Cleaner water starts before the filter.
MycoEco is a practical toolkit for building mycofiltration beds — layered fungal biofilters that reduce organic load, sediment, and indicator bacteria in flowing water, ahead of a verified disinfection step.
A mycelium bed does not make water safe to drink.
It is one layer in a safer water system. For drinking water or any incident, ask qualified local people. Get help →
What a mycelium bed does
A mycelium bed is a slow-flow biofilter: graded gravel and sand topped with wood chips colonized by wood-decomposing fungi (oyster, Pleurotus ostreatus; wine cap, Stropharia rugoso-annulata; or turkey tail, Trametes versicolor). Three things happen as water moves through it:
- Sieving in the sand and gravel removes suspended solids.
- Capture on the dense fungal hyphal mat traps bacteria embedded in particulate biofilm.
- Enzymatic breakdown of dissolved organic matter by fungal laccases and peroxidases lowers biological oxygen demand (BOD).
Realistic field performance: ~50–90% reduction in turbidity, ~30–70% reduction in BOD, and roughly 1–2 log10 reduction in indicator bacteria (E. coli, coliforms). The bed makes downstream disinfection easier and more reliable. It does not, on its own, produce drinking water, and it does not remove viruses, dissolved metals, or chemical contamination.
How the system works
Where to go next
Field Guide
Materials, build steps, and maintenance for a basic mycelium bed.