# 100-year-old way to filter rainwater



## Waterboy

At the Ozarks Sustainability Festival on May 20, we talked with many folks who shared memories of rain barrels, cisterns and drawing well water with a bucket as a child, usually on grandpa and grandma’s farm. Some said they’d never like to have to rely again on those old methods of getting water. But, at least they knew how it was done. It seems we have lost much practical knowledge in the last 50 or so years because we thought we no longer needed it.

My 1909 book of household discoveries reveals how to make homemade water filters, another lost art. The instructions are quite basic as everyone had a rain barrel back then and presumably knew how to clean the water. Now, more than 100 years later, I am thankful the authors had the foresight to preserve their knowledge for us, and pointed out that rainwater collected in barrels from a roof is a necessity in some locations, but also is “often more wholesome for drinking purposes than hard water.”

The “wholesome” observation applies to plants, too. I noticed during our recent 6-week dry spell here in the Ozarks that I was only able to keep my garden plants alive with the water hose. Then, after a 2-hour shower this morning, the plants miraculously came to life – vibrant, green and THRIVING.

The old household book says the following instructions yield a cheap and easy way to make a filter just as good as a patent filter costing 10 times as much:

“Take a new vinegar barrel or an oak tub that has never been used, either a full cask or half size. Stand it on end raised on brick or stone from the ground. Insert a faucet near the bottom. Make a tight false bottom 3 or 4 inches from the bottom of the cask. Perforate this with small gimlet holes, and cover it with a piece of clean white canvas.

“Place on this false bottom a layer of clean pebbles 3 or 4 inches in thickness; next, a layer of clean washed sand and gravel; then coarsely granulated charcoal about the size of small peas. Charcoal made from hard marble is the best.

“After putting in a half bushel or so, pound it down firmly. Then put in more until the tub is filled within 1 foot of the top. Add a 3-inch layer of pebbles; and throw over the top a piece of canvas as a strainer. This canvas strainer can be removed and washed occasionally and the cask can be dumped out, pebbles cleansed and charcoal renewed every spring and fall, or once a year may be sufficient.

“This filter may be set in the cellar and used only for drinking water. Or it may be used in time of drought for filtering stagnant water, which would otherwise be unpalatable, for the use of stock. This also makes a good cider filter for the purpose of making vinegar. The cider should first be passed through cheese cloth to remove all coarser particles.

“Or a small cheap filter may be made from a flower pot. A fine sponge may be inserted in the hole and the pot filled about as directed for the above filter. It may be placed in the top of a jar, which will receive the filtered water.

“Or a valuable substitute for charcoal in the above filters is sponge iron obtained by burning finely divided iron ore with charcoal. This can be obtained in the locality of iron mines or smelting furnaces. This is much more powerful than charcoal, and is said to completely purify contaminated water.”

I’d like to say we’ve built such a filter, but the truth is that we have a Berkey on the kitchen counter. Still, I’m hanging onto this old book. I have a feeling we’re going to need it.


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## Waterboy

By the way, here is a pdf of the book in its entirety.

http://ia700404.us.archive.org/16/items/cu31924089480218/cu31924089480218.pdf


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## goshengirl

Thank you! I'm really enjoying this book of yours. And this filter is much like the project I have planned using a 55 gallon drum. I'm working on making charcoal, and instead of canvas I'd planned a layer of quilt batting - but I like the idea of using canvas, too.


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## d_saum

Wow.. that it a LONG book! lol.. I was thinking about printing it out, but at over 1000 pages.. err.. I may have to just read and retain what I can before the lights go out! 

That... or... print parts that I need, OR... just print a little bit each night at work.


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## bahramthered

Am I missing something? Unless we're talking acid rain I thought rain water was suppose to be highly pure. Well unless your under a nuclear cloud. 

Are you guys worrying about contamination from your roofs and gutters?


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## Waterboy

Bahram,

Sorry, I did not see your question earlier about rainwater's purity. Rainwater is not suitable for drinking because of many contaminants, such as dirt, bugs, partially decomposed vegetation and whatnot that is not filtered out through the soil. Rainwater is excellent, however, for washing clothes and watering plants because it is soft water and loaded with minerals. The 1909 book recommends not drinking rainwater if you live near a town because of soot and coal dust that settles on rooftops and gets into the rain barrel. Gather some rainwater up in a glass bowl and let it settle. You'll see many particles in there that you probably would not want to drink. And that's just what you can see.


