Wow lots of great research you guys did.
Here on Gilligan's Island I might construct a filter with these concepts incorporated.
I would have a couple of stages of filtration minimum.
For those times when the public water supply is still delivering "potable" water I would run all my drinking and cooking water through my G.E. under sink filter system. This single stage filter is equipped with filter model#: FXUVC which
reduces MTBE, VOC's, mercury, lead, cysts, chlorine taste & odor, asbestos, turbidity, sediment and rust. This should produce pretty pure water without many solids. Ready for the Zeolite filter.
If my drinking water supply came from a rain barrel or some other contaminated off grid supply:
I'd start by pre-filtering the water to get the bugs and sticks and sand out. Either through a couple pieces of cloth or through a reusable wire mesh coffee filter and a piece of cloth as well. Next step would be a Biosand filter like the one I built here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PAC6g9EvWk
I might even run the water through the Biosand filter more than once.
Then I would probably use the Sodis (solar pasteurization / oxidation) method of purifying the water. Then I would run that water through a Zeolite filter.
My zeolite filter would be a gravity fed filter packed with Zeolite (probably "Sweet PDZ" because that's what I can get in large quantities for cheap) I would want this water to spend some time with the Zeolite trying to give the negative and positive charges plenty of time to find each other and bond. I would probably make my filter housing from a 5 gallon bucket. I would install a 2.5 foot long piece of plastic tubing near the bottom of the bucket to tap the water in the bucket. Drill a slightly smaller hole through the bucket and force the tubing through the hole. I would attach a fine bubble aquarium air stone to the plastic hose on the inside of the bucket. The water would have to go through the air stone before going through the tubing and out into my water storage container. I would fill the bucket with Zeolite almost to the top.
I would use this Zeolite filter in this way: raise the end of the tubing above the bucket rim and secure it there to turn off the flow of water. Pour my partially filtered water into the bucket filling it to the top. Let the water sit in the bucket for 5-6 hours while taking care of other chores. Later tap the water from the bucket storing the water in clean containers for later use. The aquarium air stone should strain off most any Zeolite particles in the water, leaving you with pretty clear water. If not, then the Zeolite mineral apparently can't hurt you in any way so no big deal.
After running that batch of water through the Zeolite filter, I would again top off the Zeolite filter with water and let it sit for 5-6 hours while I took care of other chores.
I'm assuming that there would be room for maybe 2 gallons of water in a 5 gallon bucket filled with Zeolite so That would be about what you could process per cycle. I'm assuming that the large quantity of Zeolite would not become plugged for a month or so of heavy use. If by chance the filter started to grow a bio-community after some use you might have to give the finished water a sodis treatment to fry the organisms in the water before consuming the water.
It think that's how I would do it.
