Can You Filter Filthy Water at Home?

In this course, we have been talking about when and how water came to Earth. Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago, but how was water brought to Earth? We learned that due to the amount of volcanoes during this era, the evaporation of volcanoes made clouds which formed rain. In outer space, comets consist of ice, so what we learned was that a comet had hit our planet which brought the other half of our current 71% of water on earth. At GCE we were able to construct water filters. How you may ask? Well, we went down to the Jardine Water Purification Plant, around Navy Pier in order to get a better idea of how water filters are used and how we can make our water filters possibly the best. Now when I say the best I don't mean an ideal moneymaker, I mean something that would be easy for someone who is going through a water crisis. Usually it is preferred for someone who is in need of potable water to boil the non potable water, but many people don't know that the lead samples in the water will rise, which will cause a hazard. In order to change the pH sample, I made sure that my filter went through many processes before finally coming out. My main question I had was: How does water get filtered using sand, gravel, and activated carbon? Many of the sources that I had looked up on "How to Filter Water at Home?" had led me to using these three main ingredients such as: Hermit Crab Sand, Aquarium Gravel, and Activated Carbon.


MATERIALS USED:

Coffee filters
Hermit Crab Sand
Gravel
Activated Carbon
Jar
Plastic Bottle
Cloth
STEP BY STEP PROCESS:

Punch a hole through the cap
Cut the plastic bottle in half
Coffee filter to cover the opening of spigot.
Tighten the cap back onto the filter with coffee filter
Put the activated carbon inside the plastic bottle
Put gravel
Put coarse sand
Get a jar
Put the dirty water into the filter
Have filtered water come out, clean and fresh!

My hypothesis was if I use activated carbon, aquarium gravel, and hermit crab sand then, the dirtiest water will get filtered into clean, drinkable water. This is similar to the ground water filters because. usually ground water filters use natural resources such as gravel, natural sand, and minerals. These natural resources are used to filter water which is exactly what my filter is used for. The activated carbon is a replicant of what the underwater volcanoes release.

I created a spigot on the cap of the water bottle, where I poked holes through the cap in order for the water to come out. Then, I put cloth from a t-shirt on top of the mason jar so that before the water comes out it can go through an extra process. Then, before I covered the bottle, I decided to put two coffee filters inside of the plastic bottle. For the natural part of the filtration process, I decided to use the biggest rock that was available for me, so I used aquarium gravel. I also used Hermit Crab sand which is a finer sand compared to other sand. Lastly, I used activated carbon since it’s used to have a clean scent and turn the pH levels from acidic to basic levels.


Sketch of Filter:

 

NB(2017) Can You Filter Filthy Water at Home?

Inspiration for filter
My Water Filter:

                                            NB(2017) Can You Filter Filthy Water at Home?

Results:

	Before	After
Look	Mulch, soil, leaves, cloudy, dark brown water.	Cloudy, slightly yellow
Smell	Garden, earthy, playground scent.	Earthy
pH	5.4	6.0
H +	3.981 x 10^-7	1 x 10^-6

I decided to use the water from the tap at GCE, but I decided to throw in some soil, mulch, and leaves that were outside in order to see if my filter will change in color.

Before: Before the water smelled like a playground or a garden. It really did have an earthy scent to it. For looks, I put mulch, rock, and dry leaves inside of the water from our school garden. The water looked dark brown because of the mulch and dirt that was in the water before.

After: The water was clearer than it was before, with no leaves, dirt, or mulch, including the materials that I used for the filter. The scent was there at first. The scent at the beginning still smelled like that garden, earthy scent, but then I checked back a bit after and the scent had completely changed. The water was cloudy, and the color was slightly yellow.

To conclude, my hypothesis was right. I was able to filter out my water into semi-clean water compared to before which was a dirty, murky, slimy substance. I was also shocked to find out that my PH levels had risen from a 5.4 to 6.0. My "before" sample had (10^-5.4/10^-6.0 = 3.981) times the H+ as my "after." I wasn’t too sure that my filter would have changed the pH levels. I was able to clear out the mulch, soil, and leaves from the water, and was able to be left with a cloudy yellow substance which is better than what I had before. I enjoyed this project because this project really opened my eyes on how I can help someone out that is going through a water crisis currently. I was a bit doubtful of what my results were going to be before, but once I learned that my pH scale rose then I realized how this could help someone who doesn't have access to potable water like I do. Making a water filter never really came across my mind because for a person who lives in an area where they are able to access potable water everywhere around them, I didn't know how I was able to create one or how it would affect my life in any way.

