Skip to content
Menu
Practical Sustainability Practical Sustainability
  • About Us
  • Animals
    • Goats
    • Pigs
    • Poultry
    • Rabbits
    • Vermiculture
      • Black soldier fly larvae
      • Earth Worms
      • Meal Worms
  • Bathroom
    • Compost Toilets
  • Building
    • Building with bottles
    • Clay or Mud bricks
    • Earthships
    • Timbercrete
    • Underground Living
    • Used Tires
  • Energy
    • Human energy
    • Hydroelectricity
      • Dammed Hydro
      • Run of the river
      • Tidal
    • Wind
  • Energy Storage
    • Compressed Air Energy Storage
    • Electrical
    • Gravity
    • Hydrogen
    • Kinetic
  • Food Storage
    • Bottling / Canning
    • Dehydration
    • Jam making
    • Pickling & Salting
    • Refrigeration
  • Growing
    • Hugelkultur
    • Mushrooms
  • Heating
    • Solar Air Heating
    • Solar Water Heating
    • With Compost
  • Water
    • Collection
      • Condensers
      • Fog Fences
    • Filters
      • Pre-filters
      • Slow sand filters
    • Storage
      • Barrels & IBCs
      • Rainwater Tanks
      • Swales
      • Underground Skeletons
  • Our Projects
Practical Sustainability Practical Sustainability

Slow sand filters

Sand filters are an amazingly simple yet extremely effective water filtration technique. Once a sand filter has been running for a short time, natural bacterial colonies form in the surface layers of sand. This layer of life is called a bio-film or hypogeal layer. It consumes any biological material; meaning:

The water produced from an exemplary slow sand filter is of excellent quality with 90-99% bacterial cell count reduction.– NDWC.

“Although they are often the preferred technology in many developing countries because of their low energy requirements and robust performance, they are also used to treat water in some of the most developed countries, such as the UK, where they are used to treat water supplied to London.” – Wikipedia

< A simple sand filter. Note that the outlet is above topmost layer of sand, keeping the filer media wet. This is important to keep the hypogeal layer alive.

Learn More >>

“Designing a DIY slow sand filter: what to consider” @ enlight-inc.com
Simple sand filter design @ HowToPedia.org
Sand filter info and specs @ CDC.gov

Follow us on Facebook!

Follow us on Facebook!

Follow us on twitter

My Tweets

Search posts by Category:

Recent Posts

  • Practical Sustainability funding and growth news
  • Aquaponic Test System (2014 – 2017) Design Review
  • D.I.Y Two level planter box tutorial, with free plans
  • Aquaponic Nexus Tank planned prototype
  • Gravity Header Manifold prototype #3 tutorial

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 13 other subscribers
©2023 Practical Sustainability | Powered by WordPress & Superb Themes