Fresh Water Filtration Question

[Cheechako]

Fresh water RO units are inexpensive, as low as maybe $120. You need 45 psi water flow. No 120 volt needed. Might be worth it. I just bought one for under sink home use. I selected a model that uses standard 10" filters, rather than some proprietary filters.
https://www.filtersfast.com/P-Hydrot..._campaign=cteo

[tarian]

Originally Posted by alansmith

Tarian, you have first hand experience of what lurks in your wife? Smile...

[gkunkle999]

I RV'd for years including Mexico. The last few years I used a portable system I purchased at a dealer in Yuma. Made good water and filled my whole tanks.
It consisted of two progressively smaller sediment filters followed by a very fine carbon filter (that would even remove gerardi). Then went through RO membrane.
I used a small 12V pump.
Worked great. If not sure add a UV system, either installed or portable. Or add bleach, but be careful with the type (use plain not the scented) and make sure you know the strength and get the dilution correct

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

What are you calling toxins?
I know of no real way to clean membranes myself. But fresh water RO systems are not that expensive, nothing like our salt water systems.

If you have an RO, of course you can’t bleach until after the RO.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanotoxin

These. I'm calling these toxins. They have killed a ton of dogs this year, they can kill people and have killed some seaside town in, I believe, Italy.

I have my real salt water watermaker 1000 miles away. I'm wondering if it'll get everything out of the water at this point.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by alansmith

Chotu, where are you at? Because you mention Manatee I'm assuming Florida.

By education and profession I'm a scientist with medical microbiology. Just be careful ...especially with stagnant water. Animals have adapted to environments for an incredibly long time. Stagnant water....holy smokes...people are getting eaten these days from microorganisms from hot tubs. Not trying to scare you...but stagnant water has to be treated thoroughly with bleach, boiling, or ultra filtration. Even then...it ain't getting swallowed by me or used for cooking.

I'm not telling you anything you don't know. Just confirming what you already are concerned over.

Thank you very much. That's exactly the confirmation I was hoping for.

I'll level with everyone... It's the Okeechobee waterway. Way up into fresh water. They have, I think, 29 hazardous algae blooms a year on it. Plus whatever else.

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by alansmith

Chotu, where are you at? Because you mention Manatee I'm assuming Florida.

By education and profession I'm a scientist with medical microbiology. Just be careful ...especially with stagnant water. Animals have adapted to environments for an incredibly long time. Stagnant water....holy smokes...people are getting eaten these days from microorganisms from hot tubs. Not trying to scare you...but stagnant water has to be treated thoroughly with bleach, boiling, or ultra filtration. Even then...it ain't getting swallowed by me or used for cooking.

I'm not telling you anything you don't know. Just confirming what you already are concerned over.

You didn't mention UV..... no good ?

[acem]

If you want to remove chemicals from the water (not particles or biological) the only practical method on a boat is reverse osmosis. There are other methods out there but they are not practical in a small space.

Have a friend ship you your watermaker. Then set up a filtration system (particle filter and carbon filter) to remove the big stuff before you RO it. You can plum up some stuff from lowes or home depot and do fine.

Thx-Ace

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Chotu

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanotoxin

These. I'm calling these toxins. They have killed a ton of dogs this year, they can kill people and have killed some seaside town in, I believe, Italy.

I have my real salt water watermaker 1000 miles away. I'm wondering if it'll get everything out of the water at this point.

Common water filtration and purification systems may not be effective against cyanotoxins.
I suggest that anyone concerned with cyanobacterie/cyanotoxins do some research on cyanotoxin water treatment. It very quickly gets quite complicated.

Cyanobacteria are photosynthetic bacteria that share some properties with algae and are found naturally in lakes, streams, ponds, and other surface waters. Under favorable conditions of light and nutrients, some species of cyanobacteria produce toxic secondary metabolites, known as cyanotoxins.
The most widespread of the cyanotoxins are the peptide toxins in the class called microcystins. There are at least 80 known microcystins, including Microcystin-LR , which is generally considered one of the most toxic.
Exposure to cyanobacteria and their toxins could be by ingestion of drinking water contaminated with cyanotoxins and through direct contact, inhalation and/or ingestion during recreational activities. Commercially available Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) test kits are one of the more commonly utilized cyanotoxin testing methods, since they do not require expensive equipment or extensive training to run.
UV Radiation is effective at degrading microcystin and cylindrospermopsin but at impractically high doses. It’s impractical to deliver ultraviolet (UV) radiation at the doses required to photolytically destroy microcystin, anatoxin-a, and cylindrospermopsin in a process setting.
See ➥ https://www.epa.gov/sites/production..._factsheet.pdf

[jamhass]

If you go the watermaker route and you pre-treat the raw water with bleach, don't forget to use a good charcoal filter before the WM. Otherwise the membrane will be toast.