Also have cloudy water (with a story)

[Justardnck]

With only 5500 gallons, my first thought was drain the pool and refill it but your fill water may also have very high alkalinity..

it took almost a month to get the iron out of the water when I filled it, I don't know if I wanna go through that again

[mas985]

Yes, PH and alkalinity are linked. When you lower PH, alkalinity lowers with it. The trick is to keep the alkalinity low while raising the PH. This is where aeration comes in. Follow Ben's instructions to the letter and you will see the alkalinity lower slowly. For 250 ppm, I am not sure how long it will take but I suspect longer than a week or even two.