adamsacres

I am fairly new to the spa/hot tub ownership. I have been struggling on what to do. I have like 6 chemicals....add this after each use.....do this once a week, etc etc etc.... I have been having horrible problems with turquoise colored scum on the rim of my hot tub, and literally CAKED on my filter and my hot tub water has a turquoise hue, i have been cleaning the filter daily in the kitchen sink and when it first started (didn't check my tub for a few days" and it was caked on my filter. Finally got that cleared up. Different test strips are giving me different readings and the "add drops test kit" gives me an even different reading on Ph, Alk, etc. NOW my alkalinity is too high, my Ph is normal, but through all this the plastic on my filters looks corroded. It is a Swim Spa H7 and has that "special" added filter with the metal flakes in it (silver maybe?). Do I need to empty and start from scratch? My poor spa has had more crap added to it than anything I can think of. Seems I read somewhere follow the ABC's...Get Alkalinity right.....THEN Chlorine, Then and only then can Ph be stabilized. What is the BEST way to test water? Thank you for any help you can provide.