I tested my tap water and it's about 8.6. It might be the color of the algae making it look like 8.8 in the pool.
Your links are telling me the same thing. Don't mess with the PH unless you know what you are doing. It's possible my PH is even higher than 8.8 because when I did the low range test it didn't look quite as dark as the darkest color and it's still in the same place with the high range. I might just need an even higher range test kit if one exists. I should have figured living in death valley that the water would be really alkaline.
