cheap diy tapwater filter

[SnakeIce]

The water in this area has high silicate in the source water for the city water system. the resulting turbidity was causing problems in my tank as well as being a factor in makeing the water unpalatable.

I am using coffe filters, some glass gallon jars, a rubber band and if needed a small object under the filter and rubber band to prevent pressurising the jar. I use two or three and fold the edges over the rim of the jar using the rubber band to hold them on. then turn the tap on to a dribble(that is as fast as the water will go through) and within 20-30 minutes you have filtered water.

I am doing all my drinking water, it leaves a slight paper taste but is much better overall, and all the water that goes into my tanks

I hope this helps. I don't have a comercial water filter. the water wasn't bad as it is now a month ago so I had to come up with somthing to improve things.
I also posted this subj. in general

[RENEGADE]

you can try these too there not as cheap as coffee filters but they get alot of junk out of the water: brita (http://www.brita.com) or PÜR (http://www.purwater.com/index.shtml)




EDIT: i forgot a word:rolleyes:

[serjuanca888]

I don't see the coffee filters doing too much for the water, seems like a waste of time to me.

[dave76]

have you tested the water quality pre and post filtration? does it really help your water quality, I tend to agree that it does not do much good. I know most waterfilters are carbon based, maybe if you used carbon in the coffee filters that would help. Please post your results as I am very interested.

[SnakeIce]

the problem I am trying to address is not the chemicals, that would be nice, but the water here has high silicates which if it is a problem will make you feel like your fingers are bleach slipery but it is caused by the mineral. when I put the water through the coffe filter I and a chemistry professor at the college here could see the difference in clarity and thus infered there is less turbidity. and turbidity is known to lower the survival rate of the fry of some fish and stress many species. the health of my fish for whatever reason is better now that I use the filtered water. this is a temporary solution. I am looking at buying a water filter so the other conserns will be addressed

I won't drink straight tap water any more either. about the same time the fish were affected my wife and I were haveing a hard time drinking the water. it wasn't really making us sick but it wasn't exactly not either. now all our drinking water goes through the coffe filter too. and that water is a lot better.

besides if the tap water was making the fish sick it probably isn't very good for humans

silicates are a disoved ion, and not a problem for fish.

[SnakeIce]

most comercial filters use both carbon, for the cfc's and all the other nasty molecules and straight mechanical filtration, and the better ones remove the smallest particles of silt, silicates, bits of iron, encapsulated bacteria, yada yada... all the stuff that is in suspension not disolved
now granted there are some really nasty things that can be disolved but that does not seem to be the major part of the lack of quality of our water
I am going to ask the salties about specific gravity and such I will post what I find

[SnakeIce]

I just went and picked a couple of chemists brains, prof's here at the college.
the problem I had is plain old clorine. the water system here has been doing some major suply line upgrades and thus the water system has increased the clorine for reasons they know. the amounts of the declorinator i use was not able to deal with the greater amounts. puting the water through the filter which took at least 20 minutes allowed the eccess to escape and then the water was good for the fish

I guess I solved the problem I had by trying to address one that is imposible to address without a RO and not a problen to begin with

Oh well, you win some, and you loose some

[RENEGADE]

look at my post above ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
i can taste the diffrence!! (and no i don't work for them)