It may not work as well as activated charcoal but I know hardwood charcoal was used a lot in the past for medicinal, like to absorb toxins in the stomach or ease diareah, as far as filtering fater through it I mould imagine it would be better than nothing even if not as good as activated charcoal. Im not even sure what the 'activated' is specificly, I just know charcoal from the fire was used some of the time in the past.
I know everything I've read on Charcool says activated. ALso heard you should buy it in bulk from a Fish store, rather than from a Health Food supplier
I would build a pant leg sand and fire charcoal water filter in a heartbeat, if that was all I had. I don't know about the medicinal part.
Activated charcoal is charcoal that has been treated with oxygen to open up millions of tiny pores between the carbon atoms. Activated charcoal is good at trapping other carbon-based impurities ("organic" chemicals), as well as things like chlorine. Many other chemicals are not attracted to carbon at all -- sodium, nitrates, etc. -- so they pass right through. This means that an activated charcoal filter will remove certain impurities while ignoring others. It also means that, once all of the bonding sites are filled, an activated charcoal filter stops working. At that point you must replace the filter.
Thanks for the info.... I already have a bunch of pond filter material... my buddy who works at a petshop showed me how to make a prefilter out the bulk stuff.... its blue or white and comes in big rolls that you buy by the foot.... get the white if you can... its more expensive but lasts forever.... use 5 gallon buckets and plumb them accordingly.... I can get bulk aquarium charcoal from him as well.... I figure I could use it as a prefilter for rain water or other sources.... just thought if I had to improvise.... could I use charcoal from the fire.... I've also been told to make sure not to use the white stuff or ash in the fire.... just the black stuff.....
