High Cyanuric Acid Levels & How it Effects Your Pool & Some Ways to Lower it Down & Keep it Down
One of the most common water balancing
issues is having high Cyanuric Acid (CYA) in your pool. Cyanuric Acid
often referred to as Conditioner or Stabilizer is added to the pool
in order to slow the chlorine burn off caused by the Sun's UV rays.
But if you use 3” Chlorine Tablets (Trichlor Tablets) you will be
adding Cyanuric Acid to your pool on a constant basis. Here I will
discuss the effects of high CYA in your pool water, how to correct it
and ways to prevent it from rising to high levels again.
Your Pools Conditioner Level or
Cyanuric Acid level, which I will refer to in this articles with the
abbreviation CYA, is a critical part of balancing your pool water and
keeping it clear and blue all season long. If your CYA level is very
low the Sun's UV rays will cause the chlorine to burn off quickly
leaving your pool with no sanitizer or very low levels. The
Conditioner in the pool helps to protect the chlorine from burning
off too quickly.
Very high CYA levels will make the
chlorine in your pool less effective which means you will have too
keep the levels at 5.0 ppm or higher and your pool. Your pool may
also develop algae blooms even with high chlorine levels present.
These algae blooms are also hard to get rid of in a pool with very
high CYA levels. High levels of CYA will also give you false ORP
readings if your pool uses ORP to measure the safety and swim-ability
of the water. High CYA also will give you a false Alkalinity
readings, if you test the Alkalinity and it is at 100 it is more
likely at 70 due to the CYA level being so high.
The ideal level of CYA in your pool is
30-50 ppm and up to 80 ppm of you have a salt water pool. So testing
the Cyanuric Acid level in your pool at the beginning of the season
is crucial. There are many ways to test the CYA level in your pool
including the standard Turbidity test, digital testing and test
strips. Here is a video detailing the Turbidity Test Kit:
Cyanuric Acid Level with a Pentair
R151226 79 Cyanuric Acid Test Kit: https://youtu.be/Cgp_0uMS4rE
Testing the CYA level in your pool if
you suspect very high levels can be challenging. The standard
Turbidity Test Kits only work effectively to 100 ppm. If you get an
initial reading over 100 ppm you will have to do a dilution test of
50% tap water and 50% pool water. If the reading is still high you
will need to use 75% tab water and 25% pool water and so on. Each
time you dilute the sample the reading become more difficult to nail
down accurately. Test strips are a great alternative in pools that
have high CYA levels. Most test strips will go as high as 250-300 ppm
so this is good way to check pools that have very high CYA levels.
LaMotte actually makes a test strip
that will read CYA levels up to 500 ppm accurately. This is a very
handy test strip to have if you service pools for a living. Just dip
the test strip in and then match it up to the side of the tube where
there is a color chart. It is a pretty simple process and if you have
a pool that is having issues like algae blooms with high chlorine
levels or you are having to add lots of chlorine each week just to
maintain a 3.0 ppm level, check it for very high CYA levels with
these strips.
Since Cyanuric Acid does not naturally
leave the pool water if you add it to your pool through the use of 3”
Chlorinating Tablets the levels will constantly rise. These 3”
Trichlor Tablets are about 50% Conditioner per tablet by weight, so
as you use them in the Summer you are constantly adding Cyanuric Acid
to your pool water. The only wa
y Cyanuric Acid leaves the pool water
is through backwashing and splash out. As the water evaporates the
Cyanuric Acid will remain in the pool. So to lower the CYA level in
your pool you will have to do a partial or full drain of the pool
water.
There is a product called Bio-Active
which I have tested but the results can be hit or miss depending on
your initial CYA level. The product does seem to be effective but for
the price it will not lower the CYA levels down significantly enough
for the investment verses draining your pool partially. The
Bio-Active product is made for pools with CYA levels under 200 ppm in
my opinion. If your levels are over 200 ppm draining the pool is the
most effective way of reducing the levels. Once you reduce the CYA
level to under 100 ppm reduce your use of the 3” Tablets.
More on Bio-Active:
Bio-Active Cyanuric Acid Reducer – Overview:
https://youtu.be/rD-fpqZTXtA
Bio-Active Cyanuric Acid Reducer - Application
and Field Testing: https://youtu.be/5Nl100b0nRg
Bio-Active Cyanuric Acid Reducer in six sample
pools: https://youtu.be/51ShBYGi75U
An effective way to limit your 3”
TriChlor tablet use is with the PoolRx or Remington Solar
Chlorine-Free Sun Shock which both use Copper to augment the chlorine
in your pool. With one of these in your pool the chlorine levels will
remain very steady and high allowing you to reduce your chlorine use
and thew use of 3” Tablets. You would also switch over to liquid
chlorine which does not add Cyanuric Acid to your pool.
So use these test strips if you suspect
very high CYA levels in a pool. If the levels are very high reduce
them with a partial or full drain and then limit the use of the 3”
trichlor tablets to keep the CYA level between the ideal range of
30-80 ppm in your pool.
Testing your CYA levels:
How to Check the Cyanuric Acid
(Conditioner) Level : http://youtu.be/jHzMslp6Yj0
Cyanuric Acid Level with a Pentair
R151226 79 Cyanuric Acid Test Kit: https://youtu.be/Cgp_0uMS4rE
Visit
my Website: http://www.swimmingpoollearning.com/
YouTube
Video Index:
http://poolmandave.blogspot.com/2014/03/swimming-pool-tips-reviews-how-to-video.html
– A list of all of my videos:
Comments
Post a Comment