Wednesday, June 27, 2007
my 5 gallon water treatment setup for about $40
I have been trying to take the fluoride out of the water.
this is a process that is very similar to what city water plants do.
all the things needed to do this ( bucket, spigot, and chemicals and
test kit) cost about $ 40 and all fit in the bucket very easy, put it
under the sink and click the lid closed, and you have an emergency
water treatment setup. make sure to leave the instructions ( and maybe
a calculator) in the bucket as well.
here is what I tried,
I hope this is not confusing
first you need a container for the water,
I used a 5 gallon bucket.
install a spigot 3 to 5 cm above the bottom of the bucket.
I used a 1/2" MIP to 3/4 hose connector,
then I got a plastic 1/2 MIP nut that is made for sinks.
I got a package of O rings to seal garden hoses,
I got a low priced plastic hose on/off valve,
I drilled a hole in the bucket,
and installed the adapter with the O ring on it, and secured the
plastic nut from the inside of the bucket,
then put on the on/off valve on the adapter sticking out of the bucket.
the parts cost about $ 4.5
now I have a place to treat the water, all I needed was a process.
so, I first fill the bucket with water,
next I carefully measure out the chemicals
first chemical is an aluminum salt
either
aluminum sulfate or aluminum chloride
it binds to all kinds of things
I used aluminum sulfate because it is at orchard hardware supply in
the fertilizer section
about 0.6g of it turned out to be almost 1/4 tsp of course crystals
devolve it in water, then pour it in to the bucket and mix it very well.
now for the next chemical
it should be lime or sodium carbonate
I was suppose to use 0.028g of the chemical, I picked sodium carbonate
because it is at orchard hardware supply in the pool treatment
chemicals section.
it turned out that my water was acidic, so I added more sodium
carbonate than they said, it ended up being almost 1/8 tsp of the
powder total.
your ending pH needs to be 6.5 to 8.5, test kit in the pool supply
section.
so, when you add the lime (Calcium oxide) or sodium carbonate you have
to devolve it first so that you know it is dissolved, then mix it into
the bucket, then mix the water for 20 min. and yes I know that this is
a long time.
then let the particles in the water settle for an hour.
I was suppose to add bleach powder (also a pool supply) as the first
step of the process, but because I was starting with city water, I
skipped this step.
after your waiting time, you can open the spigot and retrieve your
drinkable water, I did not like the after taste, so I filtered it with
my Brita filter and it was good tasting, they recommend a sand filter
if you want to skip the waiting step.
so, how much chemicals should I use for the water I have ?
but first, how so I measure out such small quantities of chemicals ?
the easy way to measure amounts so small that you have no scale for it
is to dissolve it into a known ( and larger) amount of water, then
measure the water out, that way it is easier to get a few mg of something.
they say lime is 1/20th of the aluminum salt, but I think that it
maybe should have been 1/2
good thing you can test the pH to make sure its right.
bleach powder, 3mg/L ~16 L for 5 gallons, so, 48mg for your 5 gallon
bucket.
remember that the point to this method is to eliminate the fluoride,
but you do not have to use it for that.
the aluminum salts amount use this table in the scale mg/L
this table was destroyed by the blogger site,
and I cant get it to come out correctly
good luck figuring out what it should be.
Alkalinity (ppm)
125 200 300 400 500 600 800 1000
Test water Fluorides (mg /l)
2 145 220 275 310 350 405 470 520
3 220 300 350 405 510 520 585 765
4 * 400 415 470 560 600 690 935
5 * * 510 600 690 715 885 1010
6 * * 610 715 780 935 1065 1210
8 * * * * 990 1120 1300 1430
10 * * * * * * 1510 1690
* means treat the water with a base before treatment, use lime or
sodium carbonate
so, my back up plan (no alkalinity tester) is just to put the pH to 7
before I start and then use the lowest Alkalinity chart numbers.
for my test, I just looked up the Alkalinity of the water out of the
tap on the east bay water website.
I need to figure out how to test that number if I am looking to treat
water from a stream or lake.
my source for the table
http://www.globenet.org/preceup/pages/ang/chapitre/capitali/cas/indme_g.htm
and most of the process.
have fun playing.
