So I'm sick of carrying water with me and I want to start filtering the water from the lake i stay at. Does anyone have any advice for a reliable lightweight filtration system?

Chlorine Dioxide

Sold usually by the brand names "Aquamira" or "Pristine"

I use a Katadyn Micro which has a ceramic element. It's a pain to use, but it makes great tasting water. I broke the ceramic element once, but learned to stop and clean the element when it gets hard to pump. I've also made a pre-filter for it that uses coffee filters. I would carry a Katadyn Pocket (not remotely lightweight), if I could afford one. Have always wanted one of those. My daughter is dating a fellow who's been attending Ranger School. He was given an unused Katadyn Pocket, when his aunt passed away who bought it for the Y2K bug scare. I'm apparently not living right.

I am not too familiar with water purification (I usually just go for it and hope for the best). Do those tablets kill pretty much anything and everything that could be living in the water?

I use the Katadyn hiker to filter my water. I love it. It's fast and easy to use and the water tastes great. Oh yeah, and way lighter than carrying water.

Any of the .3 micron filters, Katadyn, MSR, or other, will take care of bacteria and cysts you'll run across in North American wilderness water sources. If you are also concerned about viruses you would need to add a chemical such as the MSR Sweetwater drops - fortunately it takes very little time to handle a virus.

Micropur tablets are EPA certified to "kill 'em all" - for very cold or cloudy water, it's recommended to let it work for four hours before drinking, however. Check the Katadyn website, it has specific recommendations for wait times. Other folks like drops like Aquamira.

I have a Katadyn HIker Pro - very straightforward, glass fiber and carbon filter - and a gravity filter that uses the same cartridge. The HIker Pro is about 12 oz and the gravity filter about 8 oz.

Glass fiber will eventually clog and need replacement, and ceramic requires ongoing maintenance to keep the filter flowing well but will last for more gallons. I'd get the Vario or Pocket if I had it to do over again.

Well they are either tablets, or a two solution mix (of stabilized ClO2 and prussic acid) - and used correctly, yes they kill pretty much anything, and don't leave a taste.

As with anything, used incorrectly - it won't work right

The katadyn pocket looks like the mother of all filters, but I agree. I dont have that kind of money to drop on a filter. (college student that I am)

The Hiker Pro looks nice too, but I read a couple of reviews where people complain that the thing split at the seams. Then again they could have been trying to pump water like there was no tomorrow...

"Patience grasshopper"

I've thought about the tablet method, but the 4 hour wait time seems to be a bit much. I use a SteriPEN for quick sterilization of small batches of water (up to a liter) with great success. I'm looking at a filter so I can pump 10 liters of water and store it in a bladder for easy use while cooking or cleaning.

If you are cooking with water, that amount won't have to be filtered as just bringing it up to a boil will kill critters.

If you have a 4 hour wait time, you're buying the wrong stuff.

Boil it. Bringing water to a rolling boil knocks out all pathogens - and you are ready for a nice cup if tea... No waiting

and then wait til it cools off to put it in the Camelbak?

I've scooped water directly into the pot and used it for meals because a good boil kills everything, but with a small pot, boiling your drinking supply is a pain.

If you are buying a chemical treatment in the States and it doesn't say you have a four hour wait time, then you are buying the wrong stuff.

The 4 hour wait time is worst case scenario - cold, cloudy water. You can cut that wait time down significantly if your source is clear. The actual wait time RANGE is 30 minutes to 4 hours, depending on quality of water source. (the 30 minutes is for cysts, the wait time for viruses and bacteria is 15 minutes)

Here is a website that republishes the chart from katadyn.
http://www.moontrail.com/katadyn-micropurtablets.php

I agree and that is why I am willing to drink after 30 minutes in most cases, but generally try to pull water the night before and let it treat overnight.

My general point is that if a chlorine dioxide treatment is able to make claims about being effective against all the nasties, then it will also have to state that there is up to a four hour waiting time. Those that don't can't make the claims in the US. Canada may be different. But we know that the Aquamira mixing liquid does not make claims about effectiveness against everything, because it can't.

