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Filtering black water streams

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Anyone filtered water from a black water stream? I haven't, but am thinking about it. I'm wondering if the filter removes the tannin color of the water.

But most importantly, is the filtered water useable for drinking and cooking? Even if the color remains I would think the filtered water would be fine.

Any insights?
 
I'm not sure what you mean by Black Water, but our rivers and lakes have a range of colours from clear to dark brown. Filtering does not remove the colour of the water, but takes out the two main culprits filters are designed to deal with, cryptosopidium and giardia. Boiling water for one minute will also kill these two little guys and make your water safe. So I would hazard a guess that your black water should be fine to drink after being filtered, or boiled.
 
I've spent lots of time paddling in black water areas and the most likely thing that will happen if you use a filter is it will become clogged. There is a lot of suspended matter in the water (one part of why it looks so dark) it filters don't tend to do well. If you don't mind a lot of on-trip cleaning of your filter than I'd say go ahead but if you don't want to be bothered with that then I'd suggest you boil your water like Memaquay has already suggested. When I travel down in the Okefenokee we bring drinking water in collapsible jugs and then get our cooking water directly from the swamp. No one in our groups has ever had a problem with this so my guess is it would work for you as well.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...Be well.

snapper
 
Thanks.

The black water I see locally is the color of a weak tea. It looks black from the canoe but a tumbler full has that weak tea color. A filtered liter flask will look a little funny, but I guess it will taste just fine.

I think a little home field test of my local stream will help me determine if this would work on an extended trip in black water streams.
 
I think of the blackwater streams of GA and SC. Full of suspeded stuff. Boreal forest has lots of tannic acid and its water looks like weak tea. A regular filter works there just clean it often. Much of Canada canoe country has that "black water"
 
If you mean tannin colored and taste,why bother? One of the charms of tripping is the varied tastes of water from different lakes/streams. No two taste alike.
Turtle
 
Hi Will, Don't know what kind of filter set up you have, but on mine on the suction line there's a plastic basket with a metal mesh screen. One of those flat bottom coffee filters will enclose around the little basket and can be secured with a s/s hose clamp.

What I think I'm doing is filtering out the gross sized bits and leaving the expensive filter to do it's thing with the bad bugs. No point in plugging the filter up with sludge that I can catch with the cheap coffee filter.

You know, when ever they're doing one of those test to see just how good such and such filter setup is, the gold standard for comparison is boiled water.
100% sure = dead bugs.

Best Wishes, Rob
 
Last year I collected some water from a local black water stream (NC swampy cypress and tupelo habitat) and placed it into a zip lock bag. I could easily see through the zip lock with no visible patriculate matter, so it didn't appear to be heavily loaded with solids. The water was tinted with the weak tea color.

I'm aware that despite its apparently clean, but tinted, look there could well be bad critters in there and that removing or killing them is important.

Unless I start a wood fire, boiling would involve using precious fuel so I'd rather use my filter. I'm mostly curious if filtered water leaves the water tinted, and if so, does that affect the taste.

A little test at home will reveal the answer. I'd rather experiment at home than take my chances while away on a longer trip.

I have long used a paper coffee filter over the filter intake to minimize clogging of the filter. An effective method of pre-cleaning the water.

Thanks for everyone's input.
 
If you go to the Marshall Lake thread and look at the picture of our filters for the Katadyn base camp that we use, you will see what a seasons worth of shield country tea stained water does to them. Thats not bad for a 3-4 weeks of use. I do back flush them on occasion and try to get the cleanest water that I can to start with. It nevers gets all that clear unless it is a brand new filter. The taste is still there but its not objectionable. Nice clear spring or city water sure does have a fresher taste to it though.

So in our experience, no it does not clog the filters too badly, no it does not take the coloration away, and no, none of that seems to matter. It is safe to drink, bottom line. Tea, coffee, and gatorade powder gets rid of the taste and colour issues pretty handily anyways. Thats just my experience, I could be wrong.


Christy
 
I do find an enhanced water quality with my ceramic filter. It seems to taste better. Only downside is I usually have to clean it every two liters.
 
Memaquay, This must be water for coffee you're talking about? Surely that tannin didn't get into the Bud-Light??

Rob
 
Didn't see anyone mention this so if they did, I apologize but essentially tannin tinged water is a watered down tea. As for the suspended matter, I automatically assumed what you'll deal with in places like the Okefenokee but if you're looking to paddle northern waters, as YC mentioned, I can't imagine you'll have any problems with your filter. Sorry if I gave the wrong impression based on location.