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## Waterboy

d_saum said:


> Wow.. that it a LONG book! lol.. I was thinking about printing it out, but at over 1000 pages.. err.. I may have to just read and retain what I can before the lights go out!
> 
> That... or... print parts that I need, OR... just print a little bit each night at work.


The last third of the book is a cookbook, which is interesting, but you probably only would want to print the helpful hints section of the book. The cookbook starts on page 789.


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## Emerald

Great link thanks! I bookmarked to read later..
I put up a link to sand filters somewhere too.. Who knows where it is now..  it is basically the same as yours but more modern set up.. They have found that this type of filter will even remove cryptosporidium and giarrida from water they work that well.


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## LongRider

Waterboy said:


> By the way, here is a pdf of the book in its entirety.
> 
> http://ia700404.us.archive.org/16/items/cu31924089480218/cu31924089480218.pdf


Thanks for the link and post good info. Bahram, what Waterboy said about rain water is correct. Think of it as the rainwater washing the air, whatever is in the air ends up in the rainwater.


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## goatlady

eBay has a few as does Amazon - starting prices $49 and up.


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## Thaddius

I know I'm kinda slow, but how do you make charcoal out of marble?

Thad

(I prefer to make willow charcoal for making up my BP for my muzzle loaders n my paper cartridge sharps 1863 model)


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## LincTex

I made mine from a plastic 55 gallon drum:

http://www.biosandfilter.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioSand_Filter


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## Emerald

LincTex said:


> I made mine from a plastic 55 gallon drum:
> 
> http://www.biosandfilter.org/
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioSand_Filter


Yup.. Same link I put up but it has now gone to the thread graveyard!! Only downside is that you should wait for the organic bio filtering to grow which takes a week or so to be really safe for drinking.


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## LincTex

Emerald said:


> Only downside is that you should wait for the organic bio filtering to grow which takes a week or so to be really safe for drinking


I read three weeks, so you gotta have at least that much drinking water stored on hand.


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## wolven

thanks for the info and the book link


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## Adk Rebel

Thaddius said:


> I know I'm kinda slow, but how do you make charcoal out of marble?
> 
> Thad
> 
> (I prefer to make willow charcoal for making up my BP for my muzzle loaders n my paper cartridge sharps 1863 model)


That would be a misspelling. It should be Maple.


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## hershey

When you download/search the book, you can do a search with Ctrl +f and find just what you want...


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## Viking

bahramthered said:


> Am I missing something? Unless we're talking acid rain I thought rain water was suppose to be highly pure. Well unless your under a nuclear cloud.
> 
> Are you guys worrying about contamination from your roofs and gutters?


Depending on what your roof material is, birds that often check out the bugs in the gutters in the early morning or the tree leaves and other organic junk that slimes the gutters up I'd say it's a good idea to be a bit worried about contamination. If you have three tab shingles then most manufacturers use glass fiber to strengthen the asphalt paper in them and throughout their life time they release those glass fibers. I occasionally have wild turkeys landing on my roof and they do leave a fair amount of droppings. I have a metal roof that has a high quality paint on it but even then you never know what comes off due to heat and sun so a carbon filter is
an excellent idea. I have been considering collecting water from the night condensation on my roof because during summer when my spring slows down I could get enough water to fulfill daily water drinking needs but I certainly would filter it.


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## LoboSolo

*Sodis*



bahramthered said:


> Am I missing something? Unless we're talking acid rain I thought rain water was suppose to be highly pure. Well unless your under a nuclear cloud.
> 
> Are you guys worrying about contamination from your roofs and gutters?


I'v been drinking rainwater for two years now with no problems. I note SODIS ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_water_disinfection ) to kill any pathogens.


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## WildMist

Waterboy said:


> By the way, here is a pdf of the book in its entirety.
> 
> http://ia700404.us.archive.org/16/items/cu31924089480218/cu31924089480218.pdf


Just going thru this book up to over 100 pages and found lots of cool stuff, I can see this being a need to read and even referred to often. Thanks for posting it :beercheer:


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## MRGUMBY

The book is fantastic! I am basically glued to it.
Thank you very much for the link!


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## Viking

LoboSolo said:


> I'v been drinking rainwater for two years now with no problems. I note SODIS ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_water_disinfection ) to kill any pathogens.


I noticed in the wikipedia article the was a passing comment on potential leaching of carcinogens from the PET/PETE plastic bottles and they somewhat downgraded that possibility but I certainly have some concern because so many things that we have food stored in now days including tin cans have these plastics in their liners. It would do well to consider the accumulated effects in the long run seeing as there is such an increase in cancers that could be caused by toxins leached into liquids and foods we consume. Now if glass jars could be used to do the same thing that would eliminate that concern.


