The B-B-B method should well be all you need. It will keep your brother-in-law from "helping" and the kids from touching something they shouldn't--like a skimmer with a puck in it! Your pool isn't big so you don't need to keep a lot of bleach around when it's in maintenance mode, especially now that your SWCG is working again.

One of the reasons that levels of CYA, TA and CH are important to SWCG owners is exactly what you discovered: Scaling that clogged it up. CYA levels are normally higher than usual, and the SWCG makers will ask that you keep it between 60 and 80ppm. Our experts tells us that you should maintain a chlorine level of no LESS than 5% of your CYA level...60ppm of CYA means 3ppm FC, 80 means 4ppm.
They also tell us that lower TA levels as in the 60-80ppm range is best. I'm not sure about CH levels, but the manufacturer may give a suggested level. I suspect the lower the better in a vinyl pool (Calcium is useless in vinyl pools but the only reason to maintain it is the SWCG's requirement).

Carl