Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Water hyacynth clears water. I had a severe algae problem in my 20' pond. Put some water hyacnth and all hell broke lose. From 9 square feet to completely covered in one month. I've never seen anything grow so fast. Water is almost clear now. Tilapia seem to like it so far. To bad there's no use for hyacynth.

I've read that they use it to pre-filter sewage. Also, my turtle chops on it like apples. But, I think it's mostly considered invasive in a lot of places.

How did you have tilapia and and an algae problem? Tilapia are usually the FIX for an algae problem!

If this is just a pond and not an AP system, then good solution! If it's an AP system, you might want to add another grow bed. The hyacinth take up a lot of nutrients and them flourishing might indicate that you could grow more food.

Because they take up nutrients so readily, you can harvest them and use them in compost to fertilize land crops. The stems can be dried and used as a weaving material (for like baskets) if you're so inclined. I'd imagine you'd beat them flat with a wooden mallet and lay them out to dry.

They can also be used for livestock feed, but they tend to accumulate heavy metals, so it's not something you want to do if your water has high-ish amounts of lead, mercury, arsenic and the like.

Edit: Sorry, didn't notice the rafts in the system. Add more rafts!

Back in the 90s, we had a huge water hyacinth problem in florida. The state spent several years spraying all of the lakes to finally get rid of them. I honestly can't remember the last time I saw one around here.

Woah I think I saw a documentary on that. Not sure if it was on Florida though.

It is a declared noxious weed here in Perth and you are not allowed to have it.

i clean the suspended algae with tilapia and a large pleco touches up the sides.

This probably worked for you because hyacinth was taking all of the extra nitrates out of the water and starving the algae. You could do the same with more rafts.


all species of water hyacinth is exotic and prohibited in texas.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/wi ... atic.phtml


brian

So, too, are they on the prohibited list in Florida. Not surprising after the problems they had from the previous posts in this thread

swflcpl

http://hotrockacreshomestead.wordpress.com

This is an interesting video on the water hyacinth. I might try eating the ones I have.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=V1kkn5Sz4MI

I think it is a declared pest in all Australian states

Yeah, why cant livestock eat it, assuming its not from polluted water?

Because it is too good at growing, it blocks the rivers, creeks and lakes and destroys the natural environment for native fish

But like he said in the video, if they are gonna throw it away anyways might as well use it for something.

That would require the gov't that is removing this plant to transport a weed to locations were cattle are being raised. Besides you're talking about the gov't. You think they are going to try to recoup some of the costs of the operation?

Lol...I can understand that about the government.