Alkalinity Issues

[EeyoreIsMySpiritAnimal]

I didn't think it was cycled, and because of that I wasn't sure if my skimmer was going to do anything to the nitrifying bac, but I'll turn it on.
I've been using the Seachem ammonia alerts for ammonia as well as API strips which I have heard mixed reviews on. I've seen people say they've gotten constant false results, but other people say they've ran controlled tests 100+ times and everytime it came back accurately.

Never use test strips.

API is fine, especially for testing during the initial cycle, but buy the test kit.