Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

My fish tank is being covered up with tarp at the moment to stop algae growth. Obviously tarp is unsightly and the tarp hinders proper access to the fish tank.

I am looking for a longer term solution that will allow me to get rid of the tarp. I have observed that the sun comes from a few directions and if I grow some vine type/like plants or veges vertically on one of the growbeds, I believe I will eliminate a major source of sunlight over the fish tank.

As I do not grow much plants/veges (but learning), what type of plants/veges can be trained to climb possibly some vertical lattice type of setup?? It would be best if the plant does not die or wither back during the seasons, so I do not need to keep training the plant every new season.

Problem is most evergreen vines I know of tend to be pretty aggressive invasive type pests if not kept in check.

Even if you do manage to grow a vine up a lattice at one side of the tank, you will probably still want some sort of cover over the fish tanks for several reasons.
1-shade from sun as the vine will only help a little.
2-keep leaves, debris, and critters/stray children out of the fish tank
3-keep fish in the fish tank (some are amazing jumpers and a cover that will bounce them back down into the tank is good)

Now I understand the tarp is ugly and you don't really like it. A plastic tarp also doesn't let air exchange as well so it would be advisable to replace with something that will breath better. Other options are out there for setting up a cover though.
I use fencing as the support to keep the shade cloth or netting from sagging down into the tank. Then I secure it so it is sort of hinged to the tank and I can easily secure it down or lift it up from one edge to make access to the fish easier.
I've also found that throwing a black fabric cover over the netting or shade cloth can make seeing the fish easier as it reduces the reflections that make seeing into the water difficult. I've also found I can set up some way to secure the cover open to make harvesting and other things easier.

Bamboo perhaps??

Bamboo could make a nice shade/screen but I would still want a shade cloth cover over the fish tank to keep the leaves from the bamboo or whatever other vine from falling into the fish tank.

What about passionfruit?

Passion fruit works a treat! I had it growing over my system and over the top of a shed (all the same plant)... It loved the AP setup... BBUUUTTTTT... the leaves and twigs etc which would fall was a pain in the butt... Would definately make sure that there is some sort of cover over the tank to keep the plant litter out... pluss it would be a good idea to give the vine its own GB as the one passionfruit I grew took over an entire bath tub growbed! The fruit was a great bonus, something my students could barely wait to ripen! Oh yes, there are times when the shade provided would lessen as the plant lost leaves, or sections died off, so dont count on it for constamnt shade

Well at present I do have a galvanised mesh that I put over the tank to stop people falling into the tank as one of the growbeds is at a bit of an awkward corner, hence getting out of the corner in a hurry may find someone in the fish tank if the mesh is not there.

I also do have bird net attached to the mesh, hence the fish cannot jump out easily unless they are smaller than the bird net holes. Unlikely.

I was under the impression that bamboo takes a while to grow.

From the potential issues that a vine type plant may add, it seems like I am possibly better off changing the bird net to a shadecloth.

Tomatoes
G'day iv

For constant, reliable shade, yes... plants look better and all that, but shade cloth is more dependable and even in its supply of shade

And shade cloth or any other type of cloth you don't mind leaving outside, will keep lots more small debris out of the fish tank.

You can still leave a small section with just the bird netting if you like to be able to feed the fish without lifting the cover.