your ph was 12.2?

Are you sure?

I accidentally ph up'd some water today to 10.5 and it smelled like chlorine.

I would think tap water with that high of a ph would smell and taste very bad.

Is there an odor or VERY bad taste to your water?

and yes, you want to lower the ph of your tap water to 6.8 or so, but more so if your ph is so high I wonder what your ppm is.

I would say keep using distilled or RO water and just add calmag. Something is up there.