[KendallTheGreat]

I have a 25 gallon terrarium with 3 happy fbts. I also have two goldfish, two mystery snails, and about 3 guppies at a time. My toads will eat the guppies occasionally. The water is about 4" high and about 1/4 of the tank has river rocks above water level for the toads. From there the rocks slope downward into the water, where I have a very thin (less than an inch) layer of rocks and shells on the bottom. I could easily add a bit more substrate for the plants. The water is kept at 78-79 degrees F.
I have never had live aquarium plants before. I don't really know what types of plants will like my setup, where there isn't very much water, and not many fish to produce ammonia. Any suggestions for which type of plants I could consider? I also have questions about cycling, and fertilizers. I don't want to kill anything in the process of adding plants to my little habitat. I have been reading about cycling and it seems complicated. Can anyone dumb it down for me? Is is really critical? Which fertilizers can I use that won't harm any of my pets? I'm also working with a VERY limited budget.
Any suggestions for a newbie to plants would be greatly appreciated by myself and my animals!!

 

[Atlas]

I had a paludarium, but with just fish. It didnt have much light getting through to the bottom. Plants that do well in that type of environment are cryptocoryne, anubias and java fern. Anubias and java fern dont need any substrate, and all three can also grow above the water.

There are lots of other (stem)plants that will grow out of the water such as the hygrophila and myriophyllium species. But they wil mostly shed their underwater leaves when reaching the surface, leaving you with bare stems under the waterline.

Aquatic plants are much cheaper when bought emersed at a gardening centre( in the Netherlands at least). They also have a wide variety of swamp/bog plants that might be better adapted to life in a terrarium/paludarium, these however usually need a substantial substrate.

From what I understand your tank is already inhabited, so cycling the water is not relevant anymore. You can add aquatic plants without any danger.
Ive added swamp plants to my aquariums without ill effects to fish by washing off all the soil and giving the plant a good rinsing. Im pretty sure however that toads are quite sensitive to chemicals etc. in the water, so maybe you need to be more careful. For that reason I would wait with fertilizers and see how your plants do without them.

 

[KendallTheGreat]

I read more about cycling and discovered that very thing! I had never even heard of it before, I'm fairly new at this! Thank you for the advise and the info!