Category Archives: slow sand water filter study and construction

Harvesting Rainwater from a composition (asphalt) roof

Posted on January 7, 2010 by Orpheus

New information is available about rainwater harvesting from composition roofs. The slow sand filter described on slowsandfilter.org has been shown to remove petroleum hydrocarbons from water down to less than 1 part per ten million by weight; and this is … Continue reading →

Posted in slow sand water filter study and construction | 13 Comments

Cleaning (maintainence on) a (biological) slow sand filter

Posted on August 15, 2009 by Orpheus

A small biological sand filter (slow sand filter or Biosand filter) is maintained or cleaned by actively managing only the top 5 cm of sand. This top layer is either removed and replaced when the flow rate becomes unacceptable (typically … Continue reading →

Posted in slow sand water filter study and construction | 1 Comment

Safe water through sustainable practices: The slow sand filter

Posted on July 27, 2008 by Orpheus

First; my humble apologies for being so slow to moderate comments. Vast improvement is in order. We have updated the software that runs the blog ( as of July 24 2009) which went perfectly. Moderating should be quicker now. The … Continue reading →

Posted in slow sand water filter study and construction | 2 Comments