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## Wolf1066

Waterboy said:


> Rainwater is not suitable for drinking because of many contaminants, such as dirt, bugs, partially decomposed vegetation and whatnot that is not filtered out through the soil.


I would disagree with that statement on the grounds that I grew up drinking unfiltered rain water collected from off the roof of the house and stored in a large tank (corrugated iron or concrete depending on the house we were in at the time), as did my parents and their parents.

My own children were raised on unfiltered rain water and have had no ill-effects - contrary-wise, they are not plagued by the myriad of "allergies" to pretty much everything that seems to affect 8 out of 10 "townies"... there's a lot to be said for not mollycoddling your body in order for it to develop a healthy and functional autoimmune system.

Our current water supply is collected from the roof and is stored in a large concrete underground tank and the children and I all drink it straight from the tap.

The worst I have ever experienced is ending up with part of a decomposed grasshopper in my mouth (the water level was very low that year and it got sucked up from near the bottom of the tank and deposited into my glass). I spat every time I thought about it for about a month later but I suffered no ill effects from it.

While I don't think we should drink stagnant or heavily contaminated water, rainwater collected off the roof is quite potable, despite the possum- and bird-shit and the occasional grasshopper. And it also tastes better than the chlorine-and-fluoride-contaminated crap that you get in the towns.

Our bodies adapt to such things - the locals in India drink water that gives the average tourist the screaming shits for a week but the locals have no ill-effects.

I think a large problem with the world today, health-wise, is that everything's gone too sanitised, to the point that the world is full of "delicate fishies" who can't cope with the slightest "contaminant".

When I was growing up, I never knew anyone who was allergic to peanuts or other common things, now it's common enough that my children weren't allowed to take peanut butter sandwiches to day-care in case one of the other kiddies there exploded (they didn't know if they actually had a child there who was allergic to peanuts, they were being cautious "just in case").

But then, when I was growing up, pretty much everyone drank unfiltered rain water and people didn't pour disinfectant on their hands every five seconds as they do now.


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## Viking

When I was young I used to drink from streams that I thought were safe but these days will all the herbicide spraying going on I would filter that same water unless it was a spring source coming directly out of the ground. The same might be said for water collection from a roof in areas that have road side spraying of herbicides or the railroad doing it on their rails and each side of the track. The wind does carry that stuff far enough to be a consideration.


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## Wolf1066

Thanks for the link to the book, Waterboy, I'm going to enjoy reading it.


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## Whipper Snapper

Thanks, good info


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## Omicron

LincTex said:


> I made mine from a plastic 55 gallon drum:
> 
> http://www.biosandfilter.org/
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioSand_Filter


Thanks for sharing this. After you first built this, how much water did you have to add before the sand became saturated enough for water to pass through it? Thanks...


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## LincTex

Omicron said:


> How much water did you have to add before the sand became saturated enough for water to pass through it?


I can only guess... probably around 30 gallons? Some area is displaced by the sand, but there are still a lot of empty spaces that need to be filled.

I wouldn't worry about it, but it is somewhere more than "1" and less than "55"


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## invision

Great post and thanks for the link... Will be reading shortly.


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## weedygarden

LincTex said:


> I made mine from a plastic 55 gallon drum:
> 
> http://www.biosandfilter.org/
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BioSand_Filter


I like the idea of making this with a 55 gallon drum, but I avoid plastic as much as possible. Water in plastic is better than no water. Occasionally, I have seen these 55 gallon drums for free on my local Craigslist. I am careful to find out what they were used for.

I am not seeing where to get the BioSand. It could easily be there, but I am not seeing it. I would prefer to be able to pick it up locally, but that may not be an option. We don't hear from LincTex much anymore, but I wonder if anyone else has used BioSand and has a source. I will google it.


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## BillS

weedygarden said:


> I like the idea of making this with a 55 gallon drum, but I avoid plastic as much as possible. Water in plastic is better than no water. Occasionally, I have seen these for free on my local Craigslist. I am careful to find out what they were used for.
> 
> I am not seeing where to get the BioSand. It could easily be there, but I am not seeing it. I would prefer to be able to pick it up locally, but that may not be an option. We don't hear from LincTex much anymore, but I wonder if anyone else has used BioSand and has a source. I will google it.


