Cyanuric Acid (CYA) is also known as stabilizer and conditioner for your swimming pool. It is something that is necessary to help retain chlorine in your swimming pool but what happens when the levels get too high? In this blog post, we want to analyze this, what CYA does and what you should do if the levels get too high! Please note, most pool professionals will recommend draining your swimming pool and starting over but at Pool Water Recycling we don’t agree with that and want to show you why recycling your swimming pool water is a much better solution.

When you are concerned about chlorine loss, one of the most common chemicals used is CYA. The conditioner protects the free chlorine from being destroyed by the ultraviolet rays of the sun. CYA is known as a stabilizer for the chlorine in swimming pools exposed to sunlight.  It helps reduce the chlorine loss by protecting the free chlorine in the pool from the sun’s ultraviolet rays, which in turn reduces the amount of chlorine needed to maintain proper sanitizer levels.  Because of this, cyanuric acid can help reduce the cost of maintaining a safe and clean swimming pool. Depending on whether or not you have a salt system, the normal ranges for CYA in your swimming pool is 50 to 80 parts per million (ppm). But, what happens when those levels are higher than 80ppm?  The biggest issue would be the effectiveness of the chlorine to act as a disinfectant.  When you have higher levels of CYA it will bind with the chlorine, making it slower acting to kill bacteria and microorganisms, and prevent algae from growing.  Higher levels will also increase cloudiness in the pool water; making it very susceptible to algae growth and challenges with taking care of your swimming pool. It could also increase the amount of chlorine you will need to use to keep it clear and free of algae growth.

At this point, most pool professionals will recommend a full or partial drain of the water to lower cyanuric acid levels. Although they are correct in the need to lower the levels of CYA we don’t recommend a drain and refill. First and foremost, our fill water is extremely “hard”. It is loaded with calcium and other hardness minerals which defeat the purpose of putting good water back in your pool. Not to mention, we are experiencing major drought conditions in Southern California. Instead, Pool Water Recycling would like to introduce you to our mobile filtration trailer that comes to you. It’s equipped with Reverse Osmosis (RO) filtration that lowers calcium hardness, total dissolved solids, and cyanuric acid without draining the swimming pool. The filtered swimming pool water that returns to the swimming pool is drinkable water, which means it is the best water possible for your pool. By using our service, we can also conserve up to 85% of the existing water in the swimming pool, we never expose the liner and you can actually swim in the pool while the process is being performed (NO DOWNTIME)!

If you’re dealing with high cyanuric acid levels or calcium hardness and someone recommends a water change, please contact us first to learn about all of the benefits of using our service because you will be much happier with the end product and you will also be saving water too!