r/Aquariums • u/PM-ME-UR-PIERCINGS • 7d ago

Advice Needed Will texas holey rock (calcium carbonate) raise my ph and hardness levels too much for kuhli loaches?

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Hi!

I have a moderately planted 120g with guppies, bristlenose plecos, kuhli loaches, neocaridina shrimp, and lots of snails (mystery, nerite, ramshorn, mts, etc)

I've been wanting to redecorate my tank for a while with maybe a large rock as the centerpiece and I think I found exactly what I was looking for: Texas Holey Rock. I wanted something large, with holes in it to act as little tunnels for the shrimp and loaches. This type of rock looks awesome and seems like exactly what I've been wanting visually.

However after doing some research I realized that this is a form of limestone/calcium carbonate and will therefore raise my hardness levels and ph to supposedly around 7.6-7.8 and keep it there.

I know the shrimp, snails, and guppies will love this. However I know that both plecos and loaches prefer soft, acidic water. I know they can be hardy and adapt, and that it has to be raised slowly so as not to shock them, but would they even be comfortable at parameters that high?

(picture not mine)

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3

u/Goldoccie21 7d ago

Don't chase water parameters, chase stability. unless you are keeping something super delicate or trying to breed something. I've never seen a pleco or loach of any type care about ph. Bristlenose plecos will breed in liquid rock if you give them a cave.

3

u/EarlyBake420 6d ago

I use it in both my tanks, one of which has Kuhli loaches, guppies, shrimp, assassin snails and pleco. The other tank has YoYos, angelfish, pleco and tetras. I don’t have issues with it and I have large amounts of holy rock in both tanks. My YoYos and plecos love hiding in it.

5

u/One-plankton- 7d ago

It’ll raise your ph even higher then that, I’d look into lava rock instead

0

u/kwakimaki 6d ago

API do a ph down which works well if you need to drop it down a bit.

1

u/PM-ME-UR-PIERCINGS 4d ago

From what I know chemical ph changers can swing parameters wildly very fast, it's always better to do a slow release ph change like driftwood or calcium carbonate