Being a great pool owner is an act of balancing art, maintaining the most ideal water chemistry balance within your pool can seem like a never-ending process, what if we told you that there is an actual chemical that can help prolong the use and effectiveness of your chlorine?
If you haven’t heard of Cyanuric Acid, just think that it’s a chlorine’s bodyguard, better known as a water stabilizer or conditioner. The main job is to stabilize and protect the chlorine in your water, affecting and controlling your chlorine levels and making it more sanitized and stabilized.
Cyanuric Acid is like a sunscreen for your pool water’s chlorine, similar to your skin, Chlorine particles are sensitive to the sun’s UV rays, when the rays hit chlorine particles, they destabilize, break, and tear apart and subsequently evaporate out of the pool. Just like a strong SPF on your skin, Cynauric acid binds to the chlorine particles and protects them from the sun’s UV rays.
This helping hand from Cyanuric Acid drastically prolongs the life of the chlorine. If left unprotected, UV rays can destroy up to 90% of the chlorine in your pool in just two hours! Not only is that a huge waste of money, but it also leaves your pool without any sanitizing abilities.
Unlike with another pool chemicals, it is essential to test Cyanuric Acid levels weekly, regular testing helps identify the gaps and problems, preventing them from getting out of hand. Ideally, your pool’s Cyanuric Acid should range between 30-100 ppm (parts per million).
It is quite crucial to know what form of chlorine you must use in your pool before you start adding the acid.
Stabilized chlorine: Better known as sodium dichlor and trichlor. A stabilized chlorine is much more suitable for using outdoor pools since Cyanuric Acid is compounded into this form of chlorine, you don’t have to worry as much about sun exposure. If starting with a freshly filled pool, add a slight amount of conditioner to get your cyanuric acid levels up to the low end of the ideal range, which must be around 30 ppm.
Unstabilized chlorine: Available as calcium hypochlorite (cal-hypo) or sodium hypochlorite (liquid chlorine), unstabilized chlorine is a common primary sanitizer for indoor pools and commercial/public pools, or it can be used to shock outdoor pools.
Increasing the level of Cyanuric Acid in your pool is fairly simple. If the level drops below 30 ppm in your outdoor pool, you will need to add a granular or liquid water conditioner to your pool. Remember, Cyanuric Acid is also referred to as a pool water conditioner or stabilizer.
When using stabilized chlorine or adding extra Cyanuric Acid to your pool, it is crucial to frequently test your pool water. Too much Cyanuric Acid can affect the oxidizing capabilities of the chlorine in your pool, leading to sanitization inefficiencies, algae blooms, cloudy water, inaccurate water test results, and other issues. If you find the Cyanuric Acid level is above 100–125 ppm, you may need to bring the level down in order to maintain clean and healthy pool water.
