There are times when you test your water and you notice that one reading is low, cyanuric acid (CYA).  You can ignore it if you wish, but you’ll wind up using way more chlorine. You’ll quickly figure out that when you have low cyanuric acid, chlorine burns off with simple sunshine.  So what can you do?  You’re probably wondering how to raise cyanuric acid in pool and hot tubs. Throughout this article, we’ll answer how to do this and some pros tips about the process.

2 Methods How To Raise Cyanuric Acid In Pool

In this article, we’re covering two distinct ways to increase cyanuric acid. Then, we’ll cover some risk factors to keep in mind when adding cyanuric acid to your swimming pool. You can use either method and we recommend validating your fix with a test kit.

First Method: Add Pool Stabilizer To Your Pool

The first answer for how to raise cyanuric acid in pool is to add, you guessed it, cyanuric acid!  This is usually sold as ‘pool stabilizer’, ‘pool conditioner’, or ‘chlorine stabilizer’.  This is likely due to good marketing.  It doesn’t sound all that great to call something an ‘acid’ when you can call it stabilizer or conditioner.  In any case, you’re adding cyanuric acid.

This stuff is important as it keeps your free chlorine in an available state without letting it be burned off as quickly by the sun.  This provides a free and stabilized chlorine residual to do the work of disinfection in your pool.  

You might be thinking ‘Hey, I have a salt pool, I have natural chlorine, do I need this stuff?’.  Well, I hate to break it to you, your salt pool is a bleach pool.  That’s right, salt pools are actually bleach generation machines.

Furthermore, bleach made from a salt system needs stabilization just like bleach you pour in from a jug. If you don’t have cyanuric acid in your salt pool, you’ll need your salt system to pump out way more chlorine than it otherwise would need to.  Additionally, you’ll cause the chlorine generation cell to fail prematurely.

Second Method: Switch To Stabilizer Dichlor/Trichlor

The second method for how to raise cyanuric acid in pool is to switch your chlorine source to stabilized Dichlor or Trichlor.  These chlorine sources have cyanuric acid built into their chemistry. Therefore, while you add the chlorine, you are also adding cyanuric acid.  This is a convenient way to add chlorine while avoiding the need to handle cyanuric acid separately.  

There is however a risk whenever using dichlor, trichlor, or adding cyanuric acid on its own.  However you are adding cyanuric acid, you must keep an eye on your cyanuric acid levels.  Even though you might know how to raise cyanuric acid in pool, you want to be sure you don’t raise it too high.  

This is where a convenient cyanuric acid test kit comes in handy.  If you have a full test kit, with up to date reagents, great.  If you don’t have an up to date cyanuric acid test, Pentair makes a great cyanuric acid test kit just for testing cyanuric acid levels.  

What To Do If You Accidentally Raise CYA Too High

The reason you want to make sure and keep an eye on your cyanuric acid levels, is that your CYA can quickly become too high. You’ll need to do one of the 2 things to lower cyanuric acid in your pool.  You will need to either use a chemical CYA remover (a time consuming process) or drain the pool partially and refill to get back into balance.  Both situations are best avoided if possible.  

How To Raise Cyanuric Acid In Pool Summary

So, how to raise cyanuric acid in pool?  Add cyanuric acid, or start using dichlor or trichlor to chlorinate your pool.  Whichever you choose, keep an eye on your water chemistry. If you do that, your pool will be back in balance in no time.