Recently, lake eutrophication has become a serious concern and its causes and controls have attracted growing attention worldwide. In the experiments described here, we have used Ipomoea aquatica as an experimental plant for use with ecological floating beds. Three kinds of combined ecological floating bed systems were constructed by hanging two kinds of rope (hemp and PST) below the beds, and their effectiveness for improving water quality was investigated. The results showed that the plant ecological floating bed, plant-PST- rope combined bed, and plant-hemp-rope combined bed provided significant removal effects on TN, NH4+-N, TP and DIP. Removal efficiencies were 39. 09%, 49. 46% and 60. 43%, 44% 55%, 67. 79%and 70. 05%, 63. 68%, 54. 72% and 71. 70%, and 53. 70%, 50. 62% and 64. 20%, respectively. The plant-hemp-rope combined floating bed had especially high N and P removal rates. In the three kinds of ecological floating beds, the contributions of plant absorption to N and P removal were 36. 13% and 71. 85%, 32. 15% and 87. 07%, 27. 11% and 74. 34%, respectively. This suggested that for N removal in the system, plant uptake accounted for a relatively small portion of total absorption, and that denitrification by microorganisms might play a more important role. However, plant uptake took the leading role in P removal in all three kinds of floating beds. Therefore, the combined ecological floating bed having both ropes and plants was an effective way for improving the quality of eutrophic water.