Keeping Calcium Hardness and CYA Low In Las Vegas Pools

Are any of you aware of all that can happen when Calcium Hardness and Cyanuric Acid levels get high in your swimming pool? Cyanuric Acid (CYA) is also known as stabilizer and conditioner for your swimming pool. It is a chemical that is necessary to help retain chlorine in your swimming pool. However, as much as it is important, what happens when the levels get too high? 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. 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.

Whereas, high levels of Calcium Hardness will cause scaling to the water tile line, the interior finish, the filtration equipment, spillways and decorative water features. If you happen to have a salt chlorinator it can prevent it from functioning properly. In the end, if either one of these levels is high, a water change is necessary and at Clark County Pool & Lawn we highly recommend recycling the swimming pool using Reverse Osmosis (RO) filtration. Just this past week we filtered a 15,000-gallon swimming pool with high levels of calcium and CYA.

Initial Chemistry

Calcium Hardness – 1200ppm

CYA – 200ppm

Total Dissolved Solids – 3220ppm

After filtering this swimming pool for 12 hours we were able to lower their water chemistry to the following:

Ending Chemistry

Calcium Hardness – 120ppm

CYA – 20ppm

Total Dissolved Solids – 484ppm

Please note, in the Las Vegas area the calcium coming out of the tap is 400ppm and higher which means choosing to use our service is a much better option. If you should have any questions, please contact us today!