The World’s First Biological Based Algae/Cyanobacteria Filter
Chinampas take a while to purify water of Cyanobacteria or algal blooms. The P.C.W.F.S which stands for Portal Cyanobacteria & Water Filter System
is an idea Kevin came up with. Using this we can create several of them so it will purify water quicker. The people in Guatemala need safe water top priory. Cyanobacteria causes many diseases and leads to lung and heart problems. Would you prefer safe water over water that can cause you diseases. Most people would say yes. From there we started making out designs.
is an idea Kevin came up with. Using this we can create several of them so it will purify water quicker. The people in Guatemala need safe water top priory. Cyanobacteria causes many diseases and leads to lung and heart problems. Would you prefer safe water over water that can cause you diseases. Most people would say yes. From there we started making out designs.
Design and Building Process
(Please mind this is for our first filter and it is not completed yet)
Materials for design (Further details pending)
- A calculator bin with a handle and two containers on the side or two 1 liter bottles
- 1 polar sparking water bottle cap(Only if using calculator bin)
- 1-2 inches of silicone tubing
- A drill
- 2 air stones
- Sand and gravel
- Filter paper
How Does It Work
The whole concept of this filter is for people to have a filter that can be taken everywhere without having any trouble. Therefore we got a Calculator bin because its divided into two. One side would contain sand and rocks and thats where the green water will go in also. The rocks and the sand work as a filter the rocks will take any bacteria and the sand will take any huge stuff that won't be able to pass (Ex. Duckweed)then there will be a tube that connects to the other side and thats were the daphnia will be. The green water will pas and the daphnia will eat the Micro- algae. When the water is clear people would get clear water.
Data
Trial #1 (Completed on 3/5/15)
This experiment failed when we did this experiment we filled the right side with normal tap water. When we tested it the makeshift septic tank we made from rubber tubing wouldn't flow because we put the output part too high so this model failed.
Trial #2
For trial two we reused our initial model and improve on it by making and putting a water balloon pump. It worked better than the initial design but we scraped that idea seeing how we had to keep refilling the water balloon. We stopped this trial 3/13/15 because of the output was too high similar to the initial design. (c) to the BeeKeepers' Atri Patel for the photos this is an upcoming group trying
Trial #3
We didn't have a lot of pictures for this trial but during this trial we used another calculator's case and made this filter we put both the tubing down so it would fix our previous problem when we tested it, where the water exits the cap was leaking so we stopped it on the 3/16/15 than we repaired it and tested it for Trial#4
Trial #4
This is a trial we were working on for a few days. This trial was unsuccessful because the water stopped flowing to the other side.
New , improved, and bigger
Filter(G.E.F)
G.E.F stands for Global Economical Filter
This filter has the same concept as of the portable filter but it is a larger design which produces more clean water and doesn't need to fill it everyday like in our previous designs. In our school there is a lot of water dispensers for the reason being that our water fountain doesn't work. We had these water dispensers for about two years but the Nestle 5 gallon water would just sit in our school's basement. We decided to use these empty 5 gallons bottle to conduct our project. The problem which we found from this filter was that when we put the sand in the contain with the gravel the tube we used to bring out the water would not work. The tubing we used was in a way which it was similar to a septic tank. But this design ended up failing at first. Until we improved it.
Trial #1
In the first trial we added gravel and sand inside the 5 gallon bottle it worked fine when we first placed the gravel but after we put the sand the tube had gotten clogged.
Trial #2 (4/22/15)
Day 1
Day 1
In our second trial we created another system similar to the first trial but we didn't put the sand in and we put some algae water inside instead of aquarium water. The gravel inside this system will block large items or anything larger than the tubing itself for example sch things as duckweed and macro algae. As you can see in one of the pictures our system blocked the duckweed from going inside the filter where our daphnia will be to eat the mirco algae and cyanobacteria. If they keep this system for about a week the whole system should be cleared. When it get cleared the people with the system will have to suck in air from the small tube at the bottom than the water will slowly drip. From there the people using this system can heat up the water to drink it, use it to wash their clothes, and etc.
