Low cost water filter project

[longbow]

Group assignment...

The first home grown project is to come up with ideas to make a low cost water filter. It should be designed to clean water from ponds, streams or rivers that we would encounter in Indiana. This will be your main survival water filter for your family and it should produce 5 gallons of water per day, everyday.

Please understand this filtered water will still be boiled for cooking, or drinking.

Come up with ideas from local store bought materials or items around the house that can accomplish this task.

We also need to know what consumables would be needed to keep the filter in operation for long term.

Drawings, pictures, material lists and links are all good for this thread.

 

[Sailor]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHilE1ukkjY[/ame]

Slow sand filter?

 

[RichardR]

Material list:

2' of clear aquarium air tubing.
"micro-bubble" ceramic aquarium air stone.
large plastic syringe (to get siphon action of the line started).

Cost: about 3 bucks total.

A couple of points to note;

1.) this is not an end-all-be-all filter system, I use it more of a pre-filter to help extend the life of more expensive water filters by removing some of the "non-microscopic particles" from the water.

2.) do not use plastic or crushed glass aquarium bubblers, use only the "micro-bubble" ceramic ones as the ceramic pore sizes are a lot smaller in diameter & will catch/filter more of the junk from the water.

 

[Sailor]

One pound of Calcium Hypochlorite from Walmart for $5 will treat 10,000 gallons of water FYI.

 

[shibumiseeker]

As Sailor said, hypochlorite and a sand filter. If you really want to get fancy, make charcoal and add it to the sand filter.

Very cheap, very easy, if both are utilized, no further treatment will be needed for particulate and biological purification. It will not removed dissolved contaminates.


You can build a sand filter with nothing more than a sheet of plastic.

 

[RichardR]

Solar still's are quick & easy to build too, one of my previously posted to the internet projects I used the bed of my pickup truck (black bed liner), a large clear plastic sheet, a rock & a 5 gallon bucket to make a decent sized, portable one.

 

[4sarge]

As Sailor said, hypochlorite and a sand filter. If you really want to get fancy, make charcoal and add it to the sand filter.

OK, School me on the Charcoal. Is Activated Charcoal required or can I use just plain old cheap charcoal ?

 

[Sailor]

OK, School me on the Charcoal. Is Activated Charcoal required or can I use just plain old cheap charcoal ?

Burn wood with low amount of O2 makes charcoal.

 

[shibumiseeker]

OK, School me on the Charcoal. Is Activated Charcoal required or can I use just plain old cheap charcoal ?

You can't use charcoal briquettes, but you can make activated charcoal yourself pretty readily. There's several DIY places on the net (and a large number of them are cannabis growing fora, so beware )

The harder the wood the better and if the chemical activation route is used the potassium hydroxide is readily available in wood ash.

 

[longbow]

I like the backflow bucket video, but would make it in a square container because it is easier to seal up.

 

[navarre1095]

I treat water professionally and feel that slow sand (bio sand) is the most cost effective way to treat water.
Biosand filter slow sand filter picture
Clean Water for All - Construction
The household slow sand filter
WHO | Slow sand filtration
Zombie Squad • View topic - Long Term Water Treatment

This is a good set up
A Practical, Life-Sustaining Water Filter | Monolithic

This is hands down the best system IMPO
Sawyer® Products - The Leader in Outdoor Protection

Best disinfection system IMPO
MSR MIOX Purifier Pen Mixed oxidants, On site Hypochlorite generation, Biofilm, Chlorination, Municipal Water disinfection treatment reuse

 

[Cpt Caveman]

simple video with a cow and pac man bugs in the water!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaOOmaGzx0g&feature=player_embedded[/ame]

 

[Colt.45]

Hey does any of you know where to get a good set of water purification tables, WP straws, WP filters , WP pump or anything like that? I'd prefer it not to be online but a place where I can walk in and pay with cash. Thanks!!

 

[HICKMAN]

I stocked up on a bunch of Brita water pitcher filters from CVS

 

[Steve]

Would the Brita filters do a good enough job on filtering pond or creek water? You would still need to boil it as well, right? If you used Calcium Hypochlorite in addition to filtering the water, would you still need to boil it?

 

[longbow]

Would the Brita filters do a good enough job on filtering pond or creek water? You would still need to boil it as well, right? If you used Calcium Hypochlorite in addition to filtering the water, would you still need to boil it?

Yes, but they would not last long from clogging and can't be cleaned......I

 

[longbow]

Good posts, but still thinking home grown systems.

What happens if the family dog runs off and chews up you sawyer water filter? Or your place burns down and your very cool water system is destroyed in the fire.

 

[navarre1095]

I like the way that you are approaching this. Mostly you get the "I have the megapure 5000. Any else is a waste of money." Or, "all I have to do is boil the water for X minutes."

Bio sand filters are the shizznit. What's great about them is the bio film that forms on the sand EATS the critters in the water. Yes, they will freeze and no they don't have any charcoal. You don't necessarily need charcoal to get DRINKABLE water. the rest of the world gets by on far "dirtier" water than we are used to.
Typical slow sand filter performance.

Turbidity <1.0 NTU
Coliforms 1-3 log units
Enteric Viruses 2-4 log units
Giardia Cysts 2-4+log units
Cryptosporidium Oocysts >4 log units
Dissolved Organic Carbon <15-25%
Biodegradable
Dissolved Organic Carbon <50%
Trihalomethane Precursors <20-30%
Heavy Metals
Zn, Cu, Cd, Pb >95-99%
Fe, Mn >67%
As <47%

Source
http://www.nesc.wvu.edu/pdf/dw/publications/ontap/2009_tb/slow_sand_filtration_DWFSOM40.pdf

 

[kludge]

I treat water professionally

Care to elaborate?

BTW, the link in post #18 is broken.

ETA... also, how does the good bacteria grow in the sand filter and how long does it take to colonize and start making clean water?

 

[navarre1095]

I run a municipal water treatment facility that produces 3 million gallons of drinkable water each day.

The biofilm usually takes 7-21 days to form.

BTW
This is being distributed worldwide and works very well
http://www.purpurifierofwater.com/product_background.html