Pool owners rejoice when temperatures rise! As you take to the pool for the summer, you might not realize your cyanuric acid (CYA) levels could also be rising. Some CYA in your pool is helpful because it acts as a sunscreen, protecting Chlorine from UV light. But add too much, and it keeps the Chlorine from sanitizing.
How do you know whether you have the right amount?
Is your CYA too high?
Also known as stabilizer or conditioner, CYA binds to the chlorine to keep it from evaporating. You’ll find it in trichlor or dichlor tabs, and any kind of stabilized chlorine on the market for your pool. It’s also sold separately as a stand-alone product that you can add yourself.
Just because CYA is in lots of pools doesn’t mean all pool owners understand it, though.
Adding more stabilized chlorine means adding more CYA. Over time, this can lead to a problematic buildup. Experts recommend between 30 and 50 ppm CYA for the right balance, and regulation requires less than 100 ppm CYA. But what happens when your pool’s levels rise above this?
The chlorine can’t do its job – it’s bound to the CYA, instead of being free and available to sanitize and oxidize. That makes for a germy pool. It can also mean algae growth. The only way to know if you have too much CYA is to test for it.
Advancements in CYA test strip technology
Once upon a time, a test strip could only test for CYA up to 150 ppm. It was hard to get a clear picture of how high the level really was. Bio-Active has been working hard to fix that.
We partnered with Hach to build a fast, convenient strip that can give you a more precise reading of higher CYA levels.
The more information you have about your pool, the better you can take care of it. There is a big difference between a level of 30-50 ppm CYA, where Chlorine is very effective to kill bacteria and 250 ppm CYA, where you might have a much bigger problem to maintain an algae free pool. With the right test strips, you can assess the situation with confidence.
Can we find a different way to write this sentence? It just read funny to me. It may also be good to mention that at 120ppm, your CYA isn’t that far from the recommended zone. So many people may have ignored it as a “minor” problem until their CYA levels reached significantly higher levels.
Easy CYA testing method
The color code is right there on the packaging. It’s easy to tell whether your levels are good, bordering too high or very high.
If you use CYA or any kind of stabilized chlorinating agent, you’ll need to test CYA levels throughout the lifetime of your pool. Visit BioActiveNow.com for more information about our new test strips.