That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.

snapper
 
Will,
I have a bit of experience with water filtration...here's my take.
In my opinion, there are 3 major catagories when it comes to cleaning up your source water. 1. Trace minerals 2. Taste, odor, and color 3. Bugs
Of the 3 above, I only worry about bugs. Trace minerals are really not problematic on short trips through many parts of the country, although high sulfer content can contribute to um, loose poop.
Taste, odor and color are generally harmless but can be quite fowl in certain standing bodies of water. I'm not sure that I would want to drink coffee colored water that just came from a lake, or even water that smells like rotten eggs (sulfer). A simple carbon block cartridge can take care of most of this.

Which brings me to #3...bugs. Now, I'm a lover of all things in nature, but have seen first hand what giardia can do to even the strongest of men.

What you haven't told us here is what type of filter you will be using. Does your filter rid the water of particulate matter as well as these nasty little bugs? Are you using carbon filtration too? Maybe you could fill in a bit more details???

Thanks,
Momentum
 
... if you're looking to paddle northern waters, as YC mentioned, I can't imagine you'll have any problems with your filter....

I paddle northern waters (BWCA) and have found it's generally true that particulate matter isn't a big deal. But I suspect pine pollen, which coats the water in a yellow-green film in the spring - might contribute to the somewhat short service life I get from my Platypus CleanStream filters. I imagine back-flushing doesn't get it all out.
Tannin is just a fact of life.
 
If the water contains tannin, no particulate filter will remove it. Tannin, as well as most colors and odors, will be dissolved in the water. Some or most of this may be removed with a carbon filter and some or most of this may be removed by treatment with an oxidizer (bleach, chlorine dioxide, hydrogen peroxide, etc.). If there are suspended solids in the water, I would suggest a prefilter. My standard is the pleated paper coffee filter because they are cheap and widely available. You can hang your raw water from a tree and use a siphon tube with a coffee filter wrapped around the end of the tube and held on with a rubber band or string. It's not hard to improvise something. I use a single cup silicone coffee brewing funnel with muslin filters that I made. Paper cone filters can be used, but not reused. pleated paper filters can be reused, but not much. If you intend to chemically treat the water or use a carbon filter, it is best to use a prefilter. The suspended solids may use up some of the chemicals. Another good way to remove suspended solids if you have a bucket and the time is to add alum to the water. It only takes a little, but the alum coagulates the solids and helps to settle them. You then decant the water from the bucket and throw away the sediment. Alum, or ferric chloride, is very commonly used in the first stages of municipal water treatment to settle the solids. See Cliff Jacobsen's books for more on alum. If you want to use activated carbon, there are a number of options. You can use granulated activated charcoal in a coffee filter. The granules can be reused until they lose their effectiveness and then regenerated in an oven. A cartridge filter can be used inline with a particulate filter. If you rig a gravity filter setup, like Sawyer's, you can add a carbon filter after the particulate filter. I would look for one like is used on ice makers. They are often used as post filters on reverse osmosis purifiers.
 
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I make my own gravity filter system by cobbling bits and pieces of this and that together, my last one was made from a Sea to summit folding bucket into which I put a quick release bulkhead fitting of some sort that allows me to plug in hoses that go to my sawyer filter etc. Back to the point, what I've also taken to doing is making a prefilter out of piece of bandana/handkerchief cotton that I put over a golfball sized wiffle ball that a piece of hose sticks into. This does an effective job of filtering out the macro-kooties, floaties and the like and keeps the proper filter having good flow throughout the whole trip. I put the cotton bag over the ball and tie it with a piece of string around the tube.

gravity%2Bwater%2Bfilter%2B%285%2Bof%2B8%29.jpg
 
I used to do a lot of water quality sampling and testing all over the western US. In Alaska in remote bush country there some streams stained the color of dark tea from large accumulations of organic matter in muskegs and swampy country. The water was otherwise very clean with few if any contaminants. I would settle it first, but not be afraid to drink it after filtering. Sometimes there can be some off taste, but compared to no water it is fine.
 
I don't believe that I have ever filtered black water. However, in Minnesota, we have quite brown, tannin-rich water. The filter set-up that we use is a Katadyn Pocket Filter. I have made some changes that seem to have worked well for us. It has the standard infeed prefilter, an added Sweetwater Silt a Stopper on the infeed, the Pocket ceramic filter, and an added Katadyn/Pur carbon cartridge on the outfeed. This may a heavier rig than most people care for but it is reliable and provides good water. Thanks
 
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