Thinking Of Collecting Some Wood

[NathanPrince]

Hey guys, recently treated myself to a 5x2x2 and wanna focus on large central american cichlids with a sort of river biotope thing going on. Now in my eyes thats lots of "branchy" wood and river rocks wth a sand/pea gravel mix substrate.
 
 
Thing is on a tank this size wood can become VERY expensive... so why not go get my own?
 
Question is I dont know the first thing about wood! What to collect, how I know its ready... where to get it from etc etc
 
 
Thinking of hunting out some oak trees and using fallen stuff from those, whats the chances of finding some good pieces around a large oak tree I can use?
 
 
 
 
Anyone in bristol know some good spots to go hunting?
 
 
Cheers
 
 

Few examples of what I want to do
 
Mainly like this:
 
http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/custom/images/large/4d19f834730be.jpg
 
Or:
 
http/www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/custom/images/medium/4bd814d8f269d.jpg
 
http/www.nobobo.nl/wp-content/uploads/IMG_2386.jpg
 
 
 
Bit less twiggy:
 
https/lh6.googleusercontent.com/_p_W8nDH0Rfs/TSxhyUIYE2I/AAAAAAAAE4A/PX5f2Fu-Oyc/s800/DSC_0453.JPG

 

[Ninjouzata]

Not sure if oak is safe or not, but that's because I know nothing about wood.
Imagine you want to get a piece you know is dead, has no sap, and whatnot.
Put it in a container of sorts, pour boiling water over it, and let it sit til it sinks. Change water periodically (Not sure if this is required)
 
I'm not sure if these pieces would be chunky enough for you, according to the pics you linked, but here is a lovely site for wood: http/www.manzanita-driftwood.com/Manzanita.html
 
Sorry I couldn't be of more help

 

[NathanPrince]

Got some great pieces on there but I'm based in the UK and spending 100's on, effectively sticks, doesn't appeal to me much lol

Cheers

 

[Betta_Shark5678]

I've used oak that I collected in my tanks before, just make sure you rinse them really well and soak them in boiling water before you put them in your tank! I read that any hardwood can be used in fish tanks.  I'm going to have some oak, and some maple in the tank I'm setting up right now.  

 

[star4]

Oak is fine, I have oak and alder branches in all my tanks. Remove all the bark from oak and give it a good scrub, leave it to dry out so you can test for any soft/crumbling bits remove these with a saw so you only have solid wood. If you have something you can soak them in it would be better than in the tank as oak takes weeks to sink.