lagalga

Good afternoon,

after a bewildering day spent amongst $5000 cartridges and home made fish tank systems on t'Interweb I'd be very grateful if someone could offer me a bit of advice.

My water supply comes from a lake. It is untreated and although appears perfectly clean, I need to filter and purify it to get rid of viruses, bacteria, parasites, and other nasty, invisible dangerous things.

There are an enormous array of filter systems to treat tap water, but very little to treat untreated water.

Is there anybody out there who has experience of this who could help, please?

Meanwhile, I'll have a cider. Cheers!

uk_grenada

To treat untreated water and make it safe you have to kill the nasties, some of which are incredibly small.

If it was a newly filled pool you would burn these nasties, organic or not, by adding a big amount of effectively bleach - which itself would leave the water if left in sunlight [which contains lots a UV and is actually a really strong cleaner.] and the pool water is circulated/airated/physically filtered, another useful measure.

You have to regularly test the water for about 5-10 parameters depending on the water source.

This is pretty much what your water co does.

I know people who keep properly treated and balanced pools, then feed some into storage for human consumption [clearly in this case you watch what / who goes in your pool...]

This is a decent solution, you can omit the pool and store in concrete/plastic tanks, but you would lose the sun benefit, and no pool! But if you are somewhere with winters then under house concrete is more sensible of course - indoor pool?

Jerseygirl

The lake water is for a fish tank...not a swimming pool.

mikelincs

Welcome to BE.

You would be better off posting your question in the forum for the country you are living in.

uk_grenada

Oh I thought they were after drinking water, in the tropics getting it via a pool is actually really clever move. If it's for fish that's actually more difficult because some of them are very sensitive to chlorine whilst at the same time they have to be protected from things which you will find an lakewater like moulds and small parasites not to mention rat pee. From their initial post I have to assume that they have no access to tapwater So how do they get potable water now?

mikelincs

OP doesn't say that, it could even be for drinking the way the first post is worded.

Jerseygirl

'after a bewildering day spent amongst $5000 cartridges and home made fish tank systems on t'Interweb I'd be very grateful if someone could offer me a bit of advice'

The above was why I assumed it was for a fish tank...

Maybe the OP will enlighten us?

lagalga

Hello,

thanks for all your replies!

No swimming pool or fish tank, sorry if I was confusing!!

Looking to purify the lake water supply, the water has been filtered to get rid of debris, but has not been chemically treated. It is not tap water. I don't wish to use chemicals at all, so no bleach or chlorine!

Most systems I was encountering online were for filtering chemically treated tap water, not for cleaning untreated water. (the fish tank was part of a home-made lake water filter)

There are several systems out there, but come at a hefty price and are mainly from Canada and USA, but I have now found some promising products closer to home.

I was just asking if anyone else had dealt with the same situation and had any recommendations for products available here in Spain!

I thought I was posting my question in Spain, sorry mikelincs!

Again, thanks x

Jerseygirl

Thank you for explaining. I will move your thread over to our Spain forums. Good luck.

uk_grenada

You cant remove toxins with any normal filter so if there are any poisons from mining or natural deposits or dissolved metals you are stuffed.

You have to filter to 1 micron for protozoa like cryptosporidium or giardia which is common in freshwater lakes with things like rats, which is a serious piece of kit, but is pretty dumb compared with intelligent use of chlorine at 1 part per million which you cant taste or smell plus some simple filtering.

You can use reverse osmosis if you have lots of money but the resulting water tastes horrible.

I return to using a pool filled from the lake to source your water - where water can be treated, in spain this would seem a good idea.

lagalga

Thank you very much, I'll certainly bear this in mind, and I did appreciate your previous recommendation about the pool!

We're in the National Park, a highly protected area where a pool is not an option so we need to get around this in a different way.

Right now just investigating all options and all suggestions very much appreciated, thanks x

Fred James

High quality carbon/silver filters are claimed to make almost any water drinkable.

lagalga

Hi, yes, we've been looking at this type of filter too, they look very promising and are not too expensive. We've asked for more information from the manufacturer and are considering all options. Thanks for your help

chawkins99

I disagree. We use a 5 stage RO system for all of our drinking and cooking water. It tastes great. Just like water should taste.

We paid around $250 on Amazon.

uk_grenada

Have you had an anslysis of the contents of the ro water? Its not very healthy for you to drink long term unless you take mineral supplementation. Also whats the daily output, probably not suitable for all a households use, and using grey water for washing/showering etc isnt safe really.