I'm not sure about the skimmer situation -- you may have to dig around on the Intex site and see what you can find out.

Take a look at this page, describing their "Deluxe Wall Mount Surface Skimmer" . It looks like this unit is designed to go with the pool and filter you have. I'm not sure what sort of skimmer you have now, so you may need to purchase this one, OR you may be able to look at the manual, and see how to adapt yours.

Regarding the filters -- they are tiny cartridges, with only 14 sft. Intex says toss them every 2 weeks. Cartridges can gum up with algae pretty badly. Here's what I'd try, if I were you:

1. Buy this pack of 'B' cartridges AFTER verifying that 'B' is the correct size. You can probably get them locally, but here's the Amazon link: "Intex Brand Type B Pool Filter Cartridges" .

2. Get some bleach and laundry soap, and a clean 5 gallon bucket. Mix 4 gallons of water with 1/4 cup of bleach and 1/8 cup of liquid laundry detergent.

3. Get a 2nd clean 5 gallon bucket and fill it with 4 gallons of water and 1/4 cup of bleach but NO laundry detergent.

4. Put a new filter in, and throw the old one away.

5. When the new one plugs, rinse it off, and put it in the detergent mix. Leave it.

6. When the 2nd one plugs, rinse the first one off CAREFULLY, and put it in the 2nd bucket with no deterent. Rinse the first one, and put it in the detergent bucket.

7. When the 3rd one plugs, repeat the process, but CAREFULLY rinse the 1st cartridge again and re-install it in the filter. Do rinse carefully: you do NOT want detergent in the pool! Continue to use the chain process to clean your filters. You should get somewhat better life, and cleaning, that way.

Here's something else. The Intex cartridges are very low grade. You may want to try a single "Unicel C-5315 Replacement Filter Cartridge for 15 Square Foot Intex B Filter" from Amazon, even though it costs 5x as much. They can't improve the design, but it is higher grade filter material. I would only buy one of these, till you've tested and found out that it's worth paying extra for.

But, be careful. The Amazon link above goes to a genuine Unicel cartridge, but other Amazon links for "Unicel Type 'B' cartridges" actually go to low-grade Pleatco cartridges, which are not likely to be any better than the Intex model, and may be worse.

(Note: if you by from Amazon using these links, PoolForum gets a 4% advertising fee. However, you don't have to buy from Amazon with those links, to get the products, and you can find these items elsewhere. But on the Unicel cartridges, be very careful. Pleatco is an aggressive marketing company, and its retailers are selling Pleatco cartridges as Unicel equivalent cartridges, so to speak!)

Good luck!