Need help making pool "swimmable" please

[blessedbeingmom]

Hello, my name is Tricia and I am new here. We live in South MS. We bought an Intex 15' by 48" metal-frame vinyl pool from Walmart and spent a week or so installing it properly so it would be level. My DH (Matt) removed all of the sod from the area, then bought sand and leveled it. We have pressure-treated wood squares under each of the vertical poles. We finished with the assembly about a week ago and started filling the pool up on June 21. Not knowing any better, we went to Walmart and bought a bunch of Aquachem chemicals (pH up, pH down, Calcium hardness increaser, bleach pucks, 20% algaecide, shock plus, stabilizer). We also bought the test strips they sell there. We haven't used any of the pH down, bleach pucks or algaecide, so we are hoping we can return those.
The pool contains about 4,600 gallons of water and uses a 1,000 gallon-per-hour cartridge filter.
Calcium hardness increaser - not sure what it contains as we used up the whole container and threw it away
pH down - contains sodium bisulfate
stabilizer - contains cyanuric acid
shock plus - contains sodium dichloro-s-triazinetrione
We first added calcium hardness increaser, then pH down, then stabilizer. We added more calcium stuff and more pH down. Later we added more pH down. At this point we were still trying to balance and had not yet added any chlorine or shock.
We had to go out of town for 4 days, and came back to a green and cloudy pool. We had not run the filter while we were away. We also found out that we had been invaded by bugs which swim in the water (think they are water boatmen). We do have a small goldfish pond nearer to the house.
FWIW, it rained alot while we were away. We added some more pH down, followed by a bag of shock plus to the pool. Then I started reading more posts here and ordered the Taylor K-2006 test kit this past Monday (June 28). It was late Monday, so we probably won't get it until at least next week. Not sure how long it will really take. We ordered it from SPS Swimming Pool Supply company. Meanwhile, I used the numbers on the strips as an estimate and we added about a gallon of bleach about 9 a.m. yesterday (June 29). We added another gallon at about 9 p.m. last night. (The numbers had fallen into the "safe to swim" range, but although the pool was no longer green, it was and is still very cloudy, and we can't see the bottom, so we figured we needed to get the chlorine level back up.) DH says we might be able to see about halfway down. He's anxious to get into the pool, but I will not get in a pool where I cannot see the bottom and make sure there is nothing lurking in the bottom of the pool. Yikes!
I went to Walmart to buy the only drops-based test they had, but it only tests for a chlorine level up to 5 ppm, and pH. I think our pH is still on the high side though. This morning the chlorine level became almost an orange color (supposed to be a darker yellow for 5 ppm and this was much darker than that). The pH was about equal to the highest on the range.
Current strip readings:
Total Hardness B (about 100)
Total chlorine D (10) or above (darker in color than last square)
Free chlorine D (10) or above (darker in color than last square)
pH level C or D (between 7.8 and 8.4)
Alkalinity C (120)
Stabilizer B (50)
Thanks for any help you can offer to get us swimming! Also, DH says that he can see the bottom of the pool this morning but it's still pretty cloudy. I can barely see the bottom of it myself.