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I just bought a brand new 125 gal tank (Fx5, 2xKoralia Eco 1050, 3xmaxijet 1200)

I would like to have a semi-natural setup for a variety of larger plecos.

What substrate should I use for a biotope ?
I would think sand and some pebbles would be suitable; but the combination of large plecos and high flow makes me worried about sand going into the intake.

I think I might just try a barebottom for now,with lots of wood.

Right now doing a biotope seems rather difficult though because I can't seem to find the right wood.

My plan is to make the tank mostly wood.

I have a variety of Pleco species; so I am interested in making a generic Brazilian river biotope.

What types of woods should be used ?

What woods do royals L190 eat mostly in their natural habitat ?

I have done hours of research and searching through this forum ...

it seems that all wood that is used is what is available to us from our backyard or from LFS

and there are only two woods that are found generally in a LFS, Malaysian Driftwood and Mopani Wood, both of which are not found in brazil.

Right now I am learning towards just getting all mopani or getting a mixture of mopani, driftwood, and root wood.

I am looking for any suggestions and any pics that you guys might have of a wood focused/biotope pleco tank.

btw: I am aware that mopani is harder, and wood eating plecs perfer softer woods.

There are plenty of wood that would work. I have set up a few tanks using apple-tree cuttings (that were done to "trim" the tree to not grow too wildly). A mix of some thinner and not so thin trees makes it look quite natural.

I've also picked up various bits of cut down deciduous tree bits - willow, alder, cherry. All of these work just fine too.

I also have several pieces of Mopani in my tank with the "Wood eaters", and they clearly keep it clean and it isn't incredibly hard when it's been in water for a long time - the surface at least gets quite soft.

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Mats

What should I use from the willow tree?

There are some across the street from me.
Can I take some of the long whip branches and put them in the tank?

Is there any prep work I should do on them before putting them in the tank?

Sure, you can use thin branches, as well as the thicker pieces - I had about 4ft of 2-3" diameter wood, which I cut into lengths.

Large pieces will of course last longer in the water.

Large Panaque species such as (L190) will get rid of the bark in short order [assuming the piece is big enough that they "bother" with it...].

You can take a look at my Rack 2, Tank 3 in "My aquaria" to see what my tank looks like.

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Mats