High Cyanuric Acid (Stabilizer)--Is There A Way To Adjust Without Draining Pool?
I had another post on recurrent algae if anyone is interested in problem this is tied into http://forum.doityourself.com/showthread.php?t=215813 I took water sample to the pool store yesterday to check phosphates and other readings due to the recurrent algae. All the readings were in great range. However, they said the cyanuric Acid (Stabilizer) is high--150+, and the only way to correct it is draining the entire pool. Surely there is another way? We use 3 stabilized tablets in an inline chlorinator usually set at 3. We have not added any stabilizer on it's own. We shocked with granules awhile back, which also includes stabilizer. The pool store says this high stabilizer is what is causing my recurrent algae--it doesn't allow the chlorine to work as it should. I've read up on this, and some say it's right, some say it's B.S. Last week we had 3 inches of rain added to the pool, the chlorine is at 1.2ppm free, 1.3ppm total chlorine. With all this rain added, shouldn't it help adjust my stabilizer levels a bit? Surely I don't have to drain my entire pool and start from scratch to get these stabilizer levels down do I? If so, I'm just willing to scrub algae off every few days until the stabilizer levels are down enough for my chlorine to control the algae. The pool store said adding more algaecide will not matter, since the stabilizer level will continue to cause algae to grow/make my chlorine not work properly. What's your take on this problem? As I said in my algae post, I don't always trust their recommendations. I went to a different pool store this time, they said our hardness level was down, and recommended adding 60 lbs of calcim hardness increaser. I know that is WAY too much. partially correct, the only other way to reduce the cya. is to stop using chlorine with stabilizer in the makeup example. tri-chloro and di-chloro chlorine tabs and or powder, switch to either, lithium, or liquid, or bromine, or chlorine generating system, [ preferred method ] for the algae , I suggest applied biochemists Swimtrine Plus , follow the directions there is a dosage for visible algae and a maintence dose . IT WILL KILL YOUR ALGAE . rember all the chlorine in the world is of little effect unless your ph is within acceptable range of 7.4 - 7.6 also you must know the total gallons in your pool as ALL additions of chemicals are dependent on this factor. measure length x width x ave. depth x 7.5 for square rectangle pools = total gal. steve Our pool is 18 x 36 vinyl (inground), 25,000 gallons or so. Our ph is at 7.6 I bought the swimtrine plus, but haven't added it, since they said it would do me no good with the stabilizer level high. They said the algaecide would help remove it, but it would come right back with the high stabilizer, since my chlorine won't do it's job with the high stabilizier level. Thoughts? Is it necessary for me to also use a stain and scale remover when using the Swimtrine plus? Thanks Swimtrine Plus will still work , using a stain preventative would give you an extra measure against staining your vynal liner, altho if used properly there should be no problem, after the initial dose with visable algae , switch to preventative dose . lol steve Thanks for the replies. I'll make sure I add the Swimtrine today, and keep the maintenance dose going as well as recommended. No, there's no way to neutralize Cyanuric acid. You do, indeed, have to drain the pool to get rid of it. Normally, it gets flushed out with backwashing and splashing, but it's obviously built up too much. Cyanuric acid levels should be within the range of 30-50 ppm. The best thing to do is drain your pool 3/4 of the way (if you have a vinyl liner, only drain it 1/2 way!), then fill it up. Get your levels checked again, and if necessary, drain again and re-fill to get the levels down. vermithrax, your contradicting yourself, you say theres no way to dilute cya. levels then turn around and suggest draining 3/4 of the water out, thus diluting the cya. which would be correct. however i would not suggest marc drains 3/4 of the water as that would be below the seam on the side walls allowing the liner to pull away and he would have a bigger mess on his hands. steve Thats why I use liquid chlorine all the time And all the pool guys also ED Errrr... I didn't mean no way to dilute it. But yeah, if you've got a vinyl liner, you'll only wanna go 1/2 way. Whoops. Myself, I use a saltwater chlorinator. That way I don't need to worry about it. I keep my Cyanuric acid levels around 40. Ed, Can you use liquid chlorine in a vinyl lined pool? I didn't think you could. During the time we were trying to deal with it all, we shocked the pool with calcium hypochlorite, and kept our chlorinator turned off for about 8 days, which meant no more stabilizer was being introduced into the pool for those 8 days from the tablets. We had several inches of rain. We cleaned and vacuumed to waste to get rid of some of the water. We added more water. I treated for algae and used flocculent. I vacuumed to waste again the next day and got rid of more water. We also put a filter cleaner in to clean out the sand filter, and backflushed for quite awhile until there were no more suds coming out. We added more fresh water to the top of the skimmer, then drained the water to the bottom of