# How many of you cover the sides of your tank...



## Guest (Jul 26, 2005)

with either cork bark, cocos panels, etc. It seems like a more natural setting than having glass on either side. My tank will really only be viewable from the front. I think the extra planting room might be nice too. Just curious if some of you have 3 sides of the tank planted/decorated, etc. If so...pics would be great!

Thanks-
Brooke


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2005)

Brooke,
I always plants the sides of my tank. I think it looks better.
Brooks


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## Guest (Jul 26, 2005)

In my case I take each tank on an individual basis and decide whether I will cover the sides based on several factors. Those may include size of tank, placement in room, and the type of frogs that are going into the tank. IMO a well designed tank is beautiful irrespective of the sides being covered or not. :wink: 

Have fun designing,


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## devin mac (Oct 4, 2004)

my newest tank doesn't have ANY sides covered


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## c'est ma (Sep 11, 2004)

I agree with Jan, it's such an individual decision. A lot depends on your tank location; if you're only going to have a front view for the most part you might be very happy with covered sides. 

I've tended to leave vivs with plain sides, for the most part, though now that I've gotten into PDFs I can see that they enjoy increased climbing surfaces. Even with plain sides, I've found that with some tanks I want to cover the outside back with black matte-surfaced paper sometimes for better picture taking. 

Devin, that's a beautiful tank and it looks as if you have a great location for it in terms of picture background.

--Diane


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## TonyT (Feb 16, 2004)

All of my 10 gallon tanks that are to be placed on my rack has the back and 1/2 way up the sides covered. My 58 only has cork bark on the back and all my hexagon tanks are covered on 3 sides. I agree that you want to be able to have a good viewing area but you also want to make them as natural looking as possible. I believe the sides being covered helps. Just depends on what you are trying to accomplish I guess.

TonyT


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## Guest (Jul 27, 2005)

I'm relatively new to frogs, and I've only built two vivs. Neither one has side panels, since I thought that was beyond my skill. I'm starting to think I was wrong. But Im still not sure.

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a273/ ... yviv-5.jpg

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a273/ ... yviv-4.jpg


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## Guest (Jul 27, 2005)

*Sides*

Nothing is beyond your skills.
sorry just felt a moment there.
cya


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## Guest (Jul 27, 2005)

Thanks for the feedback and pics everyone. I should get my cork bark pieces tomorrow and will see what looks the best. I'm definately leaning towards covering the back with the cork bark/great stuff and the sides with the cocos panels.


Thanks!
Brooke


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

You might want to think about going the other way with the cocos on the back, and cork on the sides...when plants start to grow in, you wont see much of the back, whereas on the sides, you dont have as much foliage, so you would see the cork texture better.

I have a 18-18-24" exo terra tank that I'm working on, that has the background and one side covered 50-50 with cork and tree fern, the cork is on the outer edges, with the treefern being in the corners...I havent started planting yet, but it looks pretty cool already. I plan on doing another of those, with the next one being a mirror image, and placing them side by side on a 36" stand.


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## Guest (Jul 27, 2005)

*Re: Sides*



wort said:


> Nothing is beyond your skills.
> sorry just felt a moment there.
> cya


Thanks, I'll try the background next time.


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## Guest (Jul 28, 2005)

Good point Brian. I'll have to see how big my cork bark pieces are. I was thinking the cocos panel sides could be grown in with either creeping fig or Peperomia perciliata. The bark would be more attractive even with just a few plants. Thanks for the suggestion!!

Brooke


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