Desperate for help.

Hello all, first I'd just like to say that I love this site and it's wealth of information. Having said that, even with all this information, I still seem to be at a loss as to what I should do next.

So here's the story,

I recently moved in with my mother and law, who recently purchased a 16x42 intex easy set pool. After which she purchased the intex Krystal clear salt water system, which was missing a part so the pool ran for about a week with no chemicals. When the part came I ran the system through two 16 hour boost cycles. I noticed the walls and bottom of the pool were very slimy so I went to the pool store and bought a bag of calhypo and added half of it. The next day the slime was gone. This was all done before I started reading pool forum. Since then I have obsessively began testing the water. My mother in law refuses to buy the $100 test kit needed to accurately test, and walmart in Canada doesn't seem to carry the 6 way test strips, so I have just been using the dreaded guess strips. The problem I have noticed is that my ph and alkalinity were extremely high. Ph around 8 and alk at about 240 or higher. I also noticed the electrolytic cell was beginning to have some white flaky buildup. After reading pretty much this entire site and various other pool guides, I have decided to take the swcg out completely until I can get everything else in check. So....I've been trying to lower the alkalinity by first adding sodium bisulfate, which didnt seem to lower it at all, so I bought some muriatic acid. I've added two doses of about 500 ml each and the ph now seems to be sitting at around 6.8. But of course without accurate testing I can't really be sure. I have also just been adding 6% bleach to supplement for chlorine until I put the swcg back in. So yeah, last night the ph was down so I've been running my aerator all night, checked it this morning and it is still at the same level.

I'm very lost now and don't know what I should do. I haven't added any stabilizer yet either because I don't know how much or what to use for it.

Please help, what should I be focusing on first?do I need to get my chlorine levels and stabilizer levels first before worrying about ph and alk, or should I get ph and alk where I want them, then add stabilizer and chlorine? Also if anyone can point me in the direction of an accurate test kit that doesn't cost more that $50 please let me know.

Perpetually lost pool caretaker,

Neetlejuice

Keep reading here and at poolsolutions.com.
Find and buy a cheap OTO - Phenol Red test kit. It's not complete but will give generally accurate pH and Chlorine readings. If your wall mart carries the HTH 6-way test kit, it's a really good starter and includes the CH and TA tests you need. The strips are just not accurate and the inaccuracy explains the lack of TA change when the pH was reduced.
You need chlorine in the pool or it will turn green.
You need stabilizer to keep the chlorine in the pool through the day.
Chlorine and stabilizer are your first priorities.