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.
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.
Check your pool chemistry once a week with test strips that measure CYA or cyanuric acid. Remember, your free chlorine levels should be about 7.5 percent of your CYA levels.
Although there are no known adverse health effects associated with high CYA concentrations, most health officials usually limit CYA levels to 100 ppm. Some states recommend a lower level for spas, and some jurisdictions ban the use of CYA altogether.
The main reason for high CYA levels in your pool is from using too much stabilized chlorine. When the pool water evaporates, CYA remains in the water, much like other chemicals such as salt and calcium. As an example, 1 lb. of trichlor in a 10,000 gallon pool will raise the CYA level by 6 ppm.
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.
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.
Clearly, when cyanuric acid is in the water, it overpowers pH in terms of controlling chlorine strength.
Baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate is naturally alkaline, with a pH of 8. When you add baking soda to your pool water, you will raise both the pH and the alkalinity, improving stability and clarity. Many commercial pool products for raising alkalinity utilize baking soda as their main active ingredient.
The half-life of chlorine—when exposed to direct sunlight—is about 45 minutes. That means half your chlorine is gone in 45 minutes. Another 45 minutes, another half of your chlorine is gone.
Cyanuric Acid (CYA) is a pool balancing product used to help chlorine last longer. Chlorine, in its natural form, is unstabilized—which means it degrades when exposed to sunlight. Adding Cyanuric Acid reduces the sun's impact on chlorine loss.
Use your test strips to monitor the chlorine stabilizer amounts. If the number falls below 40 ppm, add stabilizer. This level, unless it's extremely warm outside, will rarely decrease if you maintain your pool's chemicals regularly.
If you have a pH reading of 7.8 or higher, and an average size (15,000 gallons) in-ground pool, you should add 1/4 gallon (a quart) of muriatic acid, and re-test after the water has circulated for an hour.
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.
But if the cloudy water persists long after you've shocked the pool, you're likely having an issue with water balance, circulation, or filtration. Heavy use of a calcium based pool shock (cal-hypo) may increase Calcium Hardness over a period of time, increasing your odds of cloudy water.
As mentioned earlier, it will take at least 48 hours and up to a week to fully dissolve. Powdered cyanuric acid is not so common and it may not be available to buy in your area. It's reported to not dissolve any faster than granular stabilizer.
Pump / Filter Status – After adding your cyanuric acid, keep the pump running for at least 8 hours for the cyanuric acid to fully circulate around your pool. Do not clean or backwash your filters for at least 48 hours to allow the cyanuric acid to be fully dissolved.
The tried-and-true way to remove cyanuric acid is to drain the pool. If, for example, the pool has 200 ppm cyanuric acid, then an 80% drain and refill ought to bring the pool to a desirable 40 ppm cyanuric acid. It's important to recognize that doing two 40% drain and refills will not achieve this result.
We also found that cyanuric acid is denser than water so it sinks to the bottom of a body of water.
What happens when CYA in a pool is too high? – CYA Levels exceeding a threshold of 70 parts-per-million of cyanuric acid can reduce the effectiveness of the chlorine in a pool. The amount of time it takes to kill bacteria lengthens as the concentration of CYA increases. The ideal level for CYA is 30-50 ppm.
When the product reaches the filter, there may be a temporary increase in filter pressure which will dissipate as the product dissolves. You may swim immediately if Stabilizer was added through the skimmer, otherwise wait 12 hours to swim until all product in the pool is dissolved.
Clorox has absolutely NO Cyanuric Acid (CYA) in it nor does it increase CYA at all when you use it. You should show them. It's mostly water, then sodium hypochlorite (i.e. chlorine), and sodium chloride salt, and then a small amount of sodium hydroxide and a very small amount of sodium polyacrylate.
Regular bleach, or sodium hypochlorite – contains no cyanuric acid. Household bleach is normally a 5% or 6% strength, while commercial strength bleach for pools is generally 12.5% strength, and delivered by truck and hose.