When the cyanuric acid level of your pool is at equilibrium, it’s such a beautiful thing because the chlorine level of your pool is maintained and stabilized to a certain degree. However, when the levels become too high, it can render the chlorine in your pool useless, making the water contaminated.
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What is Cyanuric Acid?
Cyanuric acid is a chemical substance that enhances the effects of chlorine in the pool to clean and sanitize the water. This is not a tough chemical to find as you can purchase it yourself or its added as droplets to your chlorine tablets. The reason why Cyanuric acid is the best option to use is that it has little effect on calcium hardness of the water, alkalinity, or pH levels.
You may hear people refer to it as a pool conditioner, and the reason for this is that it weakens the strength of chlorine and makes it less abrasive on the body of swimmers and objects in the pool. Still, its main job is to enhance the chlorine effect in the pool, protect the water from bacteria and algae, and shield the impact of chlorine from being broken down by external elements such as the weather.
Why Does the Pool Need Cyanuric Acid?
We need to pour cyanuric acid into our pools to stabilize the chlorine molecules and keep it from breaking down in the sun. It also reduces the growth of algae in our pools due to its enhancing effect on the chlorine. You should note that this chemical should be used for only outdoor pool. It should not be used for indoor pools except the pool has open areas or is surrounded by lots of windows.
What Level of Cyanuric Acid is Necessary?
The proper level of cyanuric acid to use in your pools is a small amount that can be in the form of droplets, but if you’re afraid of adding more than what is required, you can add it in trace amounts. Anything higher than the optimum level, which is 30-50 ppm (parts per million), will keep the chlorine from being killed by the sun but will neutralize all of its effectiveness in killing bacteria.
What Causes the High Cyanuric Acids in Pools?
A common cause for the increase in cyanuric acids in pools is a result of the user’s habits, and these things happen without the user’s knowledge. The use of stabilized chlorine adds cyanuric acid every time you make use of it. When the water evaporates, it leaves traces of cyanuric acid behind. Stabilized chlorine makes cyanuric acid accumulate fast. One pound of Trichlor in 10,000 gallons of water will add six ppm of cyanuric acid, so imagine what would accumulate in a month after the number of times you add it to the pool. You need to take note of this as a pool owner or pool professional who looks after pools.
How to Lower Cyanuric Acid in Pools?
What would you do if you notice that your cyanuric acid levels are high? It’s simple. The most economical way to reduce cyanuric acid in your pools is to drain the pools or add fresh water to the pool. These are the simplest methods to get things done. Still, there are also specialized filters that can be used to capture the acid and extract it from the pool in a reverse osmosis system. Just note that reverse osmosis is quite costly, but it will serve best in areas where they’re not able to drain the pool.
The bottom line to the use of cyanuric acid is to keep its level quite low enough to manage sanitation and keep LSI balanced. But if you find out that your cyanuric acid level is quite high, diluting the pool or draining it is your best option to take.
