Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

G'Day,
Is anyone using water lilies in their fish tanks to give the fish some protection?
I have taken out the mint and looking for something to replace it. The mint grew well but I'm unable to keep the water clear.

Cheers
Dennis

We had water lillies here in a system for a while, I had them at home in my system too. At home they were stripped by the fish and marron so I gave up on them.. Have you thought about normal plants planted in a foam raft? What about Lebanese water cress?

Yep i tried them fish loved them

If you are talking about an ornamental pond type situation with low stocking and out in the open where putting a cover over the pond just isn't an option, then yes, pond plants and water lilies are a must.

However, if you are talking about a heavily stocked tank of fish you are growing out to eat, well the water plants and anything else in the tank is probably going to be more trouble than it's worth long term. Any gravel in a fish tank that is heavily stocked and fed is going to cause problems with fish poo build up and like noted above, many fish with gobble up the plants without realizing you were providing them as cover not food.

A heavily stocked food fish tank should have a cover to keep the sun off most of the water as well as keeping the fish in and other things (leaves, pets, children, predators) out.

Now I've been experimenting with adding separate containers and tubs for growing water plants. So far I'm having issues with brown string algae building up in my water chestnut bins. I kinda fear that this might be a problem with most pond plant add on containers but I'm gonna keep searching for a solution for the time being.

for water lilies you really need to use fertiliser tablets that slow release trace nurients into the water.
lilies don't need more N it's all the other stuff they need that'll make them grow. i've got a medium stocked pond and i have to have my plants planted into gravel at the bottom of the pond, otherwise the koi eat the roots.

my koi are also pretty fat and well fed, i went on holidays for 2 weeks and when i came back they had chewed one of my plants down to the gravel, so you can't let them starve.

I am having good results in a still pond with water lillies. They filter the water keeping it clear and flower during summer. That pond is home to frogs, tadpoles, dragonflies and damselfly larvae, also has duckweed. No moving water or aeration, my favourite place to sit and watch the damselflies mating. Great for practising photography if there is spare time. The lillies get split when required, due very soon and they never get fertilised. I love that pond

I spent about five of my favorite minutes sitting in full sun, watching dragonflies cruising lilies on our dam, as it lightly rained on the water on the far side, but not on my side.

The far side is only 50 metres away or so.

It was beautiful.