Nate I am not trying to discourage you so go for it. The BAIRA project in Bangladesh is really interesting. I was only trying to point out that natural materials take up water over time and sink, but that is what makes the Baira project work, the natural renewal of nature. As I see it, a third world country like Bangladesh is the cutting edge of the future (who would have guessed) as the world runs pell mell into global heating and over population.
Now, looking at my one acre pond as a possible way of feeding ones family. It is over vegetated and has many bullfrogs, minnows and bluegill, no other predators. For protein the bullfrogs right now could fell my freezer. The bluegills I see are fat from eating the minnow and tadpoles I think and could be part of the continual protein harvesting.
Now for growing the vegetables. Somewhat copying the Baira project, I would cut my ponds vegetation, pile it onto the floating frame work, (in Bangladesh they used bamboo) then use pond bottom muck as the nutrient growing medium which is decomposed plants. In the Baira project they used the rotted vegetation compost from their last years floating island. It would seem this would be a complete recycling system.