Biosand is just fine sand. The filter works on the same principle as an undergravel filter for an aquarium. Enough biological contaminants are in the water for bacteria to grow in the sand and feed on those contaminants. Ideally there will be water added everyday. Otherwise the beneficial bacteria will die and won't be there to work when you need them.

If it was me I'd add a layer of ground charcoal too.


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## BillS

Wolf1066 said:


> I would disagree with that statement on the grounds that I grew up drinking unfiltered rain water collected from off the roof of the house and stored in a large tank (corrugated iron or concrete depending on the house we were in at the time), as did my parents and their parents.
> 
> My own children were raised on unfiltered rain water and have had no ill-effects - contrary-wise, they are not plagued by the myriad of "allergies" to pretty much everything that seems to affect 8 out of 10 "townies"... there's a lot to be said for not mollycoddling your body in order for it to develop a healthy and functional autoimmune system.
> 
> Our current water supply is collected from the roof and is stored in a large concrete underground tank and the children and I all drink it straight from the tap.
> 
> The worst I have ever experienced is ending up with part of a decomposed grasshopper in my mouth (the water level was very low that year and it got sucked up from near the bottom of the tank and deposited into my glass). I spat every time I thought about it for about a month later but I suffered no ill effects from it.
> 
> While I don't think we should drink stagnant or heavily contaminated water, rainwater collected off the roof is quite potable, despite the possum- and bird-shit and the occasional grasshopper. And it also tastes better than the chlorine-and-fluoride-contaminated crap that you get in the towns.
> 
> Our bodies adapt to such things - the locals in India drink water that gives the average tourist the screaming shits for a week but the locals have no ill-effects.
> 
> I think a large problem with the world today, health-wise, is that everything's gone too sanitised, to the point that the world is full of "delicate fishies" who can't cope with the slightest "contaminant".
> 
> When I was growing up, I never knew anyone who was allergic to peanuts or other common things, now it's common enough that my children weren't allowed to take peanut butter sandwiches to day-care in case one of the other kiddies there exploded (they didn't know if they actually had a child there who was allergic to peanuts, they were being cautious "just in case").
> 
> But then, when I was growing up, pretty much everyone drank unfiltered rain water and people didn't pour disinfectant on their hands every five seconds as they do now.


Still, drinking water with bugs and bird poop in it can't be considered good.


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## zimmy

Yes I know this is an old post, someone revived it so I'm just adding to it.

I found this poly container and stand at the surplus store and just built and added parts to it. I used washed gravel and sand from the pool supply store, the carbon and poly cotton came from a fish supply company. The water inlet is a pvc pipe and T fitting with stainless steel mesh over the inlet. The brass hose bib on the bottom is for draining and back flushing. The ozone generator came from a old hot tub, inside of the generator box I mounted a aquarium air pump, and the pvc pipe on the side has the activated carbon and cotton. I have never put water in it so I won't know how well it works until I need it, time will tell.


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## zimmy

Water is not and issue around here, but you never know when your water supply my become contaminated. My plan is to use this 2000 gallon poly lined fiberglass tank for drinking water storage. The plan is to fill the tank from my well using my submersible pump, and gravity feed the water to my sand filter. A float valve will be installed in the sand filter tank to turn the flow of water on and off as needed.


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## tmttactical

I love revived old posts, save me a bunch of research time, keep them coming.


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## zimmy

*Sand bio filter*



zimmy said:


> Yes I know this is an old post, someone revived it so I'm just adding to it.
> 
> I found this poly container and stand at the surplus store and just built and added parts to it. I used washed gravel and sand from the pool supply store, the carbon and poly cotton came from a fish supply company. The water inlet is a pvc pipe and T fitting with stainless steel mesh over the inlet. The brass hose bib on the bottom is for draining and back flushing. The ozone generator came from a old hot tub, inside of the generator box I mounted a aquarium air pump, and the pvc pipe on the side has the activated carbon and cotton. I have never put water in it so I won't know how well it works until I need it, time will tell.


The problem with the poly tank is that there is a possibility of raw, unfiltered water bypassing the sand and running down alongside the inside of the tank and out the drain. Guess I'll just have to take my chances with it. I suspect I will never, ever, use it.


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## zimmy

I will fill the glass jugs with water, run the ozone for a half hour, and install the pump on top of the jug.


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## terri9630

Anyone have a working link for the book in the first post?


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## zimmy

https://archive.org/details/home_power_magazine

Anyone like Home Power magazine?


