For this project, we were not sure if any fabric would work at all for any sort of filtration so we decided that our best bet would be to try as many different types of fabric as possible, both in what material they were made out of and in how the fabric was made (woven, knitted, etc.).

This website gives you techniques on ways to filter out turbidity from water through different filtration methods.

These materials listed are either to help a water filter remove contaminants that make water taste bad, or that makes water poisonous to humans. The materials that remove poisonous contaminants are as follows: Carbon (charcoal), Ceramic and Diatomaceous (Siliceous) Earth/Rock.

Materials that remove contaminants that affect bad taste is mainly just sand and other type of gravel and small earth rocks

http://www.livestrong.com/article/165592-natural-materials-used-for-water-filtration/

This water filtration system uses the idea of groundwater purification to replenish water cheaply. A layer of pebbles, gravel, sand and cotton is put into a water bottle cut in half in that order, top to bottom. A picture of this system is shown on the website above

"...this is just a miniature model made in 5 minutes. the elaborate plan is really that after this process, it will be aerated, so that the aerobic bacterias can form and eat up the unremovable toxins, which also produces the biogas, it is removed, then exposed to extreme uv radiation, and boiled that kills those bacterias too." -http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Simple-water-purification-System/ -In the comments section from the creator of the article