How to Settle Muddy Water

Before I posted this Blog, I searched past forum post to see if my little experiment had been posted before, but there have been no recent posts or requests on how to do it. So if you have ever wondered how to settle muddy water in a reasonably short time, then continue to read on how you to can use a very simple Bush Recipe.

For a good number of years, I have know of a Bush recipe for cleaning water when taken from a dam or water supply where the water contains large amounts of suspended silt particles. Over the Australia Day Long Weekend, we headed back to Hogwash Bend on the Murray River and armed myself with what I would need to see if my Bush recipe would work.

The Murray River is typical of any large waterway in Australia, like the Cooker Creek, Diamantena River, the Darling River etc that contains large amounts of suspended silt, giving the water that typical brown muddy look. For the purpose of my exercise, I only cleaned 10 litres of Murray Water at a time, but if you are armed with larger containers, the same will apply, but using larger quantities of the settling agent.





My cleaning kit consisted of the following:

10 litre bucket for settling the water.

Small dipper for transferring the settled water into clean containers.

Clean 2 litre clear drink containers to show the cleaning affect.

Dessert Spoon.

Small box of Epsom Salts ( Magnesium Sulfate).

Large wooden spoon or stick for stirring the water after the Epsom Salts added.



I would like to point out that my little exercise was to see just how much the water would settle in a given time, as the water was to be used only for showering. If the water was to be used for drinking, then the water would need further treatment and boiling to make it safe and fit to drink for human consumption.

With my sample water collected, I then sprinkled two dessert spoons of Epsom Salts into the bucket of Murray water and stirred to make sure that it was all dissolved and distributed evenly through the water. My first trial was overnight, with astonishing results, with crystal clear water in little over 12 hours, with a brown sludge on the bottom of the bucket and my clear water bottle. This water was then decanted from the bucked and placed into our Solar water shower bags and left for the sun to heat up for our showers that night.



My next batch of water was done during the hours we were up and about, to see if the same effect could be achieved in a shorted time frame. By 9am I had my next batch of water treated and by 3pm that same afternoon, the water was perfect, showing that the water can be treated and settled in as little as six hours. If the water sample had very heavy silt deposits, the setting time would take longer, but I was only using water straight from the Murray River.



Also for my experiment, I placed two litres of Murray water into a clear plastic soft drink bottle to compare the difference of the water setting on its own accord. Two weeks later at home, the water is crystal clear, far longer than you would want to wait in the bush for a refreshing show. If you have concerns about using Epsom Salts, reading the packet will tell you just how safe it is and that it is used to relax the body in a warm bath, used as a fertiliser to overcome magnesium and sulfur deficiencies in soil and can also be used as a fabric softener.



So when you are heading away from home and looking on how to clean up the dirty looking water, give my Bush recipe a go and see for yourself just how easy it is to turn dirty water into clear water.


Safe travels



Stephen Langman

February 2015