Works Cited:

Lunney, Dylan, “File:Ohorizons Concrete BioSand Filter.png” Wikimedia Commons, 20,Jul,2015, Wikimedia Commons, 1, Jul, 2013,

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ohorizons_Concrete_BioSand_Filter.png
Morgan, Vanessa, WikiHow, “How to Make a Water Filter”, 28, Sep. 2017 https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Water-Filter

Do You Keep Track of Water?

This is for my water class. We are wrapping up the unit 71% where we learned about the water crisis occurring in different parts of the world, we calculated the amount of potable water versus the non potable water in this world. We had a field experience which is basically where we had to go to the local Chicago River, we had to bring buckets in order to carry the water back to the school which was .2 miles apart. I carried approximately 1.5 gallons in 8.84 mins. I now have a project where we make our calculations of our daily usage of water we use in a day, and calculate how long that would take, how many gallons I would carry each trip, etc.  I will also have to explain my own experience in carrying this water and how I feel about these water crisis that are happening globally.

I never really thought about the amount of water that I used on a daily basis, until one day in class my teacher asked me to estimate the amount of water that I used in a day. I estimated about fifteen gallons of water per day, turns out in reality I use about two hundred thirty-nine gallons of water per day. This was really an eye opener for me to finally realize the amount of water we use per day. I use more gallons of water than an average person uses water in liters. It really concerns me because I even use more water per day than an average person in America, around five hundred seventy-five in liters, which is 2213.75 gallons.  We think about the real problems in the world, but we never really put an action into it, we should begin to think more about the change we must make. Even the smallest changes make the biggest impact by just closing the tap while you’re nut using it or taking less time in the shower. Most of my water usage came from taking thirty five minute showers, which I would use one hundred seventy-five gallons of water. I have tried something out where now I will take fifteen minute showers, which cuts me down by one hundred gallons of water, basically means that I am now using seventy five gallons of water per shower. While it looks like quite a lot, by cutting down the amount of time you use the most water it will also lead to a decrease in the amount of water usage per day. This really got me thinking about the phrase, “ A little goes a long way”, the less water you use means more water for the people who need it. Think about being a child in a poverty country. Whatever your daily usage of water might be, think about the amount of trips you would have to take per day. My calculations show me that it would take me about It takes me about 8  mins to carry 1 ½ gallons of water. I would have to carry around 237.5 more gallons of water the whole day in order to get to my score. It would take me 48 hours to collect the amount of water that I need per day. I figured this out by multiplying the amount of minutes which was 8.84 times I would have two days in order to get the amount of water that I only need for one day. Many people think about fetching water as a job because it does take most of your day, and you need to provide the sufficient amount for your family.    Do you ever think about the amount of water you are really using throughout the day? Ever think about the gallons of water you use while taking a shower? Washing Dishes? Or even drinking water? These are all things that I never thought about until I made the calculations. Turns out I use about 239 gallons of water which is more than the amount a person uses water daily in Japan. This certainly was an eye opener for me, I now realize how much water takes a big part of my life. We need to stand up, we need to help these people in Bolivia, Africa, and even such places as Detroit, Michigan. There are many changes that should be made, but for now let’s start by simply just turning off the tap when not using it. I tried this while taking a shower, before I used 175 gallons of water while taking a shower, and I now only take 15 mins to take a shower which is now only 75 gallons of water.

NBE (2017) Do You Keep Track of Water?

Overall, I really enjoyed this project because I got to experience what others are going through day by day. I think everyone should go out and experience something, because I know we think about all these issues going on in the world, but once you experience what's actually happening you get to really connect with the world and actually take action in these problems that are going on.  The more we begin to take action in these issues the faster these problems will get solved. I am proud to have a different mind set of the situation, and that I will now think more about my daily water usage and actually take part in making a change from now on.


CITATIONS

Images: Pixabay, "American Flag Patriotism Symbol Red White Blue" June 13, 2014

NB, "My Daily Usage of Water" Sept. 20, 2017

Pixabay, "Bucket Water Tub" Oct. 12, 2013

Pixabay, Women Ethic African People, Aug. 17, 2016

SF Bright colorful cartoon background green grass river forest blue sky, 2014

Wikimedia Commons, Japan Regions Map, 26 December 2009

H2O: Long Walk to Water and A World Without Water Connection

This summer, we were assigned to read a book that was based on a world without water. Title of the movie was, A Long Walk to Water, where we were told the story of a young lost boy of Sudan and a young girl named Nya. We were told the daily struggle of dealing with life without water. The documentary was called, A World Without Water, where we were told different stories of famiies that were dealing with the issue of limited amount of water around the world, such as, South America, Africa, and even the U.S.


                                                      IMG_1274 from N.B. on Vimeo.