How to make a sand and activated charcoal water filter?

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I read in the following thread that a good idea would be to make a filter from sand and activated charcoal using a 5 gallon food grade pail. However no instructions were given, nor could I find any on the site referenced. Does any body know how to make one of these with a 5 gallon pail as suggested, and any special instructions about how to keep it clean, change the materials, etc.? What kind of water is this good for and what would need to still be done to the water to make it consumable?

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=0014RD

Any help greatly appreciated.

TIA

-- Jeff Sanders (jeff@nospam.com), December 20, 1999

Answers

See:a href="http://www.baproducts.com/rainwatr.htm">Link

-- (4@5.6), December 20, 1999.

Link

-- (4@5.6), December 20, 1999.

That type of filter and the Kearney filter, see http://www.oism.org only reduce suspended particulates so that you can use less disinfectant. Of course it is better than nothing.

Personally I would never use activated charcoal unless the water was sterile. The activated charcoal's large surface area makes a GREAT nesting ground for bacteria. For simple water sterilizing check out http://home.earthlink.net/~kenseger/surv/surv.htm under bleach and water. Please note that vastly *reducing* the number of organisms in water is usually adequate, total sterility of course is goal. Most municiple ater systems have a little bit of bacteria in them, and usually it is harmless to those used to it. This is why traveller's diarhea is merely Montezuma's revenge on a much smaller scale.

-- Ken Seger (kenseger@earthlink.net), December 25, 1999.


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