How To Raise Cyanuric Acid In Salt Water Pool

Cyanuric acid, or CYA, is also known as pool conditioner or pool stabilizer. And it'southward crucial for protecting your chlorine from being destroyed past the sun'due south UV rays. So if your CYA levels are too low, your chlorine won't terminal every bit long — and that leads to unsanitary pool h2o.

When do you know if your CYA is too depression? Your pool's cyanuric acid levels should be between xxx and 50 parts per million (PPM) and even a little higher for saltwater pools. However, indoor pool owners don't take to worry near CYA levels, since the chlorine isn't directly impacted by the sun'due south ultraviolet rays. Cyanuric acid is only really a concern for outdoor puddle owners.

In order to enhance your cyanuric acrid levels, y'all'll need to add a pool stabilizer or pool conditioner to your water. You tin besides commencement using stabilized chlorine, like sodium dichlor or trichlor, to sanitize your puddle.

If you're wondering why these levels are depression in your pool and how to bring them up, here'southward everything you need to know about what causes low cyanuric acid levels and how to heighten cyanuric acid in your pool.

What Causes Low Cyanuric Acid?

Chances are, your CYA level is low because you're not using stabilized chlorine in your pool. Stabilized chlorine, like sodium dichlor or trichlor tablets and granules, already contains cyanuric acid. This helps protect it from being destroyed by the UV rays from the sun. If yous're using unstabilized chlorine, Unstabilized chlorine, like sodium hypochlorite (liquid chlorine), lithium hypochlorite, and calcium hypochlorite, does not comprise cyanuric acid.

Other things like rain, splashout, and h2o dilution can cause a decline in your cyanuric levels every bit well. Then if yous've had to partially drain and refill your h2o recently, yous volition also have low CYA levels.

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What Happens if Cyanuric Acrid Levels are Too Low?

When the level of cyanuric acid is too depression in a pool, you can end up with all kinds of chlorine issues and unsanitary h2o issues.

Chlorine Use Increases

Sunlight naturally breaks down pool chlorine — and quickly. An entire pool's worth could be gone within a few hours and without CYA present to protect it, y'all could observe yourself calculation more chlorine daily to continue it clean.

Chlorine Won't Sanitize Every bit Effectively

Because the sunlight is essentially eating your chlorine, in that location's merely not enough available to proceed the water clean. Pollutants, bacteria, and viruses can easily take over the h2o.

Pool Water Tin Turn Dark-green with Algae Growth

When you're h2o isn't clean, information technology may become the perfect convenance footing for algae growth. And light-green isn't the just color you lot need to worry about. Some bacteria tin can even pb to blackness algae or pinkish slime – and no matter what colour it is – it'southward dangerous for swimmers. It's every puddle possessor's nightmare.

Unbalanced Pool Water Chemistry

Your chlorine level drops if there is not enough CYA in the h2o to protect it. Inadequate chlorine levels can't keep the water make clean and set up off a chain reaction affecting total alkalinity and pH residue.

Chlorine Odour and Chloramine Build upwardly

With low CYA, the free chlorine gets used upwardly faster. When the chlorine in the puddle binds to pollutants like urine, sweat, and sunblock, it creates combined chlorine or chloramines. This kind of chlorine is less effective every bit a sanitizer and contributes to that strong chlorine smell you've undoubtedly experienced at public pools.

How To Raise Cyanuric Acid Levels in A Pool (two Means)

In that location are two things you can practice to increase your CYA levels: add together stabilized chlorine or add a puddle stabilizer and conditioner (pure cyanuric acrid).

Before y'all add anything to your pool, test your water using a liquid test kit or test strips. Then balance your pH level and full alkalinity kickoff. This will help whatever chemicals you add later work more finer.

Note: It's much harder to lower cyanuric acrid levels than it is to enhance them, and then don't overdo it. You tin always add more stabilized chlorine or CYA later if needed.

i. Add Stabilized Chlorine

If you buy a course of stabilized chlorine, such equally dichlor or trichlor granules or tablets, your chlorine volition come with cyanuric acid. So if you lot've been using unstabilized chlorine or liquid bleach, this can be a way to introduce CYA into your water. Yous can buy stabilized chlorine in chlorine tablets, granular class, or liquid chlorine.

