But wait! Let me introduce you to the newest weapon in your pool care arsenal: cyanuric acid. This little miracle worker is going to be your best friend to protect your precious chlorine and keep your pool clean and sparkling all summer long. Cyanuric acid, as its name suggests, is an acid. Feel smarter yet? You may have heard it called CYA, pool stabilizer, pool conditioner, or chlorine stabilizer. Cyanuric acid is sold in liquid or granule form and is sometimes combined with chlorine.
In this combined state it is called stabilized chlorine. Cyanuric acid is a chemical compound in the triazine family, which basically means that its chemical makeup includes three nitrogens and three carbon atoms. It forms a weak and temporary bond with chlorine, which affects the chlorine more than the cyanuric acid itself. Chemically speaking, sodium dichlor is made up of one cyanuric acid molecule with two chlorine atoms and one sodium atom.
This combination forms stable chlorine, which comes as a colorless solid. Cyanuric acid is used in swimming pools to lower the rate of photochemical reduction of chlorine, hypochlorous acid, and hypochlorite ion. Once you add chlorine to your pool, the big yellow thing in the sky goes to work burning off the chlorine through chemical reactions, seriously decreasing the power of the chlorine in your pool water.
The cyanuric acid extends the life of the chlorine by shielding it from ultraviolet rays. Without it, the ultraviolet rays from the sun would break apart the chlorite ions, allowing the chlorine to just evaporate into thin air.
It literally stabilizes the ion, making it resistant to any chemical changes. The reaction can also go the other way and release free chlorine. The free chlorine in your pool will then be available for sanitizing far longer than it would be without using stabilizer. In other words, it takes stabilized chlorine longer to kill bacteria than it takes chlorine without stabilizer.
It stays in your water for a long time. With too little cyanuric acid, your chlorine disappears quickly. Most complete pool test kits come with a test for cyanuric acid but you can also get separate tests or test strips to check your levels.
You can crack open a beer and relax by the pool. Need a refresher on how to add cyanuric acid? We got you covered: jump down to the next section. The easiest and most affordable way to reduce cyanuric acid is to drain some of the water from your pool and add some clean water. In that case, there are cyanuric acid reducer products on the market that will bring down the levels in your pool but only if they are ppm or higher.
This process usually involves dissolving some granules in a bucket and pouring it around the edges of your pool.
However, there are some companies that recommend adding it directly to your pool. Without it, any chlorine you add will be gone in a matter of hours, completely wasting your time and money not to mention leaving your pool open to bacteria and algae attacks. About Us Privacy Policy. Starter Guide. Share on facebook. Share on twitter. Share on pinterest.
Share on linkedin. Pool Care , Pool Chemistry. By Rick Patterson July 27, More Reading. Optimal level is the best. Too little is not good because the Chlorine atoms can not find enough Nitrogen atoms in the CYA molecules. The Free Chlorine will deplete fast if your pool is exposed to sunlight. The FC level will drop below 1 ppm. Bacteria will be able to multiply and flourish making your pool unsafe to swim in. Your family, especially younger children or the elderly, will be exposed to the risk of bacterial infections.
The ability of free chlorine to kill bacteria is not a simple function of the amount of free chlorine in the pool. In the swimming pool environment, the free chlorine, and the resulting hypochlorous acid HOCl are the Oxidants. The microorganisms, such as the bacteria and algae, are the Reductants. If their level is high then ORP levels will drop and the chlorine will be less effective in killing bacteria. In other words the free chlorine is less effective in killing the bacteria and keeping your pool safe.
Worst of all, higher than optimal levels of CYA promote the growth of a dangerous microorganism called Cryptosporidium parvum.
This is a chlorine resistant organism known to cause gastrointestinal illness. The ORP level is also impacted by the pH level of the pool water. Higher pH levels reduce ORP level and vice versa. For example, if your pool maintains a pH of 7. If you introduce just 30 ppm of cyanuric acid to the pool, this drops to 1.
Based on information collected from various reliable sources the CYA levels in a swimming pool should be between ppm. The level of cyanuric acid in a pool should be routinely measured with a test kit made for this purpose. The trouble is that CYA does not dissipate or evaporate. It just stays in the pool. Chlorine levels in a swimming pool are often topped up using sanitizing products containing trichlor or dichlor. Chlorine gets depleted as it kills bacteria, but CYA lingers on.
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