I would not use the "why not its was already in the shed" method. I have stuff still in the shed that I no longer desire to have in my pool after reading on this forum. Sounds like you need to start with getting a good test kit, drop based Taylor. http://www.poolsolutions.com/testkits.html talks about the test kits. I have the Taylor 2006C. I would think as long as you are circulating water and you are keeping your chlorine levels in the right range you will see some improvement until you can get the filter changed. I would not use any tabs until you know what the stablizer level is at. The couple of pools that I took from swamp to clean were swamps due to high levels of stablizer from always using stablized Cl` and low levels of Cl`. Liquid bleach or Liquid pool shock from BJs or Costco (BJs around here has box of 4 1.5 gallon for $13 where pool store wants $13 for one 1.5 gallon jug) seems to be the cheapest. Look at best guess guide to determine chlorine levels once you know the stablizer level. It may take a few days or weeks to get it clean, especially if you do not keep CL` levels right. Its really hard to help with out a good set of test results.