Hey Matt, welcome to TR.
Xenia can sometimes be a pain but, the good side of this is that most
LFSs will buy it from you if it's mounted to small rocks.
Whether the dying tissue, from cutting, will add significantly to the bio load of your system depends on the size of your system and the method of filtering used. If you have a Nano, maybe. If it is truly getting to be a problem, you may not have a choice.
Dick
