I don't bother filtering it but I sometimes decant after it has been sitting for a day or two if there is sediment in the bottom. If you are careful you can get most of the water out without the sediment if you leave it for a bit before pouring it out. You don't loose much that way. I have a cocoa container from Costco that is the perfect size. It takes almost 2L of water plus 1/2 a bottle of ACC-150 which does me for quite a while. The last lot was getting pretty manky and only had about 1/4 left so I threw it out and made up a fresh batch. Not sure how long I had it but it was a LOT of sharpening.