For lightweight--- to get all pathogens, bacterium, cysts, and viruses, you can try what bentoworld does. He uses the 2oz filter straw http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/aquamira_frontier_pro_filter.html in water that has been treated 15 minutes (all that’s needed for viruses) with chlorine dioxide tablets.

For me, I don’t like waiting; I filter right out of the cold stream and drink it. Also, I don’t have to carry as much water that way.

The biggest questions I have about filters are:
1. How do you know if the cartridge broke? This could come from a light shock or freezing. You will never know.
2. Are there any independent studies of how well the filters perform?

And because of those questions, that’s why I still stay with First Need. They have a test (the blue-dye test) that ONLY works with their filter but the easy test let’s you know ‘your filter is cracked!’ (which has happened to me). Also, they’re the only filter you can find published independent test data on--- not just a stamp that says ‘meets EPA standards’.

Some things I have learned:
-An extreme nicety about the First Need is its all one piece; nothing to assemble at each water hole. Thus it is easy to keep the contaminated portions away from the clean portions.

-The Hiker Pro will clog before the First Need does. I think the Hiker Pro needs a much better pre-filter.

-First Need is 16oz for these niceties, but that’s lighter than carrying water.


-Barry

That Aquamira only filters down to three microns (which, for example, is 15 times bigger than the 0.2 microns that the MSR Hyperflow filters to). So quite a bit is still getting through (and not just viruses). Even some crypto and giardia are getting through since it filters only 99.9% of those (as opposed to at least one order of magnitude higher for typical filters).

Although I haven't really put it to the test, I too got the First Need and only have used it to see how it functions and do a blue dye test. Independent tests and the fact that is will filter at least 150 gallons to the point that even virus' are removed meant a lot to me. For something as important as water I feel that the "take no chance" motto is best and even roughing it in the wilderness, why potentially drink safe but awful tasting water.

I had a First Need. It cloggedpretty quickly and became so hard to pump I finished its last trip just drinking out of the creek as I was so sick of the thing. So I got a Hiker. Never a problem with it until I'd had it about 10 years, then the casing cracked. So I got a Katadyn Basecamp, mostly becasue it uses the same cartridge and I like that cartridge. No need to backflush, just rinse off the cartridge now and then - and with the gravity filter, you don't even have to disassemble anything to do that. I'm totally gravity now, but working on improvising a lighter bag for my filter, a la:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/..._thread_id=8994

Well, don't get me wrong, but ya know, I'm thinking, if I go on an average of 5 to 6 trips a year, I know for a fact that the last four years, at least once, and sometimes twice a year, on a trip, I end up using my Chlorine Dioxide to treat water for someone whose filter has given up the ghost.. In the rockies where I am it's often just due to the rock flour in the glacier fed streams, or sometimes it's just because it's a complicated piece of plastic. Most recently it was even for a fellow forum member..

I've been using chlorine dioxide (Aquamira) for years. I've averaged about ten trips per year, and the only problem I've had was on a hike into Henry Coe State Park three years ago: I accidentally left both bottles in the sun, and they expanded and burst (doh!). Now I also carry an unopened bottle of Potable Aqua (iodine) in my essentials kit as a backup.

Why would you use something that the only claim related for backpackers is to "kill bacteria?" It doesn't say how many bacteria, and it doesn't make any claims related to any other nasties. Read the website and you will see that this Aquamira water treatment is not intended for our needs as backpackers.

The steripen works wonders for small batches of water for your water bottle, boiling works well for making tea or coffee, filters seem to be the answer for larger batches of water, and purifying tablets are a backup to all three...

Why, oh why can't there be a simple answer!?

There is. Cl02.. and no I don't treat my water I boil for dinner or tea. between that I never have a problem.

(yeah ok. apologies, horse is truly beaten.. but I can't help it.. I'm a confirmed filter hater unless I'm going somewhere I'm going to be drawing water from thick mud and cowpatties...)

I have placed hot, purified water containers back into the stream - cools them down quickly. Never tried this with a Camelbak