test strips

Me neither. I don't pay attention to water chemistry.

Unless you have a calcium test kit you can't deduce that you have high calcium. kH is high, basically you have hard water which is pretty common depending on location. Its likely groundwater. kH is carbonates/bicarbs. gH is mostly your calcium and magnesium but a few other minor things as well.

Thing about test strips is they are more expensive then liquids. I wouldn't say they are unreliable. Technically liquids are not very reliable either, both are very subjective tests to the user. Even when you have liquid hardness tests each drop(degree) is equal to 17.8ppm. You could dilute the test and cut this to 8.9ppm. You still have that 8.9ppm variance as well as if it really did turn from yellow to green on that last drop or if its still a greenish-yellow. Out of all the tests out there color interpretive tests are my least favorite. Human judgement is always ehhhhh.

1.5 cuttle bones have dissolved in the tank, ... it was when the second was seemed to have it's own additional deposits growing on it that i removed it. ... there's far more calcium in the tank then i want right now.

Edit:
call me naive back then.

cuttlebone is calcium carbonate(mostly). Its going to effect gH and kH. I'm still not sure why you think there is excess calcium. A gH of 60 isn't high IMO.

My gh is 120, kh 180 , ph 7.8... just for comparison sake.

strangeness to me then.