Pond cleaning

[TimberPond]

Hi, new to the forum here. I am pretty experienced in saltwater aquariums but recently built a garden pond with gold fish and some wild mollies and a couple little tilapia Just to start cycling it and learning before I got too invested.
I also added a couple lotus, some hiacen, a couple duck potato plants and a papyrus. I potted them in planting baskets with small river rock from Home Depot. Everything was doing really well after the pond cycled. The plants flowered and looked healthy. Over time the pond became filthy with detritus and decaying plant matter. so I vacuumed it out recently and now the plants are struggling. They needed the organic compounds from the detritus and decaying plant matter for nutrients I’m assuming. But I’ve seen plenty Of clean ponds with healthy plants.
How do I keep it clean and the plants well fed?
or do I have a different problem you think?
the lotus are mainly what’s struggling. Their leaves a very small now and die off quickly.
should I change the planting media and use fertilizers? Im afraid to use fertilizers with fish present and think it should be unnecessary. The fish should produce enough waste for the plants to live on.

 

[j.w]

@TimberPond
Some plants need fertilize added, others just use the fish poo. Water lilies need added food to their roots. So others who use fert will chime in soon on what plants to fert or not. The only ones I need to fert are my water lilies.

 

[GBBUDD]

lotus are mainly what’s struggling. Their

Lotus must be fertilized they are even bigger demands on fertz than are lilies