In the pool industry, Cyanuric Acid is known as chlorine stabilizer or pool conditioner. 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.
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.
– Cyanuric acid is a chlorine stabilizer for swimming pools. been shown to reduce the amount of chlorine needed to maintain the minimum chlorine residual in an outdoor pool.
Pool stabilizer is also sometimes called pool conditioner, chlorine stabilizer, or cyanuric acid (CYA). Its purpose is to stabilize the chlorine in your pool water, so the sanitizer lasts longer. This will ultimately help keep your water clean for a longer period of time.
Adding Stabilizer
In general, about 13 ounces of granular stabilizer will raise the CYA level of 10,000 gallons of water by 10 parts per million. Add the stabilizer to the skimmer basket while the pump is running, and keep the pump running for 24 hours after you add the stabilizer.
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.
Pool stabilizer is also known as pool conditioner, chlorine pool stabilizer, chlorine stabilizer, or Cyanuric Acid. And you can buy this chemical additive as either liquid or granular (powder). It's also included in chlorine tablets or sticks (called trichlor) or shock (called dichlor).
Areas exposed to high levels of sunlight should maintain 60 – 80 ppm (parts per million). Pools using an ORP Controller (Oxidation Reduction Potential) such as the AutoPilot Total Control, should maintain 30-50 ppm. Indoor pools do not need cyanuric acid, unless it gets periodic exposure to sunlight.
The addition of a cyanuric acid stabilizer to pool waters treated with chlorine is necessary to protect the active life of chlorine and its derivatives in the waters from the damaging effects of the sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays. When exposed to UV rays, chlorine evaporates rapidly.
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.
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.
You should keep your outdoor pool or spa's Cyanuric Acid level at 0-30 parts per million (PPM).
Is Having Low Cyanuric Acid a Problem? Chlorine is actually more effective at killing the bad bugs when pool stabilizer is low. The problem with low cyanuric acid is chlorine degrades quickly in the presence of sunlight. Chlorine is rendered completely ineffective within a few hours of sun exposure.
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.
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.
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.
If the stabilizer level is too high in a pool, it will lock the chlorine molecules, rendering them ineffective as a sanitizer. This usually happens as a result of using chlorine tablets that contain cyanuric acid.
Borax is tremendously effective at stabilizing alkalinity and acting as a pH buffer in swimming pools.
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.
Shock does not contain any cyanuric acid, so after 24 hours, the elevated amounts of chlorine are no longer in the pool. as 90 percent of the chlorine in the water in two hours.
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.
Along with balancing the pH levels of your pool water, muriatic acid is strong enough to kill mold, remove rust stains, get rid of calcium deposits, and clean the surfaces of your pool.
Dichlor and trichlor contain both chlorine and cyanuric acid so it is not necessary to add cyanuric acid to the pool water. Stabilizer (aka cyanuric acid) is also sold at most pool supply stores. Cal-hypo and liquid chlorine do not contain stabilizer.
In the pool industry, Cyanuric Acid is known as chlorine stabilizer or pool conditioner.