forgot to say -- white distilled vinegar will be fine and often found in a household.. as well as cheap and readily available if not. 1-3 mL per gallong of 8ish tap water is all i used to need, if i recall.. my tap since changed and my nutes take care of ph and buffering nowadays. your mileage will vary if tap is not 8-8.4,
so add 1ml at a time, test ph and keep going.. write down whatt you need to add per gallon and it will remain constant for the 5% distilled vinegar or whatever you are using. if you buy somethign different after that, go throgh same process again.
ph drift is not caused by the acid you use.. it is caused by an unbuffered solution. it is the soils fault or if you are soilless/hydro context it is the manufacturer of the fertilizer's fault, lol.
no excuse for that nonsesne i a soilles/hyddro nutrient setup.
soil should mitigate any small variance in pH ... so test your tap water.. is it extraordinarily high? this may have been why it went up over time. in future try ph-balancing any water you put into the substrate. 6.5 is fine for soil. shouldn't take much acid per gallon.