Q: How do I add photos to my iCloud that were on my phone before i turned on my photo stream?

There is no official way to do that from an iOS device (see also how you can do it from a Mac/PC: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH2606?viewlocale=en_US), but you could create a "Shared Photo Stream" which should also show up on your other iOS devices (See also: http://help.apple.com/icloud/#/mmc0cd7e99 and https://www.apple.com/icloud/icloud-photo-sharing.html.)