Well, the lawn is going far easier than I expected, have to trim it at least twice a week or it becomes too buoyant. As I was away from the studio for two weeks over christmas I wasn't sure what to expect. This whole tank came about because of a powercut to the old apisto tank last christmas, so didn't know if the same would happen, or because of no ferts it would all melt, turn into a green sludge pond, be covered in BBA, etc etc.
In actual fact I came in to a crystal clear tank with (fairly) healthy looking fish and plants. The lawn was the only problem, it had grown so much that it was either floating, lifting, or the nearest to the mesh was light starved and going brown. Half hour trimming and re-tying a few squares put it right.
I have tons of riccia now so will put some in the for sale section along with the pelia if anyone is interested.
Also decided to buy myself a EI starter kit over christmas which arrived yesterday. I'm sure the reason my stems never look so lush is a lack of ferts so hopefully this will do the trick. If I can get my supposedly fairly easy to grow stems looking good, I will try ones I prefer the look of.