How much cyanuric acid for a 50,000 litre pool?

Stabiliser dose for a 50,000 litre pool. Cyanuric acid is sunscreen for chlorine: without it an unshaded pool loses most of its chlorine in a single day.

To take an unstabilised 50,000 litre pool to 40 ppm

2 kg

↳ Dissolves slowly. Re-test in about a week before adding more.

Change the volume or the readings and it recalculates.

Dose table for 50,000 litres

Cyanuric acid (stabiliser) needed in a 50,000 litre pool.
Cyanuric acid rise (ppm)Stabiliser
10500 g
201,000 g
301.5 kg
402 kg
502.5 kg

Stabiliser only goes one way

Stabiliser is the one reading that only goes up. Nothing consumes it, so the only way down is replacing water. It also raises the free chlorine you have to hold, by roughly 7.5% of the cyanuric acid reading as a floor. That trade is why 30 to 50 ppm suits most pools and 60 to 80 ppm suits salt pools, rather than more being better.

Dosing a 50,000 litre pool

At 50,000 litres a full correction is a lot of product at once. Spread it across the deep end, run the pump through the whole dose, and test only after a full turnover. Big pools also stratify, so one sample from one corner is not the pool.

Safety

  • Granular stabiliser dissolves slowly. A sock in the skimmer basket is the usual trick, and do not backwash for a couple of days.
  • Do not test for a week, because the reading lags well behind the dose.

Frequently asked questions

How much stabiliser for a 50,000 litre pool?

2 kg takes a 50,000 litre pool from zero to 40 ppm of cyanuric acid. Below about 30 ppm, sunlight strips chlorine faster than most pools can replace it.

How do I lower cyanuric acid?

Drain and refill. No chemical removes it reliably, so the only real control is not overshooting in the first place.

Do stabilised chlorine tablets count?

Yes, and this is how most pools end up too high. Trichlor tablets and dichlor granules both carry stabiliser, so a season of tablets adds a lot without you dosing any.

How this is worked out

Every number here comes from the same engine as the DoseMyPool app and the calculator above, run at 50,000 litres. Amounts are estimates: product strengths vary, so follow the label on the bottle you own. See the full method

Other chemicals for 50,000 litres

Other pool volumes

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