20 Gallon Tank -View from one End

[Kisa]

The pets store down by my place sets their tanks up this way. Though, they're tanks aren't nearly as long as a 20 gallon (they keep most of their animals in tiny tight fitting 5.5s or 10s), it's still pretty hard to see into them...but your frogs definitely would appreciate the extra space.

You can always keep the feeding area localized in the front (which would technically be the side) of the tank so they come to you when they're hungry at least?

I'm sure you'll figure it out! You're smart, and great at designing tanks.

[MikeM670]

You could do a slope from the back to the front as one way to have more visible space. Keep the taller plants in the back and maybe open space with moss near the front. Always feed from the very front would force them to come forward and eventually they would be used to the open space.

[DonLisk]

I'm guessing you could get away with doing this with just substrate (a slope rising to the back as Mike suggested) and try to do something like this to view through :-)

[Voltage]

I've seen a few 10 gallons on racks done this way. I've always thought of doing it if I ever had a rack, so here's my idea. You can use gs in the very back or you can do gs in the back with clay on the sides (looks better) or just all clay.

[bshmerlie]

I really don't want to do anything on the sides because the tank is already going to be narrow at 12.5 inches. Hmm.. I wonder just how thin I could go with the clay before it would crack and be a problem? Right now I actually have clay on three side of the tank that I will be using and it is extremely heavy. Maybe I could do just a swipe of silicone and mash in coco fiber. That way the tank wouldn't weigh so much. But would it look like it was down in a tunnel?

[Voltage]

I did many experiments before trying a background. Clay can go as thin as about 1/2, but that thin it would need to be very humid in the tank. I also tried just silicone and peat moss on the glass, and in my honest opinion, is unsightly and like you said would look like a tunnel. Maybe if you did expanding foam lines along the sides to kind of have a root effect, that would makle it look a million times better.

[DonLisk]

You could just use some Malaysian Driftwood to run the length and that may look cool.

Once grown over it could look like below but with cleaner glass

[Lacibeth]

I really don't want to do anything on the sides because the tank is already going to be narrow at 12.5 inches. Hmm.. I wonder just how thin I could go with the clay before it would crack and be a problem? Right now I actually have clay on three side of the tank that I will be using and it is extremely heavy. Maybe I could do just a swipe of silicone and mash in coco fiber. That way the tank wouldn't weigh so much. But would it look like it was down in a tunnel?

I think if you do any solid background down the sides, it's going to give you a tunnel effect aka hollow log. I like voltage's suggestion of roots or vines of GS/silicone down the sides. If you're looking for thin what about the epiweb that Jason just used?