Does a saltwater pool need cyanuric acid?

Author: Rossie Weissnat DDS  |  Last update: Tuesday, June 14, 2022

Saltwater pool manufacturers recommend maintaining cyanuric acid levels around 60-80 ppm. This is a bit higher than the 30-50 ppm range recommended for non-saltwater pools. And if you live in an area where your pool gets a lot of direct sunlight, you may even consider bumping your cyanuric acid up to 80-100 ppm.

Do I need to add cyanuric acid to my saltwater pool?

However, if you're a saltwater pool owner, you'll need to maintain higher CYA levels. The sun's UV rays are doubly harmful to saltwater pools, impacting both the salt itself and the chlorine generated from that salt. Saltwater pool manufacturers recommend keeping your cyanuric acid levels between 60 and 80 ppm.

Do you need stabilizer in a saltwater pool?

Stabilizer is a chemical added to offset the harshness of chlorine. Because saltwater pools don't have the chemical chlorine, a stabilizer isn't required.

Is cyanuric acid necessary?

For this reason, it is essential that all outdoor pools using cyanuric acid as a stabilizer maintain the required free chlorine residual of 2.0-10.0 parts per million (ppm). both chlorine and cyanuric acid so it is not necessary to add cyanuric acid to the pool water.

What does cyanuric acid do in a saltwater pool?

Cyanuric acid protects chlorine from the sun, but it also restricts chlorine activity; reduces kill rates and impacts ORP. As a result, many public pools are raising their FC minimum, for pools treated with cyanuric acid, or stabilizer.

How To Balance CYANURIC ACID In Your Pool | Swim University

How do I raise the cyanuric acid in my saltwater pool?

How to Raise Cyanuric Acid in Pool
  1. Step 1) Calculate the volume of water in your pool.
  2. Step 2) Calculate the amount of cyanuric acid (stabilizer) you will need.
  3. Step 3) Add the Cyanuric Acid.
  4. Step 4) Turn your pump on to the “circulate” or “filter” setting.
  5. Step 5) Retest the water and repeat if necessary.

What should stabilizer be in salt pool?

Salt water pools are most stable with a pH of 7.6, and Alkalinity of 70-80 ppm. A stabilizer level of 50-80 ppm is recommended by most salt system manufacturers. High calcium hardness levels have no effect on salt water pools, but a level of 180-200 ppm may result in less scale on the salt cell plates.

What to do if cyanuric acid is low in pool?

Test strips are the easiest way to test cyanuric acid in your pool. Cyanuric acid is raised by adding chlorine stabilizer containing cyanuric acid. The only way to lower cyanuric acid is by replacing water.

Will low cyanuric acid make pool cloudy?

Answer: Cyanuric acid shouldn't be at Zero for an outdoor swimming pool because chlorine will deplete faster in hot and humid weather, leading to cloudy water. If your FC is at normal level of 3ppm, raise Cyanuric acid level to 40 ppm and you will reduce chloramine levels that make your water appear cloudy.

Is muriatic acid the same as cyanuric acid?

Yes both cyanuric acid and muriatic acid are both acids but they serve different purposes for the pool owner. Cyanuric acid has the chemical formula CNOH, whereas muriatic acid is a diluted form of hydrochloric acid, HCI.

How often do you put stabilizer in a salt water pool?

You should only add stabilizer if your levels are below 30ppm. Usually, all you have to do is check the level of stabilizer (cyanuric acid) in your pool every week to judge whether it's doing the job or not. What is this?

What do you do when stabilizer is low in salt water pool?

Cyanuric acid, or CYA, is a stabilizer that partially blocks sunlight on chlorine. If you have low pH and stabilizer, the most common product to use is Cyanuric Acid. The way it works is by forming a bond with the chlorine and preventing it from breaking down under the UV light.

How do I add stabilizer to my saltwater pool?

To achieve the recommended amount of 30 ppm, add one pound of CYA stabilizer per 4,000 gallons of water. The chemical is a strong acid so wearing gloves and goggles when preparing the solution is well-advised. Once the required amount of stabilizer has been calculated, mix it in a five-gallon bucket of warm water.

What kind of acid do you put in a saltwater pool?

Cyanuric acid or CYA is the preferred stabilizer for salt water pools, and it should be at 70 to 80 ppm. Last but not least is calcium hardness. You should aim for 200 to 400 ppm of calcium to prevent scaling and corrosion.

Can I add CYA and salt at the same time?

Yes, at the same time is fine. Those two don't affect each other at all.

Why is my saltwater pool cloudy?

Just like a chlorine-based pool, saltwater pools turn cloudy when chemicals are not balanced. You need to ensure that all chemicals are balanced all the time to avoid cloudy water and growth of algae. The major causes of cloudiness are chlorine, pH, Salinity, total alkalinity, cyanuric acid, and calcium hardness.

Does cyanuric acid affect pH?

All alkaline materials are buffers. Cyanuric acid happens to be the most common buffer found in pool water. In effect, cyanuric acid helps stabilize both chlorine and pH. It binds with chlorine to prevent photolysis and it keeps pH elevated.

How do you clear a cloudy saltwater pool fast?

If your chlorine levels are particularly low, you can shock your pool. This will kill off any algae and organic matter in the pool and rapidly increase the chlorine levels. It's also OK to manually add regular pool chlorine for a quick fix. You can use liquid chlorine, chlorine tablets or powdered chlorine.

Does pool shock raise cyanuric acid?

2. Dichloroisocyanuric Acid: Also known as “dichlor,” this is another type of chlorine shock. Dichlor contains both chlorine and cyanuric acid and will, over time, raise your cyanuric acid levels.

Is low cyanuric acid bad?

Recent CDC research presented at the October 2015 World Aquatic Health Conference demonstrates that even at cyanuric acid levels as low as 10 to 20 ppm, the current recommended remediation protocol is not adequate to inactivate the necessary 99.9 percent of Crypto in pool water.

Is there liquid cyanuric acid?

Cyanuric acid is available as a granular solid and as a liquid (sodium cyanurate). Most commonly, however, cyanuric acid is found in stabilized chlorines dichlor and trichlor. These stabilized chlorines have about 50-58% CYA in their formulas.

What does it mean when cyanuric acid is low in pool?

Why You Have Low Cyanuric Acid

The most likely reason is that you've only ever used unstabilized chlorine in your pool. Heads up: Unstabilized chlorine, such as sodium hypochlorite (liquid chlorine), lithium hypochlorite, and calcium hypochlorite, is pure chlorine.

Does well water have cyanuric acid?

Such should not be found in well water, but there might be similar types of organic nitrogen compounds. cyanuric acid is used in salt pools as a disinfectant. Please look out for for salth pools near the study area.

How do you make cyanuric acid?

Cyanuric acid can be produced by hydrolysis of crude or waste melamine followed by crystallization. Acid waste streams from plants producing these materials contain cyanuric acid and on occasion, dissolved amino-substituted triazines, namely, ammeline, ammelide, and melamine.

Should I add cyanuric acid to my pool?

Most often, the only time you'll need to add any significant amount of CYA is when you open your pool for the summer. After that, if you use stabilized chlorine each week, you're adding a little CYA every time.

Previous article
Why is my pool cloudy?
Next article
How long do you have to wait to put furniture on laminate flooring?