pH and kH confusion

What did you use to test the PH? I find it hard to believe that you have an 8.8 PH with a KH of 1.2.

The best way to go is to work with your tap unless you have extreme hard water (300+ TDS). I find it counter productive to modify the tap water. I find it better to understand what is in your tap then adjust the water after it gets in your tank. Usually you'd adjust the calcium/magnesium or GH or even the KH to get the target parameters that you want. KH is typically kept 2 or higher to prevent the PH from getting too low and GH is kept higher than GH by about 3-4 degrees.

Regarding General Hardness, the target hardness can vary but the goal is to ensure that both Calcium and Magnesium is present in the water. Usually getting access to your local water report will give you an idea of how much calcium/magnesium or how much hardness you have. Some cases are known where Mg or Ca is lacking in the water and this is why some would recommend that you dose Ca/Mg from a form of GH Booster to ensure that both these nutrients are in your tank.

I tested my pH using a neptune apex probe recalibrated 3 days ago with the appropriate milwaukee solution and then I cross checked with api freshwater kit. for KH i am using the salifert test kit. According MWRA report. boston water aims for a pH of 9.3 (apparently for purposes of decreasing corrosivity and minimizing leaching of lead and copper) with an alk of 40mg/L. to calculate mg/L into meq/l i get 0.8 meq/L and 2.24 dKH. so the kH in the report is close to where my tank water is whereas the tap water left overnight has a steady kH of about 1.2. Any specific kits you rec for mag and calc? the ones I have left over from my reef tanks are Hanna instruments and are specific for saltwater I believe. Once I get a gH kit I'll test for that. I just worry about doing water changes with tap water directly into the tank when the pH and kH seem so different from the tank water especially since massachusetts has such alkaline water immediately out if the drain.