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G'day Mate Sounds like you are pretty well set up. With regards to the rocks, it is pretty hit and miss depending on where the rocks come from. I'm in Perth and almost all local stone has some limestone in it. That is bad especially if you are using a lower PH. The only way to be positive the rock is not going to affect the water is to test is by putting it in your desired water and monitoring. I have some Seiryu stone in my RCS tank and it has not affected the water at all but i run PH 7.2 TDS 200-300. If it has increased the TDS by 20-50 or so i would not be able to tell and the PH is not really low enough to seriously dissolve any limestone between water changes for me to worry. Oh just a side note, i think all Seiryu stone now is not the real thing as the Jap government banned it's mining. This means it could have differing properties depending on where it was mined. Would love to see some photo's of your set up, even if it is just the tank with all the gear in boxes pilled in there. A set up journal is always best when started that way...Lol

(repost) I honestly wouldn't recommend trying to use a product to lower the pH because all it does is create pH swings and raise the TDS. Actually tried using some Discuss Buffer, and all it did was lower the pH by several points, raise the TDS by ~25, then the next day the pH was higher than prior to adding the Discuss Buffer... granted, I did test the pH of the water straight out of the tap, but with it being winter, it is reading lower than normal (because the GH and KH are also lower, as well as the TDS). The tap *usually* reads 3-4 GH and Kh with a TDS of ~50 (give or take). Usually reads 7.6 pH on the low pH scale. Right now, it's reading 2-3 GH & KH (closer to 2 than 3) with a TDS of 35-38. Looks like it's reading 7.2 pH on the low pH scale. I add Discuss Buffer, and lowered the pH down to maybe 6.4? However, the TDS went from like 35 to 60. Waited several hours and retested the pH and it was up to 7.6 (from 7.2). Another issue with a product like this is that it removes calcium and magnesium out of the water, which shrimp need in order to molt. This means that you may need to re-add these minerals back into the water. What it all comes down to is huge swings in pH and rising TDS. You wont get what you are looking for in a product like this. You're best bet is trying to use rain water if you live in a "clean area" (i.e. clean air, not full of smog or other chemicals), or try a buffering substrate, which may lower the water's pH below 7. If you add KH to the buffering substrate to raise the pH (through water, baking soda or a remineralizer), you will exhaust the soil faster, thus losing it's buffering capacities, and you are back to square one.