OP again. Still using up my current test kit before purchasing a new one recommended on here. I can't see changing anything right now when my only problem or concern is the minor issue of having to add a little acid three or four days per week to stay in recommended range, and I can't see buying a new kit when I'm still consuming the one I've got and I've got a crystal-clear pool. And lastly, FC and PH seem to be testing out in a very predictable way and see no need to throw this kit out when everything is going so well. I will heed the advice on here, however, and get a recommended kit to get my CC's, Alk, CYA in the future instead of the pool store reports. I can use my current kit for Alkalinity using the acid-drop test, as it seems to be predictable as well. Not sure how I'll know when it's time to shock; maybe just do it the pool store way for a while based on a lapse of time; maybe every couple of weeks, or I could go by my OTO chlorine reading after 2 minute reading of FC as the test instruction state.
I now know where I got the alkalinity range that I thought was appropriate (80-120), and it wasn't just from the pool store. It came from the TFP calculator provided. It's right there on the guide that comes with the calculator, so the recommended level chart sort of contradicts the recommended level shown right on the calculator.
Pool still looks great, still doing a daily regimen of bleach to stay in target range using an OTO tester and the calculator on here. I've found that for right now, probably due to a lower current consumption rate due to the spring season and/or not much dirtying of the pool, alot of cloudy days or whatever the reason, I have to reduce the chlorine dose shown in the calculator by about 20% or I start moving FC up and out of the target range over a period of a few days. But if I take the result and subtract about 20%, it's very predictable using my cheap OTO test that's in my kit. But I don't see this as a problem to be using less chlorine than what the calculator shows, and really, after finding this website and following my old method of using the pool store every couple of weeks to get CYA and CCs and Alk, I have had no issues whatsoever, except for the constant acid adding, but that seems to be a problem only because I choose to fight my pool's natural tendency to gravitate towards 8.0
Last summer at times when I'd run out of acid or just from growing weary of dawning protective gear and adding acid, I'd just let the PH go; let it drift up to where it wants to be; around 8.0; and still had no problems with the pool. My biggest worry in that situation was that I had read on TFP somewhere that the FC would not be as effective at a higher PH and thought that maybe that could lead to not enough sanitizing power, which could lead to a cloudy or green pool over time, but nothing like that's ever happened to my pool; not ever since going to the BBB method, even though I've never added that last B or any other PH increaser ever since I quit using the pucks. Really, the only problem I had last year was the couple of times where I accidentally over dosed acid and my test showed that I dropped my alkalinity out, and then I'd add soda, but the high PH would come right back; just a day or two, even if it got down to 7.1 or so. I've done this acid over dose mistake once this year. So really, the only issues I've had since going BBB style of pool care is adding too much acid.
So I went moonlighting on you guys to see if I could find something about my situation and viola, there it was...an article about the benefits of running a pool at high PH. Not really following this advice right now; mostly because the article doesn't go into detail about "why it's okay to do this"; and so I'm just being a little more careful about diluting my acid real well and moving PH more slowly with acid, which means whenever it reads 7.8, I hit with a few ounces of acid, instead of waiting for it to hit 8.0 and trying to move it all the way back down at once, and I don't try to move it more than a couple basis points at a time because the times I've had trouble was when I got the PH down towards the lower range or tried to move it too far, too fast. All other times, it's been very predictable and controls the level as expected; at least as is shown with my tester.
I'm sort of forming the opinion offered up by Isaac-1, about PH levels on individual pools being affected by many factors that are individual to that pool, that location, and that water supply and cannot necessarily be solved on here with strict protocols. And so I don't think I'm going to let it bother me that much. It's just that I was hoping for a simple answer. And it doesn't look as if there is one.
http://www.poolsolutions.com/gd/hiphpool.html