Greetings, all. I've been reading through lots of posts as I remodeled my 40 gal. long tank into a vivarium for my fire belly toads, and have gotten lots of information from various posts - thank you. :-) I decided to try something new with mine, creating removable islands (for easier maintenance) in a river-like environment for land areas for my toads, and now I'm trying to choose the plants I want for my islands.

Here's a picture of the viv as of this morning:

And a closer pic of the center island, where my Nep is currently residing (and will stay):

Obviously, I need plants that like constant moisture and humidity for the islands (I'm planning to mount tillandsias on the back wall). I like the varigated shefflera in the island on the right (closest to the waterfall), and I'd like to put a maidenhair fern in the far left island. I need a pink cryptanthus or two as well...I've grown them before, and adore them. I think I may use hypoestes (sp?) beside the sheff (maybe), and that will probably fill in that island.

But I'm stuck on a suitable "ground cover" for the bare space in the islands (to cover the coir). I was thinking Baby's Tears (Helxine), but wasn't sure if it would choke out the other plants. I'm wondering if a moss might be better? But which one...you see my dilemma.

The viv isn't heated - our ambient temps stay around 73 in summer, no lower than 70 in winter, so the temps in the viv are maybe a couple degrees above that during the day (from the light fixture). I have a 4ft. plant light in there now - it's a bit dimmer than a daylight bulb, but easier on the toads as far as brightness goes, and will be better for the fern I think than a daylight bulb. The top of the islands are about 14 inches from the top of the tank.

So, if these were your "islands" to plant, what would you plant in them? The nep stays, because I've had it forever and I think it will look wonderful with vines suspended from the mesh top eventually. Other than that, I'm open to suggestions...anyone want to chime in? :-)