If you accept chronically depression cyanuric acid levels, expect for tablet or granular chlorine products with cyanuric acrid and consider having them on hand as part of your regular pool chemical supply.

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2. Add Pure Cyanuric Acid (Pool Conditioner or Stabilizer)

If you lot desire to control the amount of cyanuric acid in your water, you can add pure CYA directly, also known as a chlorine stabilizer or chlorine conditioner.

Equally a full general guideline, iii ounces of puddle stabilizer will raise a 10,000-gallon pool's CYA levels by 10 ppm. Call up that your CYA levels should be between 30 and l ppm. Keep in mind that because CYA lingers in the work, you normally only need to add it one time or twice a year. And it's easier to add more cyanuric acid than it is to reduce it, then take things slowly.

Finally, cyanuric acrid is exactly that: an acid. And then if you lot don't add the puddle stabilizer correctly, it could damage your pool. Vinyl pool liners are incredibly susceptible to CYA damage. And be certain to wear protective gear, like goggles and acid-resistant gloves.

How To Add together Pool Stabilizer and Conditioner

Before adding whatsoever chemicals, start by testing and balancing your pool water then you know how much you demand to heighten your CYA levels.

Showtime with a 5-gallon bucket of puddle water. Add together the pool stabilizer or pool conditioner to the bucket of water. Do not add the h2o to the CYA – you don't want splashback! Then pour all five gallons of water-CYA solution into the pool's skimmer and run your pool pump for several hours to help it circulate. Finally, retest your pool's chemical levels and adjust if needed. Echo the process if you lot even so take lower cyanuric acid levels than expected.

Be sure to add your pool stabilizer slowly. You can always add more than after. But if you stop upwards with too much cyanuric acid, you won't need to completely drain it to balance your pool chemistry. Slowly drain a few inches of water off and refill the pool with fresh water. Keep the h2o above the puddle pump to foreclose it from taking in air and getting damaged. If you need more help reducing your CYA levels, exist certain to check out our guide on How To Lower Cyanuric Acid.

Often Asked Questions Virtually How to Heighten Cyanuric Acid

Need more aid with cyanuric acrid? Here are some common questions and answers.

What exercise I add to my pool if the cyanuric acid is besides low?

If during the class of regular pool maintenance, you detect your cyanuric acid levels are too low, you can either add stabilized chlorine or pure cyanuric acid, also known every bit pool conditioner or puddle stabilizer. Stabilized chlorine already contains cyanuric acid.

Does baking soda raise cyanuric acrid?

No baking soda doesn't increase your CYA level. Information technology does, even so, raise your pool's total alkalinity. Information technology won't protect or stabilize your chlorine levels.

Does pool shock raise cyanuric acid?

Puddle shock can raise your cyanuric acid levels, depending on the type you lot use. If you lot use a stabilized chlorine stupor, then yep, it will raise CYA considering it'southward the stabilizing ingredient.

Does Clorox pool stupor have cyanuric acid in it?

Cholrox does not contain any CYA in it and will not increase the CYA levels in your water if you use information technology. Household bleach is unstabilized chlorine and will exist destroyed by the sun's UV rays.

Will low cyanuric acid make a pool cloudy?

If yous've got an outdoor swimming pool and take low cyanuric acrid, you may experience cloudy h2o. This is considering CYA helps to keep your chlorine levels where they should be. And without it, the chlorine depletes faster, which leads to unstanitary cloudy water.

Does a saltwater pool demand cyanuric acrid?

Saltwater pools demand CYA, and manufacturers recommend keeping it on the slightly college side: between 60 and fourscore PPM. In saltwater pools, you don't add chlorine straight. Instead, yous add table salt, and the common salt generator creates sodium hypochlorite, which also degrades under sunlight. Salt chlorine generator manufacturers recommend running with higher complimentary chlorine levels, since the generators continuously create chlorine, it'due south crucial to protect the existing chlorine.

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Matt Giovanisci is the founder of Swim Academy® and has been in the pool and spa manufacture since 1995. Since then, his mission is to brand pool and hot tub intendance easy for everyone. And each yr, he continues to aid more people with water chemical science, cleaning, and troubleshooting.

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