Purple people eater

Long time lurker, first time poster I've had my bromine hot tub for a little over a year and suck at keeping the water balanced. I use a floater and am on city water. I use it everyday, for a few hours. Sometimes twice a day. My husband joins about 3x a week and about 2x a month I'll have a few friends over. I had white tissue looking stuff in the water when the jets and blower were on high. My local pool supply store gave vague answers and just said to drain and refill. I ran jet clean and cleaned the filter really well (just with water but I sprayed each pleat at a time until clean). I scrubbed the shell with an orange oil and refilled. I can't keep my water balanced and have finally decided to buy the Taylor k-2106 test kit. (Long overdue, I know) I drained and refilled again today (2nd since the flakes) and haven't done anything yet but let it heat up. Okay so here's my question (s). 1. I learned today that the white flakes could be biofilm. Since the first refill the white flakes are gone. Did I do enough or should I do nitro's decontamination with my fresh fill? 2. When balancing the water, does it need to be up to temp? Can I start the bromine bank at the same time, or should I wait? 3. What is the easiest way to keep it balanced? I am terrible at remembering to check the levelstatus. 4. Do you have to periodically run the jets and blowers on high or is the filtering enough to keep it clean? I don't like the jets on... ever. I use it like a giant bathtub:) 5. The pool supply store I mentioned arged that leisure time's spa up (baking soda) is for pH but "can" affect the TA. Am I wrong that it raises TA a lot and -kinda- raises pH? I've gotten so much good info over the last year from this site, so thank you!