Adam~
this is a process that is very similar to what city water plants do.
all the things needed to do this ( bucket, spigot, and chemicals and
test kit) cost about $ 40 and all fit in the bucket very easy, put it
under the sink and click the lid closed, and you have an emergency
water treatment setup. make sure to leave the instructions ( and maybe
a calculator) in the bucket as well.
here is what I tried,
I hope this is not confusing
first you need a container for the water,
I used a 5 gallon bucket.
install a spigot 3 to 5 cm above the bottom of the bucket.
I used a 1/2" MIP to 3/4 hose connector,
then I got a plastic 1/2 MIP nut that is made for sinks.
I got a package of O rings to seal garden hoses,
I got a low priced plastic hose on/off valve,
I drilled a hole in the bucket,
and installed the adapter with the O ring on it, and secured the
plastic nut from the inside of the bucket,
then put on the on/off valve on the adapter sticking out of the bucket.
the parts cost about $ 4.5
now I have a place to treat the water, all I needed was a process.
so, I first fill the bucket with water,
next I carefully measure out the chemicals
first chemical is an aluminum salt
either
aluminum sulfate or aluminum chloride
it binds to all kinds of things
I used aluminum sulfate because it is at orchard hardware supply in
the fertilizer section
about 0.6g of it turned out to be almost 1/4 tsp of course crystals
devolve it in water, then pour it in to the bucket and mix it very well.
now for the next chemical
it should be lime or sodium carbonate
I was suppose to use 0.028g of the chemical, I picked sodium carbonate
because it is at orchard hardware supply in the pool treatment
chemicals section.
it turned out that my water was acidic, so I added more sodium
carbonate than they said, it ended up being almost 1/8 tsp of the
powder total.
your ending pH needs to be 6.5 to 8.5, test kit in the pool supply
section.
so, when you add the lime (Calcium oxide) or sodium carbonate you have
to devolve it first so that you know it is dissolved, then mix it into
the bucket, then mix the water for 20 min. and yes I know that this is
a long time.
then let the particles in the water settle for an hour.
I was suppose to add bleach powder (also a pool supply) as the first
step of the process, but because I was starting with city water, I
skipped this step.
after your waiting time, you can open the spigot and retrieve your
drinkable water, I did not like the after taste, so I filtered it with
my Brita filter and it was good tasting, they recommend a sand filter
if you want to skip the waiting step.
so, how much chemicals should I use for the water I have ?
but first, how so I measure out such small quantities of chemicals ?
the easy way to measure amounts so small that you have no scale for it
is to dissolve it into a known ( and larger) amount of water, then
measure the water out, that way it is easier to get a few mg of something.
they say lime is 1/20th of the aluminum salt, but I think that it
maybe should have been 1/2
good thing you can test the pH to make sure its right.
bleach powder, 3mg/L ~16 L for 5 gallons, so, 48mg for your 5 gallon
bucket.
remember that the point to this method is to eliminate the fluoride,
but you do not have to use it for that.
the aluminum salts amount use this table in the scale mg/L
this table was destroyed by the blogger site,
and I cant get it to come out correctly
good luck figuring out what it should be.
Alkalinity (ppm)
125 200 300 400 500 600 800 1000
Test water Fluorides (mg /l)
2 145 220 275 310 350 405 470 520
3 220 300 350 405 510 520 585 765
4 * 400 415 470 560 600 690 935
5 * * 510 600 690 715 885 1010
6 * * 610 715 780 935 1065 1210
8 * * * * 990 1120 1300 1430
10 * * * * * * 1510 1690
* means treat the water with a base before treatment, use lime or
sodium carbonate
so, my back up plan (no alkalinity tester) is just to put the pH to 7
before I start and then use the lowest Alkalinity chart numbers.
for my test, I just looked up the Alkalinity of the water out of the
tap on the east bay water website.
I need to figure out how to test that number if I am looking to treat
water from a stream or lake.
my source for the table
http://www.globenet.org/preceup/pages/ang/chapitre/capitali/cas/indme_g.htm
and most of the process.
have fun playing.
Adam~
# posted by space @ 3:12 PM 
