Nope. I just turned on my ph controller and slowly reduced the ph, a tiny bit every day. I made it all the way to around 5.5 before the fish showed obvious signs of stress (and most of the snails died!).
Unfortunately, the only time I ever saw pearling was at that lowest point. My HC was pearling like crazy! Under identical circumstances but a ph of 6.0 (where it's set now) the plants seem like they are doing OK but not as well as they were at 5.5. Also, at 5.5 there was literally no algae growth in the tank at all, but at 6 there is just a little bit.
I'm trying to find the 'right' level to set my CO2, but it's been really tough. If it's low enough to make the plants explode with growth and eliminate algae, all the fish will die! At the level where the fish and shrimp seem happy, the growth isn't 100% and there is a bit of algae.
I'm still trying to dial it all in