Best advice I can offer is a digital ph meter and a dropper pippette, how much water are you using at a time ? I use 15 litres of water and to get it down to 5.8 only takes a couple of drops, no more or the ph up has to come out , its not really that difficult , just seems it at first. when you know round about how much it takes to level off the ph of your tank, eg my tap water is 7.3 and i mix 15 litres up every week or so and to get it down i use 3 to 4 drops, ( one little teardrop out of the dripper) , at first i would use way too much and waste a lot of water and ph down, when you get the correct level add your nutes , give it a good mixing , stand for a while and test again, if its still too high , mix up some ph down and water in another tub and gradually add that to the mix, testing and stirring til you reach your desired levels . . . but of messing about but in 12 weeks time you'll be glad you took the time to learn this process, simple but effective. same goes if your too low a ph , mix some ph up in water and gradually add that to the mix , adding straight acid/alkaline can make too steep of a jump in your nutes, small bit at a time and your not wasting money or nutes . This was a technique i had to adapt as i was forever going to say 9+ or 3- , way too much up or down . . .. . its all a big learning curve, but i would highly reccomend a digi meter, cheap enough if you shop round, its the neutral calibration liquid thats expensive , but thats another story , and you should get a bottle free with the meter for first time calibtration ( instructions come with the meter too) hop;e this helps , WoW