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Sand Water Filter - Home Made

This document provides instructions for building a bio-sand water filter. It describes placing a 90cm tall cylinder on a wooden platform with bolts to allow easy movement. A layer of pebbles is carefully placed over the inlet pipe to prevent blocking. Then 7 bags of sand weighing a total of 200kg are added. Rainwater is collected from the roof and tested after 3 weeks, showing negative results for bacteria, lead, pesticides, chlorine and nitrates, with a pH of 7 making the water acceptable for drinking. The total cost of materials is about £34.

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Comebotanas
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38 views2 pages

Sand Water Filter - Home Made

This document provides instructions for building a bio-sand water filter. It describes placing a 90cm tall cylinder on a wooden platform with bolts to allow easy movement. A layer of pebbles is carefully placed over the inlet pipe to prevent blocking. Then 7 bags of sand weighing a total of 200kg are added. Rainwater is collected from the roof and tested after 3 weeks, showing negative results for bacteria, lead, pesticides, chlorine and nitrates, with a pH of 7 making the water acceptable for drinking. The total cost of materials is about £34.

Uploaded by

Comebotanas
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Bio‐Sand Water (Dihydrogenmonoxide) Filter MK II 

find a cylinder that was tall enough – say 90cm tall, and at least 30 cm diameter, put it on a platform 
made from 100mm x 25mm wood, with 4 big bolts sticking out of the bottom in a diamond 
formation.    This allows the filter to be moved easily by balancing, and doesn't disturb the 
sand/pebble structure inside the filter, and so avoids the blocking of the pipe by fine sand. 

The pipe was fitted as per the diagram below. 
This protects the pipe from knocks etc, and makes the filter easier to make i.e. no need for a seal low 
down on the container, subject to the weight of water above it. 
The hole for the pipe was 14mm, so the 15mm pipe was forced through, making a nice water tight 
seal, with no other work needed. 

A layer of pebbles was carefully put over the pipe, special attention being given to the pipe entrance. 
This was because, by experience, it was found that the fine sand moved when water travels down 
through the filter, 
can easily block the pipe completely, and if the filter is rolled, 
the pipe always blocked because of the disturbance to the sand structure. 
Therefore the pebbles were carefully, individually, placed around the pipe entrance. 
This takes a few minutes longer than just covering randomly, but pays off later because the 
pebble/sand interface is stable.  
 
1 x 25kg bag of pebbles, 7 x 25kgbags of sand were needed to make the filter. 200 kilos weight! 
I used 15mm copper pipe because it was available, but PVC would easily do the job for 99p from the 
same place as the water butt. 
Either bend the PVC pipe by heating it in hot water, or carefully using a blowtorch, 
or use 90 degree joints at extra cost to get the correct shape as per the diagram. 
The sand cost approx £2 per bag, the pebbles approx £4. Assuming that PVC pipe was used at £1, 
the total cost for the filter works out at £34. 
 
Rainwater was collected via a diverter from a downpipe from the roof of the house, and stored in 
210 litre water butts. The rainwater was fed into the filter for three weeks, and then tested with a 
drinking water test kit (£16.95). 
The tests were for bacteria, lead, pesticides, nitrate/nitrite, chlorine, pH and hardness. It might not 
be surprising that the chlorine, pesticides, nitrate/nitrite levels were nil. 

 
The test strips contain a self test to make the test valid, i.e. if this doesn't show, you did it wrong! 
I did it right – according to the results – and the tests were all negative. 
The pH came in a 6.5, which is acceptable, but I tested the pH with litmus paper with a range of pH1‐
pH 11, and it came in at pH7 = good. 

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