What Is Cyanuric Acid For Saltwater Pools

High levels of cyanuric acid cya in pool water can cause issues.

What is cyanuric acid for saltwater pools. In a salt water pool. Salt water generators or pool salt systems create chlorine from electrolysis of a saline solution. That s just a fancy way of saying it protects your pool s chlorine from the effects of sunlight. Cyanuric acid is used in swimming pools to lower the rate of photochemical reduction of chlorine hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite ion.

For example if your pool has a current cyanuric acid concentration of 80 ppm and you would like it to be 60 ppm then you would replace 25 of your pool s current water with fresh water. This is a bit higher than the 30 50 ppm range recommended for non saltwater pools. As long as your cyanuric acid is at a reasonable level e g. Ideal cyanuric acid levels.

Ph rise in a saltwater pool. Perhaps there are valid reasons costs structural risks labor environmental concerns. Thirdly you might be having excess or less chlorine stabilizer cyanuric acid in your water which is always one of the major reasons free chlorine does not hold longer in any pool the ideal range for cyanuric acid in order for your fc to hold in saltwater pool is between 60 and 80 ppm but this also depends on the temperature around where. Saltwater pool manufacturers recommend maintaining cyanuric acid levels around 60 80 ppm.

In the process of making your own chlorine chemical reactions occur that aren t present in tablet chlorinated pools. Less than 100 ppm you may find it more convenient to raise free chlorine than replace water. The world health organization recommends an upper limit of 100 parts per million ppm of cyanuric acid in a swimming pool. To test your pool water buy either a liquid turbidity test kit or test strips formulated to detect cyanuric acid.

Since it s invention in 1829 cyanuric acid has been revered as magical invaluable and essential to keeping chlorinated pools clean and sanitary. If you want to raise your pool s cyanuric acid levels plan on testing the water once a week since cyanuric acid needs to be balanced with the other chemicals in your pool like chlorine. Often described as sun block for chlorine cyanuric acid cya is most commonly found in 3 inch chlorine tablets used in maintaining swimming pools. It can also be added to pools separately in non tablet form most commonly to protect the free chlorine generated by a salt water pool.

That s why minimal cya is orenda s fourth pillar of proactive pool care. They arrived at this number based on the assumption that children will likely swallow some water while swimming and if they ingest too much cya it can make them sick. A common pool service household name cyanuric acid is now in the toolbox of most residential and commercial pool service professionals who are servicing outdoor pools.