the plastic square where the skimmer is. We filled it back up with water to the top of the skimmer. It appears the acid level is now down to normal according to our test strips. I still need to take it to the pool store to make sure. If not, we'll drain more water and add fresh. The pool store recommended we drain to the bottom of the skimmer, add, then drain again to the bottom of the skimmer, and add. That way you're not taking too much out to affect your liner. I don't want to jinx anything, but it's been about 6 days and the algae has not grown back yet, which is a record, so hopefully the problem is solved. I did have a dream the other night, however, that I woke up and the pool was full of algae again. Hopefully that was just a bad dream. I have to drain my pool because of high cyanuric acid. Does anyone know if it will hurt my lawn. We are in a draught and could use the water on my lawn. Thanks. No, it shouldn't hurt your lawn. DO NOT COMPLETLY DRAIN, you run the risk of damaging the liner if you have a vinyl lined pool or possible damage to a gunite pool ( i know you said drought but the potential for a blow out , the pool acutally heaving out of the ground , is always a chance, i recommend CYCLING the water out, anytime you vacumm use the WASTE PORT on the filter, this will remove water and allow you to add fresh water. Pacificlear makes a cyanuric acid neutralizer, but by the time you even found it you could have your problems corrected by replacing some of your water. the cya won't hurt the lawn, but the chlorine might kill it. as far as the algaecide stuff goes, it's only good for preventive measures....once you get a bloom, chlorine is the only thing that'll kill it. What's the pacificlear product that is suppose to stabilize stabilizer? PacifiClear is a brand of pool chemicals. Originally Posted by Marc31605 We added more fresh water to the top of the skimmer, then drained the water to the bottom of the plastic square where the skimmer is. We filled it back up with water to the top of the skimmer. It appears the acid level is now down to normal according to our test strips. I still need to take it to the pool store to make sure. If not, we'll drain more water and add fresh. The pool store recommended we drain to the bottom of the skimmer, add, then drain again to the bottom of the skimmer, and add. That way you're not taking too much out to affect your liner. ==================== if it makes you feel any better, we had the same problem with too much stabilizer (aka cyanuric acid or cya), and our pool store told us the same thing (drain a foot or 2 down, refill, drain, refill, etc). we did what they said, and it worked. apparently there's just a whole heck of a lot of stabilizer in those 3 chlorine pucks (why i don't know!) and eventually the cya level just gets too high. if you ask me, draining refilling was fairly painless inexpensive! and best of all, it worked. think about it this way: they could've told you that you needed to buy this, that the other, but all it really needed was to be diluted back down to normal. hope that reassures you some. i feel your frustration. as new pool owners, it's a helpless feeling to have to rely on the advice of others when you are clueless, isn't it?! but everytime your pool people tell you to do something, and it doesn't involve them selling you something, i think that's a good sign of a good pool store! I have not tried this yet. But do you know that Cyanuric Acid has a specific gravity of 2.5? Water has a specific gravity of 1. If this is correct according to the MSDS sheet, it seems that the best way ot dilute is to turn your filter off for about three days. this will allow your chemicals to seperate. The Cyanuric Acid should settle to the bottom of your pool. At this point you should remove some water from the bottom to reduce the levels. This may reduce the amount of water that must be removed. I will let you know what happens. This is an interesting thread. Someone above posted that chlorinated water may kill your lawn. That is not so. My lawn thrives on chlorinated back wash waste water and the chlorine even helps kill chinch bugs, when i have them. Don't try that if you use salt in your pool though. As far as using super pucks and have all those problems, in future try using some super pucks in combination with granulated chlorine. I used to use strictly granules but found that I had to add muriatic acid often to keep the pH in check. Since I started using both, the pH has stayed in check and I've hardly used any muriatic acid. I've never had the problem discussed here, and have had a pool for many years. Here is my guess: If the CYA would gravitate to the bottom of the pool due to it's specific gravity being 2.5 times that of water (effectively falling out of solution) one would see a reduced CYA reading each day until such time that your reading was in or below the acceptable range. That is when I would be bottom draining the pool, filling and firing up the pump once again. That said, with the filter off for three or more days one runs the risk of starting yet another algae bloom. Has anyone done a study such as this? Welcome to the forums! Hopefully after 5 years they have it under control. Check the dates on the threads, as there is probably no one in it actively seeking advice.
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