Jan 30, 2014

Matthew and I discussed the filters and where to put the plant. At first, we were thinking of putting it on the top of the structure, but then we would have to drill holes in the ceiling and hang the light like that or put the light across the structure. The light would keep the plant alive, but would block the bucket and we wouldn’t be able to pour water into our system. We decided  to put the plant into the 55 Gallon drum and put the light across there. We don’t need to pour the water into the 55 Gallon drum, so that will work very well. Matthew will run it by our professors to make sure that can be doable. He also suggested to let our contaminated water sit for a few days so the nitrates can form. Right now, there is only ammonia in the water. The nitrates, if there are any, would be in the 55 Gallon drum in the Biofilm layer.

                                                                                                               Alex

November 30,2013 (How to Build the Filters by Alex)

How to build the filters

Note: This is how to build a 2 tiered system.

Needed: 8 five gallon buckets for each cascading system (4 buckets for each individual filter)

Make a hole 2 inches from the bottom on one 5 gallon bucket, this is the bottom bucket.

Drill a hole in a cap and place PVC pipe screw piece through the hole. Put a rubber washer on the screw piece. You then place a elbow( threaded on one side) on the screw part sticking out of the hole. A straight piece of PVC piping connects this to another screw piece that has the thread part sticking out of the hole on the side of the bucket

After placing the PVC contraption in the bucket, place 2 inches of gravel in the bucket. It must be enough to cover the PVC contraption.

Drill small holes on the bottom of 3 five gallon buckets

Place a screen the size of the top of the bucket in  2 of these drilled buckets.

 Place a circle of clear, plastic pipe, connected by a pipe connector, on top of the screen to hold it down. Pour 4 inches of pea gravel in one of the buckets.

For the next one, place a circle of clear, flexible pipe, connected together by a pipe connector, (the size of the bucket rim) on top of the screen to keep it from getting pulled up. You then place 3 inches of red sand in the bucket.

(Note: For the water filters, you place red sand into the sand bucket. The whey cascading filters have 3 inches of black sand in the buckets and 8 inches of Wollastonite in the other whey buckets)

Place the final bucket on top of the sand bucket for a catch bucket.

Repeat this process for the second 4 bucket system, the catch buckets is in both filters.

You now have a 2 tiered system!

November 26, 2013

Matthew and I built the second tried system for the water filters. We also made a list for what we needed for the other bucket systems. I found out that it is really 3 in of red sand in the water filters. In the whey, we have 3 ½ in of black sand in one bucket and 7 in of wollastonite in the second whey bucket. The whey filters still must be completed as well as the third system for the water. We did good today!

                                                                                            Alex

November 21, 2013

We had a meeting with Karen Shultz. She described a structure that was being used in the Philippines to clean water. It is a system of trays with plants in some of the trays. She also gave us a list of plants that were used  to aid in cleaning the water. She told us that floating leaf plants would be more beneficial to our filter.

 At home, I found a site that gave a list of floating leaf plants:

http://www.ccwaterscapes.com/floating_plant_list.htm

It is a website for an aquarium store based in Alabama. I am sure that they have out of state orders and the plants are legal to transport. We could also see if we have the plants here.

                                                                                                               Alex

What we did on Nov 15, 2013

At the LaRows, we first poured 35 1\2 gallons of Wollastonite into the 55 Gallon drum. As Matthew and Andrew poured, I washed out the empty buckets. Andrew drilled holes into the bottom of 6 of the buckets and Matthew drilled a hole into 2 of the buckets 2 in from the bottom.

We made the cap system for the 2 buckets with the side hole. This consists of the cap with a hole drilled  close to the side. You then place a ‘screw’ through the hole with the threads sticking out. The ‘screw’ has the black rubber washer in it. We only had one, so one bucket has the washer in it. We then placed 2in of gravel into these buckets, enough to cover the cap system. The 6 buckets with holes on the bottom has a screen mesh the size of the top of the bucket plus a little more as there is a ring of plastic tubing 29in long with a pipe connector attaching the two ends. This tube goes in the bucket to hold the screen down. In two of the buckets have 4in  of pea gravel and  two of them will have 7in of red sand. We only had enough for one bucket, so we will have to get more red sand before, we can finish. We didn't place the Tantalus on as we didn't have time and I was told that the Tantalus doesn't work. I say they will work, just turn them a bit till the water pours out.
                                           Alex

November 12,2013

Mom, Melissa, Stella, and I met today and did some work. We built the second biosand filter for the first water filter. Now all that's left is to built two more 4 bucket systems and we will have another filter. We also built the second whey filter that has the Wollastonite in it. Very productive day!

                                                                     Alex

November 7, 2013

We met and did a few things. We organized our stuff and placed it in one area We are using one of the stalls in the barn. We looked at the testing kit better and Sullivan built the structure for the whey filters. We took innovatory on the buckets we have. Matthew did writing at home, but came to get buckets to gather wolastonite. 

