Pool Conversion / Dirt Water Filter / Grey Water / Potability / Depth & Contruction

Hello, I would like to turn a backyard swimming pool into a huge "catch all" water filter. I'd want pretty much all water except the toilet stuff to be sent to this unit and then a small pump to periodicly suck out the filtered stuff and put it in a container.

How much filtering material does water need to go through before it is potable? I've heard that a dirt filter can be made to used to filter water as well but I'm not sure how much dirt I'd have to use.

I'm also thinking about using a setup where the water in the pool that is waiting to make it through the filter stays below a level where there are loose rock, this way the water being filtered isn't openly exposed to the air. I'm still playing with the idea bacause if it is too dense then might mess with the filters performance or whatever.

Anyway, any suggestions? Check the attachment.

My suggestion is that you check out the Natural Swimming site. They have a lot of info about having living water, instead of dead chlorinated water.

Howdy Jeremy, welcome to permies!

Sounds like you might be thinking of a giant sand filter?

Here is a link to another thread about that, and other issues.

https://permies.com/t/25198/toxin-ectomy/Water-Filter-Systems-water-testing

That biosand option looks pretty nifty.. Hmmm, I really wish I could find that link with the 5 feet of soil information that I remember seeing a few years back. All of my searches are bring up other kinds of sand and carbon filters. It's a bit tough to find the right search words I used since "Dirt Water Filter" and other such searches want to direct me to cleaning dirty water, not using dirt to clean water.

If I stumble on the link I'll post it here, but yeah... sand and gravel and clay sounds like it would work. Are these sand filters "needy" when it comes to maintenance or does that bio-layer or organisms eating bad stuff that might hurt me do a pretty self sustaining job?

Are you thinking of a "slow sand filter"?