Great Info On Slow Water Filter Systems

Once again, I have found a great story from a guest writer on TheSurvivalistBlog.net.   This guy gets the best writers and is nice enough to allow me to share.  Thanks M.D. Creekmore.  And to Thomas T. Tinker, for the story.

Slow sand water filter system

by M.D. Creekmore on 01/07/2013 

This guest post by Thomas T. Tinker 

Just stirring the pot of ideas for the pack at large and those that have simply missed the possibilities. Thomas T. Tinker

While in a third world country with light arms and air support, I first noticed this style.. type.. of water ‘filter’ systems. Clay boxes and cement pipes, used drums and barrels, pots and 5 gallon buckets. Each had some form of cobbled up hose or pipe out of the top or the side. I got mine out of a ‘Buffalo’ or a 2 liter bottle and I never enjoyed the effects of the third worlds revenge.

Now folks this posting is not unlike the one I did on “TARPS” not too long ago. Short on plans and hoping to instigate a dialogue on the subject. Gawd knows I donwanna spend too much time on this cause it’s a Tuesday and I don’t wanna run into NatGeos Doomsday Preppers. Next to Storage Wars or Snapped…. Who’d wanna miss it!!! THAT LAST LINE WAS FOR THE FEDERALIES READING THE BLOG TODAY… I’M REALLY GOING TO SPEND THE NIGHT IN THE ATTIC WATCHING THE ENTIRE ‘LORD OF THE RINGS’ BOXED SET… YEEE HAWW.

I was going to do this a couple of years back but thought I had better put a couple together myself before I started blowing my horn. I started with a simple 5 gallon food grade bucket model I found on YouTube. One bucket and assorted cheap pvc pipe fittings and spigot. 2 bags of pool filter sand. A couple of shovels full of small gravel from the Cities ‘pot hole crew’ truck.. Thank You to the City of Toledo! One yard of coated window screen and one yard of swamp cooler filter.

Made a small two pronged forky looking thing with a pvc T and two 90s. Drilled out the bottoms of the tines with an 8th in drill. Ran a vertical pvc up the inside and 90ed out the side to a spigot just below the series of rings around the bucket.

Laid in the the ‘fork’ in the bottom and glued on the top 90 and spigot out the side. Laid in a cut piece of screen over the fork. Laid in 3 inches of gravel over the screen. Poured in the sand and tamped it down until it was about 4 inches from the top of the bucket. Added an inch or so of gravel and a piece of screen on top of the sand and topped it off with a layer of Swamp cooler filter. Viola! Settled the media down with the garden hose. Swept off the deck and dumped it in a bucket of tap water. Poured same into filter and waited. Go figure… it came out clear and clean enough not to ruin lunch or dinner… or eggs and taters the next morning.

The 5 gallon model is sitting in the back of the garage. Took about two weeks for the bio-active layer to form on the top. Ah… yeah. Last summer I repeated the same receipt with a 30 gallon gray pvc barrel. This time I used two 6 inch round lawn sprinkler heads and garden hose instead of pvc pipe. Screwed the sprinklers on to a hose Y and cut a section of hose to run up the inside of the barrel and through a notch in the lip of the barrel. I added another hose Y with shut off valves to the end of the cut section of hose outside the barrel and two more 2 foot sections of hose on the hose Y. Each of these two run into a hole in a 5 gallon bucket lid. Screen/gravel/sand/screen/gravel/swamp cooler element. Viola! I figure it at about 26ish gallons cause of the hose notch. Again…. Clear.. clean.. water. HOWEVER!
I use this as a pre-filter for my ceramic filter system cuzz I can! I use the 5 gal. buckets loads to feed my ceramic system. In the bottom of my secondary filtered collection bucket I leave a 1 ounce pure silver round. I have not taken the time to have this end product tested. In any nasty event, I would expect the ‘surface’ water to be rather ‘turbid’. When I have my 55 gal. system up, I’m not going to worry as much as I do now about H2O. Until I need it, the components for the 55gal. will rest inside the barrel.

Here are a few sites that will supply the pack with far more detailed plans and nearly an endless variety of filter styles to consider.

www.Wikipedia.com Slow SandWater Filters***
CDC.gov (Center for Disease Control) Safe water systems

www.Hydraid.com (Bio sand Water Filter)****
AND my favorite…. If you cannot find a design on this page… consider another layer of personal sanitation preps and storage of several regiments of Ciproflozacin (Keflex) 500Mg. tablets. One by mouth every 8 to 12 hours for general bacterial, intestinal issues with bowel upset. Not that I am giving medical advice cuzz that is the last thing I am qualified to do… Just Saying!

www.bing.com slow sand water filter systems.*****
These sand filters are truly ‘plug and play’ items. They are used around the world in major and minor supply systems. !OPINION ALERT! A slow sand filter system coupled with a secondary ceramic or media filter system can supply a preppers answer to one, if not the greatest, problems faced… H2o.

Again, if there are any comments, suggestions, sources or simple death threats… I am.. your humble servant: Thomas T. Tinker