I tried the stuff last October. I had CYA in the 180+ range. Got the pool set up as per the instructions and had 3 days of nearly perfect weather. On the fourth day, as it often does here in N. Texas, temp rose to 90 and (ka-blam) algae outbreak. Slammed pool, remeasured CYA and it was 140 or so....so the goo didn't have as long as it was supposed to to have maximum effect. So, don't know if it was worth the dough. Shortly thereafter I drained and refilled a bit more than half the pool and the result was a CYA around 70. Switched to a SWCG this Spring, so no more CYA probs......
Another go at BioActive cyanuric acid reduction
- Thread starter BenWilder
- Start date
Over and over, the anecdotal evidence that bioactive CYA reducer doesn't work is overwhelming. Yet, I have seen on this forum that "I'm gonna' try it anyway" is a viable response. Wow!
It simply doesn't work and anyone posts that it does is a shill for the company.
It simply doesn't work and anyone posts that it does is a shill for the company.
- May 23, 2015
- 24,444
- Pool Size
- 16000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Pentair Intellichlor IC-60
The above is exemplary of the types of reports we saw. The main problem is that, at these elevated CYA levels, the melamine test is very inaccurate. In order to measure CYA above 100ppm, it is necessary to do a 1:1 dilution and doing that dilution effectively doubles the tolerance of the test. So now a CYA measurement that normally has a +/-15ppm tolerance, now has a +/-30ppm tolerance. Since most users couldn't confirm a change in CYA much larger than 40ppm when using this product, the results were effectively useless because they were very near the margin of error.
Add to that the sporadic nature of the two phase decomposition of CYA by the enzymes (CYA --> ammonia --> nitrogen/nitrates, some people never achieved the second phase and got an ammonia build up), the product really never worked as advertised. Initially a technical representative from BioWish came on to the forum to help with technical issues but then stopped responding and never posted after the first few failure reports started coming in.
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Of all the recommendations I got from my local pool store (before going "all in" with TFP), the best I ever got was to "save my money and not even attempt to fix" my earlier CYA problem with this Bioactive product.....even the gal at the store would not recommend it for reducing very high CYA levels (no doubt brought on by all of the additives they sell you while helping you "maintain" your water....and a supply stream to your wallet!). I finally resolved to "flush and fill" the pool and maintain the water without their stuff any more.....and my test kit arrived today, so I'm off to the house to test my water the TFP way ---ooooh, what surprises await me????
The pool store sells many things that we refute here and do not or rarely recommend using, algaecide, clarifier, floc and many more. This is just another thing on the list that rarely works, if ever. Sometimes CYA eating bacteria convert CYA into ammonia and requires enormous amounts of bleach to fix.
I tried B-A last summer (see: Green water. High CYA ) and couldn't show any positive impact of the product.
That said, i did (prior to the B-A) have a mysterious visit from the CYA-reducing faerie and we never really nailed down what happened. I was looking at this patent form 1973 -- Patent US3878208 - Treatment of aqueous waste streams with hydrogen peroxide to remove ... - Google Patents -- and i had some thoughts that maybe chem geek can comment on. If i added enough H2O2, could i have dechlorinated the CYA enough that it fell out of suspension? The "milky"/"cloudy" water that BenWilder described above sounded familiar so i went back and looked at my own thread. Could that have been the CYA (or a CYA salt? sodium cyanurates?) precipitating and eventually getting pulled out by the (cartridge) filter? Note that i also reported a relatively high pH.
That sounds like it would also correlate with the folklore around successful B-A applications involving zeroing out the FC (e.g. CYA natural reduction rate )
This more-recent patent also talks about "green water" from possible metal-related reactions (as opposed to algae) and sorta rambles about the helpful interaction of a reducing agent in preventing it -- Patent US20130186837 - Method and Kit for Reducing Cyanuric Acid Levels in Pool Water - Google Patents
That said, i did (prior to the B-A) have a mysterious visit from the CYA-reducing faerie and we never really nailed down what happened. I was looking at this patent form 1973 -- Patent US3878208 - Treatment of aqueous waste streams with hydrogen peroxide to remove ... - Google Patents -- and i had some thoughts that maybe chem geek can comment on. If i added enough H2O2, could i have dechlorinated the CYA enough that it fell out of suspension? The "milky"/"cloudy" water that BenWilder described above sounded familiar so i went back and looked at my own thread. Could that have been the CYA (or a CYA salt? sodium cyanurates?) precipitating and eventually getting pulled out by the (cartridge) filter? Note that i also reported a relatively high pH.
That sounds like it would also correlate with the folklore around successful B-A applications involving zeroing out the FC (e.g. CYA natural reduction rate )
This more-recent patent also talks about "green water" from possible metal-related reactions (as opposed to algae) and sorta rambles about the helpful interaction of a reducing agent in preventing it -- Patent US20130186837 - Method and Kit for Reducing Cyanuric Acid Levels in Pool Water - Google Patents