make a reed bed system?

[eccentric_emma]

Hi, i am in Portugal and our host wants to make a reed bed system to filter out the water from the showers etc but we don't have much time to do research etc so it would be really helpful if anyone could post their experiences or point us in the direction of good websites with free info!

Thanks in advance
Emma xx

[Green Aura]

Sorry if this is late, I know you wanted a prompt response.

http://www.johnstonsmith.co.uk/fact17.html

But do you need one for shower water?

I thought they were for treating sewage, or cleaning up ponds to discourage algae growth. Using "grey water" for watering the plants won't do any harm, unless they use really noxious shower gel

[grahamhobbs]

Difficult to respond without further information but the Alternative Technology Centre will have all the information.
http://www.cat.org.uk/information/info_content.tmpl

[eccentric_emma]

Thanks for the info! I will pass it along!

[Splottlings]

Am also looking for a similar set up system but only for the grey water outlet from the kitchen (basically the washing machine once a week and kitchen discharge daily) so after a slightly smaller scaled design. Everything I've found so far has been on the larger reedbed scale and wondered if anyone had any pointers or thoughts?
Will post a link to anything else I find.

Thanks

[grahamhobbs]

Basically all you need to do is pass the water through a series of different sized gravels, arranged in layers in one larger tank or in seperate smaller tanks (buckets?). The tanks can be vertical, as in the sense that the outlet is much lower than the inlet, or horizontal, where the inlet and outlet are at virtually the same level but a baffle between them forces the water to flow down to bottom of the tank.
Plants, such as irises and reeds, can be planted in the tanks to aid purification.
Ideally the initial entry into the first tank should be covered in large gravel, ie. the water discharges below the surface, to avoid unsightly scum on the top of the tank. Obviously the inlet pipe has got to discharge in a way that the water will flow through all of the gravel, perhaps a pipe with a number of holes in it to spread the water.
Check with the Alternative Technology Centre, but I think you will need getting on for about 1cu.m. in total of gravel for a typical set up.