First off, thank you Catman for the vote of confidence and everyone for your words of wisdom. The Bettas are now each in gallon bowls. (Don't stab me in the neck just yet. In nature they oft dwell in tiny puddles. That's not to say I wouldn't rather them in a bigger set up, I just don't have any for them atm, hence the inquiry. The older one, Henry, came from a cup, went into a 2.5g planted aquarium, went to a twenty extra tall, then to a 75g planted. And yeah, betta are very docile in regards to anything that doesn't look like another male betta. Hey actually only got moved to a bowl because I had a couple of fish that tore up his fins. (You'd never be able t tell now.) But bettas do much better in warmer water and just because they naturally live in stagnant water sometimes, doesn't mean they wont do better in cleaner water. Plus, he'd get more attention and better quality food in the tank.
As for a 45 or 55... I can't go with something that big for the tank. I'm looking at a 29 or 37. Something 30in long as I have a stand and dual t5ho already for it. Even if its only a gallon in his swimming area, itll be two to three times that in total water volume in the false bottom as I plan for it to be inaccessible to fish and frog, it will be water permeable so as to not always need much external filtration. I like the idea of the little box being as self sustaining as possible.
As for it being a lot more work, I don't see how it's all that much if done right. Some passive carbon off the bat to assist the newly establishing bacterial bed, unclogging pump from time to time, flipping a valve to drain off some water if I over mist or to drain and replace half the water. I'm sure I'll probably run into some pitfalls along the way, but I think the benefits outweigh the additional effort. It gives me an addition piece of the chain of life, additional beauty in the tank, consistent added humidity from the moving water, if I were to end up in some sort of emergency situation and couldn't get home to mist the frog have a place to soak, and if I were to be so lucky, I might just be able to get away with raising tads in tank instead of having to screw around with incubators and petri dishes.
But who knows, maybe I'm just a pie eyed newb about to get a crash coarse in Murphy's Law. Either way, it'll be a lot of fun.