Hi Diomarsa, I'm a new member (this is my first post). I live south of Melbourne and I've got an Intex Pool as well, just mine is a rectangular 18ft x 9ft x 52". I bought it about 6 years ago, had it up and running for one year, then we moved house. I did not set it up for a year until we moved house again and then had it up for 2 years no problem. Again we moved house where we stayed only for 7 months but now I hope we can stay in the house where we moved in last year. I now put up the pool and hard-plumbed it. This started after I got the taste of building with PVC pipes (made a pool ladder since the original was totally rusty). I was not sure whether I should put up the pool because, as you mentioned in your thread, the pool ripped and that was my fear too. Well, so far so good, nothing leaks and the water is looking great. I was so proud of myself that all the plumbing worked (especially as a woman!!!) and showed the photos to the irrigation guy where I bought all the pipes and fittings. He asked where the pool filter was and that's when I got really embarrassed - I never used a pool filter! So I ordered one online and received it last Friday. Now I had to cut 2 of the pipes to make the connection from the pump to the filter and back to the pool. It all looks great and fits but I am scared of using the filter because something about it does not look right. There is only one PVC pipe with a plastic ring on it and the cartridge inside the housing. Everything wobbles around and I cannot imagine that this is correct. I will try it today though because I haven't used the pump for 4 days and eventually the water will go green.
For your filter, you should have the PVC plumbed so that it goes into the filter then out as described in the users manual 