Did the shock eat through Intex brand filters? (If it does, that's just information I need to have) Or, were they another brand (unlabeled Walmart special)?

Do you have a digital camera? Can you take pictures of the old and new connections? If you can, send them to poolforum@gmail.com .

Did you look at the Intex page and manual on the skimmer I linked to? It appeared that that skimmer (not yours) was designed to work with your filter.

Is your skimmer different than the one I linked to? Do you know what make / model it is? (Where did you get it?)