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I've been trolling ZP for years now but I am now just getting around to building my first aquarium for keeping zebra plecos. I have decided to try to build a Rio Xingu biotope aquarium.

The tank is a 20 gallon long with ADA Rio Xingu sand, river boulders from the local clear creek and just a few plants from Belem, Manaus and Lago Grande. I won't grow many plants but at least they are as close to Rio Xingu as possible. The aquascape was quickly put together and I hope to eventually get some breeding caves which I can bury into my riverbank of Rio Xingu sand.

The tank is drilled for a sump with all of the drain water feeding into a high pressure wet dry to drive more O2 into the water since I live at 6000 feet of altitude. Return is provided by a Tunze silence water pump, going through an EcoAqualizer, a bypass to the wet dry and a return to the tank. The water flow is provided by a vortech MP10 which can flow this 30" tank just like a river. I will be putting in my two zebra plecos today so let's hope they like their carefully crafted tank. I'll post some pics of the sump later.

Great looking tank, good luck with your zebs

Looking good, I really like the sloping "riverbanks".

That's beautiful. I like the rock overhangs.

What size zebras are going in here? Any pics with them in the tank?

Thanks for the comments everyone.

I put in a 2" and a 2.5" zebra plecos in there and they are absolutely loving it! They are spending very little time hiding, or at rest and instead they are swimming about quite a lot. The larger one especially patrols the front glass back and forth waiting for me to feed. I don't know if it's the high temperature (86F). the wet dry producing high O2 concentrations, the strong water flow or the combination of the three that is making the zebras so active, even in bright light.

I'll take and post some more pics and a video soon.

I made and uploaded a number of pics of this tank and one of the zebras. Hope you guys like it, my zebra pleco sure does.

Fantastic shots and great to see your zeb out and about in its lovely home

It is great to see a pleco tank so stunning to look at - nice work my tanks look naff in comparison

Here is a much overdue update to the Rio Xingu biotope. It now houses 5 x l46, two ottos, 5 cory gossei and 3 cory similis.

Here's a little cross section of the inhabitants

And this picture right here, is exactly why I set up this tank: to showcase one or more uber studly, picture perfect specimens such as this one.

Sweet

I am so relieved to hear that this forum is still going, I have to post an update right away.

Here's another shot with 3 cory gossei in the foreground and the zebras really love the overhanging ledge.

Good looking tank and great pics