Honestly, you have no idea what your pH is unless you monitor it in place. Adding water to a test vial can affect pH. Residue in the vial can affect it. Probes require a lot of care to stay accurate. And if you're using something like a Hagen pH kit, you could probably just make up a number.
If your fish are swimming and your rock isn't dissolving, your pH is fine :)

LOL. Ya, my Ph problem went away too when I stopped measuring and actually caring about it.

It's displayed on my controller but is all over the place depending on the time of day and what part of the light cycle the tank is in.

Now I feel silly having a container of Ph buffer sitting on my shelf!

lol thanks makes sense. and I'm using api and Elos test kits the reason I'm asking all these questions obviously is cause I'm new lol. And I want to get as much info and knowledge as possible. take for instance my zoo's they are all opened, but haven't spread, where as my mushrooms have dropped a few new heads, as well as my ricordea (I've only had the "ric" for a week) I have heard the zoo's like dirty water to spread fast, but I can only see them spreading fast in dirty water as an attempt to survive lol. so I keep my water clean, 10-20% wc every 2 weeks, and daily to every other day fresh water top offs about 2 cups+

Hey, check out the link in my signature for newbie friendly parameter info. :)

thanks haha