Day 2 (4/23/15)
Everything is doing well so far .The daphnia are doing a great job so far. We have had anything break or casualties happen. We are hoping this trial will work will keep working perfectly.
Day 3 (4/24/15)
This is day three of our testing. Nothing wrong has happened so far but the water is getting a little more clear. We estimated that by wens day the water will be clear if there is nothing wrong going to happen. Sadly this filter is in school so day 4 and 5 won't be recorded.
Day 6 (4/27/15)
You could see the color of the water getting more light. Now there are more daphnia even more because the water is lighter to see them. We are so glad that this is working and assuming that the water will be clear by either wens day or thursday.
Day 7 (4/28/15)
So far so good with this filter. We could see the daphnia more better now and see if the amount of daphnia grew or still the same.We hope that the good work continues and nothing bad happens.
Day 8 (4/29/15)
This is day 8 and a Wednesday. So far its not as clear as we thought it would be but we are getting there. We took a good and close up picture of the daphnia. On day 1 we couldn't even locate a daphnia in but now we now that the water is getting clear.
Day 9 (4/30/15
So far everything is going fine but we can't see as much daphnia as we used to.
Day 10 (5/1/15)
Everything is great but we believe that the daphnia re dying and hope that they are laying eggs before there are non left.Day 11 and 12 won't be posted since the filter is in school.
Day 13 (5/4/15)
We have noticed that there are no daphnia in the filter but we just spotted a baby daphnia so we hope there will be more daphnia in a few days.
Day 14 (5/5/15
Based upon what we seen so far the water looks almost completely cleared.
On 5/5/15 this experiment was a SUCCESS
We found out this experiment was a success three days after Day 14 and we sacrificed a couple hundred Daphnia and these are the pictures of it after we drained 90% of the water inside for testing purposes.
Kevin's Sketchup of the G.E.F Filter
New and Improve filter
Trial #3
(6/24/15)
We are currently working on making the previous filter better. The three gallon container that we used to put in the green water had a leak. In replace of using the three gallon container we are using a cooler. We put root barrier inside of the cooler opening to prevent the daphnia from escaping when the water is purified. Inside the tube there is micron filter paper to catch any materials that were not removed by the daphnia or material waste that was produced by the daphnia. We are inputting the tube at the other side of the coolers opening. The valve is in between the two tubes to stop the green water from coming in contact with the micron filter paper. Once the daphnia remove the algae from the water we will open the valve and the micron paper will be the last step of filtration proir to creating clean drinking water! Stay tuned for testing results. We should have the system running tomorrow (6/25/15) after we purchase a clamp to hold the hose to the cooler. Stay tuned for data!
(6/25/15)
Today we inputed the tube in the coolers opening but there was one problem. The tube was loose and the valve was putting to much weight on it and making the tube slip off. We grabbed a plastic version of the valve and inserted it in the coolers opening.
Day 1 (6/26/15)
Today we started our testing with our new algae cyanobacteria filter. We syphoned the water form the turtle tank into the gallon bottle. We inserted the water from the turtle tank into the gallon because the rocks will help filter the water and catch any items we don't want in the water. From the gallon we syphoned the water to the cooler. When the water was inside the cooler we pored some green water from one of our cultures since it wasn't as green they we wanted to be. We then inserted at least more than 100 daphnia inside the cooler. A few minutes later we noticed the valve started to leak. We covered the valve with duck tape and hope the valve won't leak all the water out.
Day 4 (6/29/15)
Today we had an incredible result. We just missed two days and look at how clear the water is. We also found out that the daphnia reproduced very quickly over the two days. If this progress continues the water should be clear in a few days.
Day 5 6/30/15
Today the algae/cyanobacteria got even clearer. We estimated the population with the gender and figured out that we had about 2 million female daphnia and 1 million male daphnia we expect many more.
Day 6 7/1/15
So far the water is getting more clear than the day we started. It should take a week for the water to get cleared.
Day 7 7/2/15
We are noticing a large amount of baby daphnia. Most of the adult daphnia have died and laid their eggs.
Day 11 7/6/15
There has been a big growth of amounts of daphnia inside the cooler that it will be certain that the water should clear by either Tuesday or Wednesday.