Hi Rn;

I know you're probably eager to swim . . . and aren't making much progress. Here's a possible quick (re)start for you:

1. Dump 1/2 gallon of plain 6% household bleach into your pool, to keep it from getting nasty.
2. Get some dichlor (chlorine with stabilizer included). If you have access to a Sams Club, get their 24# box of 1lb bags of PoolBrand dichlor shock. Otherwise, order this:
Kem-Tek Dichlor 22 lbs @ Amazon
(Walmart, Kmart, Costco and many pool store 'dichlor' products are diluted, and sometimes blended with stuff you do NOT want in your pool.)
3. Also, get 3 - 4 boxes of 20 Mule Team borax from Walmart.
4. And, get a cheap OTO (yellow drops) testkit, if you haven't been able to get the HTH kit. (Yes, you'll need the K2006 eventually, but you can start here.)
5. Once you have all that, drain your pool (Intex filters take FOREVER to clean a mess like that) and refill.
6. Pour in 1/4 gallon of plain 6% bleach each evening, while you fill.
7. Start the pump and filter as soon as the water reaches the inlet.
8. Once you've got the pump running well, switch to the dichlor: dose with 1/2 cup (plastic cup!!) of dichlor each evening for a week, and 1/8 cup every time somebody get's in. -- Do NOT skip a day!! That will put you back where you are now --
9. Meanwhile, test with your OTO / phenol red kit, and let us know what you find.

Intex pools are great, but once they are messed up, they are very hard to clean up. Swapping the Intex cartridges for high grade Unicel cartridges will help, but with only 3,000 gallons, it's easier to dump and refill.

By using dichlor, you can operate your pool with NOTHING but dichlor and borax (to raise the pH). Operating this way, you do NOT need ANY other chemicals . . . so long as you don't let the pool get messed up with algae. (Or, have the bad luck to be filling with well water with metals in it, and it doesn't sound like you have that problem!)

Eventually, your stabilizer will get high, and you'll have to switch to bleach . . . but by that time you'll either have the HTH 6-way or the K-2006, and will know what's going on.