27th February 2015 at 8:33 pm #875
Hello,
I\’ve been doing a lot of searching for some homemade filter designs to use on a small-scale water project in Indonesia. I really like the CMS design, for all the reasons listed (primarily the ownership aspect for those using the filter).
Unfortunately, people here have no history of making pots, clay or otherwise, and concrete (as suggested in their modifications) is expensive and difficult to get in remote villages (which puts the BioSand filter sadly out of reach). Ironically, plastic buckets in a variety of sizes are cheap and readily available.
So my question to whoever may have an answer is, would substituting plastic buckets in the CMS design reduce the \”biological\” aspects of the filter? I\’m just wondering because clay (and even to a lesser extent, concrete) is a more natural substance than plastic.
This is all still in the ideas phase, but I\’m thinking about trying to modify the CMS design with plastic buckets here. I also like the two-container idea because I have an idea to add some charcoal to the top bucket as a first step to filtration to deal with some colour and taste issues common to water here (with high tannin content). I realize charcoal should ideally be a last step but can\’t quite figure out how to get the charcoal on the bottom, seeing as it will need to be replaced more frequently than any other materials as the pores fill up.
I\’d appreciate any advice/ideas/suggestions from anyone who happens to read this. This site seems to be frequented by some excellent technical minds! Thanks in advance.
Lena Bunzenmeyer