acids and bases --- the resulting ratio is your pH, in a simplified way for this context to save a little time... it's a logrithmic scale centered around "7", so each whole integer difference from "7" is 10x more than previous. so
pH - H3O+ : OH- ratio
10 - 1:1000
9 - 1:100
8 - 1:10
7 - 1:1 ratio
6 - 10:1
5 - 100:1
4 - 1000:1
you can see how this might impact your response... a few steps further from target quickly increases how much you have to add to correct it. The acid or base you use to adjust it is also revelvant.. as well as volume you add relative to volume you add to plus anythign that has dried out and is solid again in substrte... it's all proportional and the math will add up the same each time if given same contexts.
pH of 7 is no big deal... consistency of pH is more important. (a little sway is fine). This allows you to more accurately adjust your nutrient formula when you do run into an issue. resulting 'optimal' ratio may be different at different pH's... 6pH is probably a better target despite a lot of anecdotal evidence that says otherwise. this give s abit more leeway if it drops on accident. you go much below 5.8 and you have to mitigate it with increase levels of certain nutes as it impacts the ability of the plant to use those particular molecules. Anyway, 5.8-7ish isn't going to cause a major problem if it is what you normally run it at... otherwise do adjust back to normal range relative to your chosen formula of nutes.