Coach, if you have a public pool in your area, and the person running it is AFO (Aquatic Facility Operator) certified, they should be able to do a excllent test on your Ph, alk, and hardness. My wife is an AFO and runs a 420,000 gallon indoor facility. She controls the pump room, trains folks in CPR, AED operation, and red cross certs. the city employees in CPR, etc., and has a professional grade testing kit for her water (which gets tested hourly). My point is, a pool with an AFO should be able to help you and it shouldn't take more than 2-3 minutes at no cost to you. Some of these pool test kits that use paper strips, etc. just don't give you the accuracy I think you may want. The test kit that my wife uses is about a $300.00 proposition and she is required to keep her chemicals date checked for freshness. Peoples lives, and safety depend on it.
Long way to get to: "Have it done professionally", but it will give you what you need, and should be very, very cheap to get done.
