Water storage & idea for filtration

[SyLord]

Please forgive my ignorance, as water storage was never something I thought about before but now with wife and child it has become more of a priority.

First I would like to hear other peoples comments on my idea, then how you do it. Working together perhaps we can find a good solution.

Reading a pet catalog I saw a UV water filtration pump. It moved water slowly, around 25 gallons an hour, but had a low current draw. This got me thinking since I have a 12v u/v black light.

From WIKI:

A germicidal lamp is a special type of lamp which produces ultraviolet light (UVC). This short-wave ultraviolet light disrupts DNA base pairing causing thymine-thymine dimers leading to death of bacteria on exposed surfaces. It can also be used to produce ozone for water disinfection.

The kit the sold was a tube that housed the bulb, a pump, and an input and output port.

My idea was a multi-bucket or container. The first stage would be a catch basin, hard filtration media, like for a rain barrel. The first filtration would take away any Large particles. A sand or activated charcoal filter, or mix of screen,sand, and charcoal. It would fill the first temp storage barrel, say a food grade 55 gallon drum. This would drain into a 260 gallon storage tank I have on a small trailer. It has a spicket on the bottom and a large screw on lid. The spicket would have a Y adapter for dual out, individually controled. One line would feed into the uv light/pump and feed back into the end container through the screw on top, next to the collection chamber. It's not the best to pump that quickly but if left running with solar power, it could run for weeks/months running filtration and killing bacterial while other stuff was
already filtered out. Doing this time after time should kill everything that gets into the water. Rain water is better than standing water.

Think it would work. I would leave it running 24/7 but being solar either battery or sun would turn it off nights.

What do you think?

[Echo2]

I've never used a UV system....interesting though.

Do you have a source for water other than grid water?

If it's a well....do you have a way to get it to the surface?

If you have access to a stream or river.....there are several ways to purify and make potable.

the simplest...."pool shock"....lots of info on line.....it's pretty cheap....and it stores well.

a small bank of solar stills...



I do recommend what ever system you go with.....run everything through a pre filter to get the larger sediment out.....no point in needlessly clogging up the system.

little more info on your water gathering methods would be good...

[Oscar Wilde]

.... run everything through a pre filter to get the larger sediment out.....no point in needlessly clogging up the system.

Took down the ex-wife's sheer curtains and use as the first barrier / filter stage over sand / activated charcoal layers .... cotton batting for a final to filter harmless carbon particles.

O.W.

[SyLord]

I have a 3/4 acre pond that is supposedly spring fed but was a cow pond and was at once a cow pond and has gone from 30' depth to 6-8' at the deapest part. Water is visible 2-3 feet deep but is very 'rich' with decaying vegitation on the bottom. I don't have the $$ (25k estimates) do have it fixed or any heavy machinery to Drain & redig it.

This would be my Closest shtf water. Father in law next door had a well but as with the others it went dry and city water came in so it sits. One neighbor complained he had his dug deeper and it went dry. I would probably put a tarp funnel to get rain water into them but not now, they rather fill them in but just leAve them. Ohio river is a few miles away as well at a 5k acre state park the
other way.

I still think the first stage manual filter then drain into storage container recurculated with a uv light and pump should work, be off solar/12v but how long run time before safe drinkable?

Are there any home test kits?

[VTfarmer]

SyLord, I am not a water storage expert by any means, but I did research purchasing a UV pasteurizer for our apple cider when the state decided to make it illegal to sell unpasteurized anywhere except your own farm. The way these work is they spread the water into a super thin layer as it passes under the UV light. Too thick and it becomes inefficient and less effective. I'm not convinced your recirculating idea would work. Every time you treat a little water you'd be mixing it back in with untreated. I suspect it would take a long time to treat 260 gallons effectively. I would suggest trying to figure out how to treat the water in smaller batches and store it that way.

[InjOnly]

I've used a UV light to help keep algea out of a pond before. Couple of things to remember when using them is the UV bulb needs to be replaced at least yearly, some more often.
Also you're supposed to leave them on continuously. Turning off and on damages the bulbs some way and shortens the life.

[foust1012]

You may want to check out the Berkey system. You can go to berkeyproducts.com for more information. It is capable of making any fresh water source into drinkable water. This may be an easy way to turn that nasty water into something useful.

[bambam55]

u can get a 36 watt uv filter thru ebay that spirals the water around the light for more killing area but they should be used inline from the rain bucket to ur storage bin this kills all the bacteria going into ur strorage small amount of bleach or colloidal silver which u can make at home will keep it bacteria free. u can still recirculate the water with the uv ,but get 2 so u can treat the water as u first put it into storage.