Help with total alkalinity (complicated)

[bfguilford]

I have an inground, vinyl liner pool (new liner last year) without a heater.

I just had my water tested. Everything was OK except the TA measured 180. That's way up over the 80-100 range from last year. I think I know the source. We had to install an acid neutralizer and water softener this year when our well went wonky - the pH dropped to 5.8 and the iron went way up. I topped the pool up with around 6 inches of water that went through the acid neutralizer, but bypassed the softener. I think that put a whole bunch of calcium carbonate into the pool. If I bypass the acid neutralizer and water softener, I will end up with low pH and iron in the pool.

Now for the questions:

Should I use water that has gone through both the acid neutralizer and softener (I use a combination of 2 parts potassium chloride to 1 part salt in the softener)?

Or am I better off bypassing the acid neutralizer (which will lower my ph) but go through the softener to remove the iron?

If I bypass the acid neutralizer and drop my pH, will adding Borax just add to my TA?

Will the potassium chloride mess up the pool?

Thanks.