Lower pH & Hard water?

I went and got some test strips today & checked my water. It was hard & if I matched the colors up right it showed 8.4 pH. How can I lower this? I read somewhere a drop of vinegar in 1 gallon water. But all I have is cooking wine vinegar. Are there any other solutions? I'm guessing that could be my problem to slow growth & plant deficiencies. Feel free to post.

Nevermind I answered my own question. I used approx. 2 tspns white cooking vinegar and it lowered it to where I need it. I am gonna water lightly so I dont over water and try to even it out.

the cheapest way would be household vinegar or citric acit to lower it as you done succesfully, just us plain vinegar and not the fancy one

the water hardness come from minerals solved in your tape water and partly from the chlorine. to get of wide of those you boiled of the water and let it sit then, hot water can dissolve less of those minerals and chlorine so the gas/fall out, just let it sit, run it thru osmosis filter systems or get a water softening system for your house, funnily those work as well with salts

Thanks. I hope I solved the problem, Ill have to wait and see how they grow. I have two jugs and fill them both up and let them sit for a couple for 2-3 days. So if I use hot water then it will break it down faster? Also has anyone seed a black seedling? It looks black, but may be really dark green & purple. it looks cool & seems to be healthy. It's only 2 days old.