                              Alex

November 6, 2013

We held a BioAusable administrative meeting with Professor Larkin from SUNY Plattsburgh. Professor Larkin outlined the steps we have to take in order to compete effectively at the Ying TRSEF science fair this spring. We showed her our filters and discussed how best to optimize them for texting. Thank you, Professor Larkin!

                          Alex

October 31,2013

We went to the farm and took the whey filter to the LaRows’ to fix. The sand was too fine and the fat was just passing through and clogging up the system. We have a new design that uses a pre treatment with just gravel. We will still use the bio sand filter, but it shouldn't get clogged as the big stuff will be caught by the pre-treatment. The whey filter is now at the LaRows’ for good as the cold weather is coming. We don’t want frozen whey!
                                        Alex

October 24,2013

Stella, Matthew, Andrew and I met at the LaRows’ and built another filter. I think the second one got done when I left. I have the Tantalus for the whey filter and will put it on when I do it today. If I do it today. 

                                                                                                          Alex

October 6, 3013

Matthew, Stella, Andrew, and I met to discuss the Whey filter. We bought a pipe for a pump that was supposed to be made to make it easier to get water in the filter. We got the parts, but didn’t build the pump. Stella and I went to the store and met the other 2 at the LaRows’ house where they were putting holes in a bucket top. (for a pipe for the filter

there I guess)

                                                            Alex

September 30, 2013

We set the Whey prefilter up at the nearby dairy farm. We used wood to make the thing level as we were on a hill. We had to run to the LaRows’ house to grab a few supplies, but we got the thing done.

                                                                                                             Alex

September 19, 2013

Worked on the prefilters more and messed with the Tantalus a bit. We did do a lot of building.

                                                                        Alex

September 15, 2013

 We built 2 filters to test. We had to go to the store and buy some parts.
          
                                                                        Alex

September 5, 2013

 Met Dr. Schultz who told us how a Bio-film works and gave us suggestions for our filter. She suggested that we have a control filter and 2 or 3 filters built so we can compare them.

                                                                                        Alex

August 14th and 15th, 2013

Took filter apart and dug sand out of the drums. Moved the supplies down to our new location, the LaRow's house. That was very interesting. We will now work at the LaRow's house.
     
                                                                                     Alex

August 9, 2013

Went to Ausable Point and took water out of Lake Champlain. We went to the Imagitarium and poured water through the filter. We did some problem solving and made a hose that goes down to a hole so water doesn’t spill on the floor and make a mess. The Imagitarium told us there was a smell from our filter. It was the smell from the sulfur being released from the standing water as we poured. We will try to solve that problem, but if we can’t, we will have to move. I got an email from Melissa with two links for our project:

  
http://www.nysenvirothon.net/wildlife/WildReferences.html This showed you the critters that lived in the area.

      Www.water.org This showed you a site that supports group that wish to provide clean water.

                                                                                                  Alex

August 2, 2013

   Talked about future of project at Melissa's house. Made plans on what must be done to further the project. We decided that the filter must be up and running before we can test it. We said if and when we can commit to the project. We discussed what our plans for the filter to be. We plan to get it up and running so we may test it. Jobs for the team members have been chosen as well. We listened to Mr.C speak about water purification for fish hatchery.

                                              Alex    

11/06/13 Meeting Notes

We met with Professor Larkin this week, who spoke to us on a wide variety of topics, including testing, preparation for the science fair, and our filter design. Although I will cover every topic in detail in a separate, longer blog post, I thought I should post the weekly meeting notes anyway.

- We discussed testing contaminated water. We decided that the ideal water for us to test for E. coli and other organisms would be water contaminated by surface runoff from a dairy farm near our project's site. Such water will be high in E. coli and coliform, and will prove far more effective in testing then our other options.

- We began construction on the wooden frame needed to support our filtration system. Within two meetings this should be complete (UPDATE: As of this writing, it is now finished).

- Ideally, we should have begun testing about a month ago. As is, we're running low on time before winter arrives.

That's all for Meeting Notes this week. I'll write a longer, more detailed post about our meeting tomorrow or Monday.

Matthew

The Wollastonite Has Arrived

The title says all. We picked up about about 20 buckets of Wollastonite yesterday afternoon and unloaded it at the lab this morning. Wollastonite (CaSiO3) will form the core of our Greek Yogurt Whey pre-filtration system, so it is particularly fortunate that we've acquired it at this early stage in our testing.

Just a couple of notes:

-We will be meeting with Professor Larkin this Wednesday to continue the testing process and discuss preparation for the science fairs. However, I find it advisable that we hold another building meeting, maybe earlier in the week, to begin assembling the Whey pre-filters. Thoughts?

- Special shout-out to Sullivan from the team for his amazing work last week at our construction meeting. While not even an official member of the team, his assistance in constructing the frame to hold our filtration system proved invaluable. Thanks Sul!