I have a rubber stock tank that I tried to use as an indoor pond. It didn't look as cool as I thought it would, fish kept jumping out, and the water evaporated far too fast. I've re-homed all the fish, and now I'm trying to figure out what to do with the container. It's about four feet long, three feet wide, and a bit under two feet deep, so there's enough space for something pretty cool.
It's next to a west-facing second-story window, and I have a light that holds two F24T5/HO Bloom Spectrum bulbs, though I'm not certain what that means in terms of what the plants will think of it. It was sold to me for a dart frog vivarium that I no longer have, and those plants seemed to like it.
Now, I am not great with plants. I prefer plants where I can just set up a good habitat, get them established, and then let them do their thing. So my first thought was a desert garden. Big thick layer of pebbles on the bottom for drainage, some nice rich sandy soil on top, and a bunch of nice little desert plants.
My next thought was a bog garden. I could set it up with about ten inches of the tub sides above the soil to help hold in the humidity, and then I'd have a nice wet place for all sorts of cool plants and ferns. I'd rather not try to feed them any live foods, but I can give frozen (then thawed) mysis shrimp or similar to something like a pitcher plant that's simple to feed.
Or would some sort of rainforest garden be possible? No trees, of course, but what about the underbelly plants that like damp places and not much sunshine?
Does anyone have any suggestions? I like small plants that stay small without much pruning, and I'd rather have flowers with neat shapes than flowers with bright colors. I also like foliage and cool-looking plants. I can't have anything toxic, we have cats. I won't let the cats mess around in the garden and eat stuff, I usually keep them out of my room, but I don't want to risk them getting in and nibbling something.
The tub is right next to a 65g tank with a bunch of messy fish, so I can use what's essentially a mild manure tea on the garden. Thing is, we have a water softener, and all the faucets in the house are hooked up to it. Will that upset the plants? The fish are fine with it, and so are a number of aquatic plants, but I'm not sure about terrestrial plants.
So basically I'm looking for ideas for a small indoor garden of easy-to-keep plants. Does anyone have any general advice or suggestions for a habitat I could try?
