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