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## zimmy

https://archive.org/details/magazine_rack?sort=-downloads&and[]=mother%20earth

Or perhaps Mother Earth Magazine. For some reason the last part didn't hyperlink, you might have to copy and paste.


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## zimmy

https://openlibrary.org/books/OL14172623M/Household_discoveries


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## terri9630

zimmy said:


> https://openlibrary.org/books/OL14172623M/Household_discoveries


Thanks 7 8 9 10


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## weedygarden

zimmy said:


> https://archive.org/details/magazine_rack?sort=-downloads&and[]=mother%20earth
> 
> Or perhaps Mother Earth Magazine. For some reason the last part didn't hyperlink, you might have to copy and paste.


Thank you for this link. This is an incredible resource for many topics of interest. I had no idea it existed, and I know that I will spend lots of time looking through the articles.I copied and pasted. I have some Mother Earth News from almost the beginning, but have a plan to get rid of them as I further develop my notebooks of information (gardening, sewing, food storage, etc.).

The link does not send us to the topic we are looking for, 100 year old water filter. If anyone can help get me closer, please help. I don't see water as a topic that is sorted out. Has anyone found the complete ink? Whoever finds it first, please post it.


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## weedygarden

tmttactical said:


> I love revived old posts, save me a bunch of research time, keep them coming.


There are some awesome old posts with invaluable information. Periodically, I like to go through some of them and see what information we might all want.

Ever see comments about we have already discussed this? Something might have been discussed, many years ago, but can you find the information?


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## zimmy

*Bio Sand Filter*



weedygarden said:


> Thank you for this link. This is an incredible resource for many topics of interest. I had no idea it existed, and I know that I will spend lots of time looking through the articles.I copied and pasted. I have some Mother Earth News from almost the beginning, but have a plan to get rid of them as I further develop my notebooks of information (gardening, sewing, food storage, etc.).
> 
> The link does not send us to the topic we are looking for, 100 year old water filter. If anyone can help get me closer, please help. I don't see water as a topic that is sorted out. Has anyone found the complete ink? Whoever finds it first, please post it.


I don't understand exactly what you are looking for, a 100 yr old water filter is simply a biological sand filter. Here is a pdf to build one.


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## weedygarden

zimmy said:


> I don't understand exactly what you are looking for, a 100 yr old water filter is simply a biological sand filter. Here is a pdf to build one.


You posted several links, and while they have great information in them, they were not for the 100 year old water filter per se. That is what I was looking for. Thank you!

BTW, That set-up that you made is very interesting. I have little knowledge or experience with the technical part of that, but I certainly could accumulate the parts. I would never have an idea that I would even need all those parts, and how to work it when it is put together.

I can image a BOL with no running water, and the need for filtering collected water from a roof.

This guy recently built a water catchment for water collection in southern Arizona. There are several videos in this particular series. We have yet to see any water that has been captured.


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## weedygarden

Caribou said:


> I don't understand this video at all. The guy builds a foundation and a roof. For the price of a few posts he could have a pole shed or some walls would give him a storage shed.
> 
> I understand the need to collect water but the roof and foundation are the most expensive parts of a building.


I agree with you. But, he did this whole large build and this is one of his videos from that build. They have 4 large tanks for water which they have previously been having filled. The tanks are out in the sun. I would have built a roof and a building around them if it were me. They have a tiny home, which could have a water catchment set up from and a utility building, which again could have a water catchment set up.

I would use every roof that I have in an area like that for water collection.


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## readytogo

We had one at home but with natural charcoal ,I remember the elders cleaning it and replacing the charcoal .
I found this article useful.
http://practicalprimitive.com/skillofthemonth/charcoalfilter.html


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## zimmy

The 100 year old sand filter is not a good design, with the drain at the bottom there is a possibility of the gravel material drying out and not supporting biological growth.

Also the charcoal should be at the exit of the water flow so that it can be replaced when needed. 

The modern filter is a much better design.


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## weedygarden

zimmy said:


> The 100 year old sand filter is not a good design, with the drain at the bottom there is a possibility of the gravel material drying out and not supporting biological growth.
> 
> Also the charcoal should be at the exit of the water flow so that it can be replaced when needed.
> 
> The modern filter is a much better design.


Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I don't really know about such things. I did download the booklet, and was thinking it might be something to have printed, have a cover with a plastic overlay, and to be spiral bound for future purposes. I can send it to my local Office Depot and have that done for around $15.

But I could just print out a few relevant pages.


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