Got the HTH 6-way, 12 boxes of Borax and 20 Gallons of clorox.

Ran the HTH pH and cholrine tests, and, surprise, surprise, the pool held 2 ppm chlorine all day (after the strip read 0 this morning, I put about 2 lbs of shock in, so I'm thinking the strips were wrong all along), and the pH was so low I could barely tell the difference between the pH solution and the chlorine solution (it was that yellow). Added 4 boxes of borax, waited a few hours, and retested - pH had moved to almost 6.8, maybe a bit lower. I just added two more boxes of borax, and 4 gals of bleach (I didn't add the whole 7 because I wasn't starting from 0).

I feel like the pool is on its way to balance - thank you so much!