and try to beat the algae with a reset and better shade?