Newbie needs help/advice

[waterbear]

TEst strips test total hardness (calcium and magnesium) not calcium hardness. You need to test for calcium hardness. Depending on your water makeup it is possible to have a very high total hardness but have a much lower calcium hardness. Also the strips have very poor resolution (the numbers on the color chart scale jump from 250 to sometimes 400, if you have a GOOD brand of strip, and then to 1000 ppm with no readings inbetween!) and the hardness colors are difficult to read with any kind of accuracy since they are such close shades of blue and purple.