Cibek

My worry is if the bacteria can even survive in PH just above 5.Are drops like that normal?

Here is the tank in its current cloudy and evaporated state.Plants are doing fine,there is some browning on some pieces of the eleocharis but it is sending runners and the alternathera developed a strong root system and started to grow pretty nicely,Both are tissue cultured

I started 8 gallon cube a month ago and i am having lot of trouble.I used Ebi gold shrimp substrate which claims to lower and hold the PH at 6-6,5.My tap water is around 7 and it keeps dropping to like 5,25 pretty quickly after every water change.I went for the fishless cycle,just adding little bit of fishfood now and than a dosing flourish for the plants.I am also dosing seachem stability to start the cycle and i am treating the water with prime.There is no CO2 at the moment.I used osmocote tabs and some iron caps that my local store makes in the substrate.I fucked up during one water change and disturbed the substrate,and some of the iron got loose so the substrate is visibly red in some places (iron levels in the water are fine tho so i guess it is not disolving),could this be affecting the water chemistry somehow? My theory is that if i do large water changes frequently,the minerals in my tap should increase the buffering capacity of the substrate and the PH should normalize eventually, so i have been doing like 75% water changes once or twice a week but still no improvement and i am getting bit impatient.Should i consider adding something like crushed coral to the filter or just let it balance on its own? I am pretty sure that the beneficial bacteria is struggeling at least at this low of a PH and the cycle is not going well.In the last couple days the tank also developed bacterial white cloudiness,so i stopped the water changes and all dosing to let it clear up. This is my first tank after like 9 years out of the hobby so i dont want to make any mistakes,but as you can imagine i am also very impatiant to get the shrimp in there.Sorry for long post Any advice and help would be greatly apriciated. Thanks