Septic Question?
This morning I have a very noticable wet trail were the leech line for my septic is. This is not the first time I have noticed this and it allways has gone away after a couple days. But it is much more pronounced this morning than I have ever noticed.
Is this normal? And should I worry about it?
Is this normal? And should I worry about it?
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if you've had alot of rain the ground could be saturated enough it wont hold anymore. 0 -
Pour in some RidX and copper sulfate. Hope for the best. 0 -
When is the last time you had the system pumped?
If over four years, you may be out of room in the tank.
Does your family use chlorox, or extreme cleaning chemicals in the house? You might have killed the bacteria that do the job.
Do you have a garbage disposall in your sink? - that will plug the leach line holes.
Do you dump a lot of oil/greases down the sink? - that will overfill, then run out to the leachline and plug the soil, so it won't percolate.
And, yep, if you have been suffering a lot of rain, your field may well be saturated.
I just had a problem with my system - turned out it was all the dog hair that we let go down the drain had made a filter around the outflow pipe of the septic tank, and nothing was getting past the matted hair, coated with paper and grease and schtuf. The tank was overflowing! Pumped it out, used a pressure washer to remove the matted hair, and then the system ran fine.
I asked the local septic design guru about RidX, and Septonic, and Yeast, ...he said nothing goes in there but what comes out of you.
He said that a lot of "remedies" just either fail the system, or make it stink and cook too fast.0 -
We have had our share of rain in the afternoons and I do water my laws pretty heavy (lawn run off goes in that direction). So maybe that is the problem.
There is no smell from it. It is just a very damp spot in the dirt.
As for when it was last pumped I will have to find out from my landlord as I have been here about 1 1/2 years and I know it has not been done in that time.0 -
Pump.. Smump... I have septic systems that have never been pumped. If they are working correctly they don't need pumped. Take some flessman yeast.. a packet and put it in the stool. Use some vinegar and flush. Do it overnight. Tank will reactivate itself. Or pull the lid off the tank. IT could have roots, or be clogged where it comes inside the tank to the flowover box. 0 -
I had my septic tank pumped two years ago, it really didn't need it to bad. If you are careful that you don't flush a lot of undigestibles to the tank, they will work for a long time. If you have a wet spot close to the tank you may have a plugged line. If it is wet over the entire length, you are overloading the system or it is just to rainy. It's very unlikely you can kill all the working bacteria in a septic system, making all the yeast, rid-x and other products unnecessary. If a city wastewater system has a bug kill, they just get a bucket of poo from another system and them fecal eating bugs go right to work.[:D]
My lateral lines are laying right on top of a limestone ledge and are covered with about 20"s of dirt. It works very well because all the water percolates to the top and evaporates.0 -
[xx(][V]can you say truds floating, they make some stuff you add once a month and it keeps the bacteria alive and well.Any hardware store will know and I think it was posted above it Ridx[:(] 0 -
like select fire said add a cake of bread yeast twice a month . my tank is 23 years old and never been pumped 0 -
If there's no odor, then don't sweat it. Did you have guests over? The extra water usage may be the culprit.
....and you have an excellent place to plant tomatoes. Best, Joe0 -
Some of it depends upon how full of sh** that one is,........with you, 1 1/2 years may have been enough to fill it with solids![:D] 0 -
quote:Originally posted by Marc1301
Some of it depends upon how full of sh** that one is,........with you, 1 1/2 years may have been enough to fill it with solids![:D]
You just might be right![;)]0 -
The ground here doesn't percolate; it's black clay. If you don't have an aerobic system, you have a wet spot. If you have an aerobic system, you have a BIG wet spot.
My wet spot was near the door of my barn. I didn't like it there, so I trenched down past the barn and then dug a big hole in the ground at the end of the trench, using mud from the hole to make a little dam around the hole. Then I planted a cypress tree in the middle. It was one way to make something pretty out of something ugly.0 -
sounds like a saturated line...unfortunately, you may be looking at digging a new line...or two. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by select-fire
Pump.. Smump... I have septic systems that have never been pumped. If they are working correctly they don't need pumped. Take some flessman yeast.. a packet and put it in the stool. Use some vinegar and flush. Do it overnight. Tank will reactivate itself. Or pull the lid off the tank. IT could have roots, or be clogged where it comes inside the tank to the flowover box.
Once again, I agree with this guy.0 -
Well I did just put some of that RIDX stuff in it.
I have been putting it in about once every 2 months anyway, so maybe I'll just start doing it a little more often to see if it solves the problem.
But after my little watering thing last night it may take a couple days to see if this helped it!0 -
simple, run a hose down by the neighbors house, once you get it flowing go sit n the crapper 0 -
I've worked in the water and wastewater field for 30+ years. If your system has been working properly,and you haven't just had a leaky toilet or faucet, and it suddenly starts to fail I would pump it out. No matter how carful you are by not flushing condoms down the toilet,not using a garbage disposal, not putting grease down the drain, etc., undigestable sludge will build up over time. The more you have in the septic tank the shorter the detention time in the tank. Eventually solids will flow out into your lines and either blind them off and/or blind off the soil. By pumping the unit out your keeping solids out of your lines and keeping that detention time. The bacteria and protozoa that keep the tank working comes from the stuff that goes into the system (if you know what I mean). Yeast and those additives don't do a thing. If they did I would have been out of a job a long time ago. Any questions shoot me an email. 0 -
Sounds like what my parents had.
A year or so went buy with the same problem.
They had a new system put in with multiple leech lines(the finger-looking system).0 -
quote:Originally posted by md1634
I've worked in the water and wastewater field for 30+ years. If your system has been working properly,and you haven't just had a leaky toilet or faucet, and it suddenly starts to fail I would pump it out. No matter how carful you are by not flushing condoms down the toilet,not using a garbage disposal, not putting grease down the drain, etc., undigestable sludge will build up over time. The more you have in the septic tank the shorter the detention time in the tank. Eventually solids will flow out into your lines and either blind them off and/or blind off the soil. By pumping the unit out your keeping solids out of your lines and keeping that detention time. The bacteria and protozoa that keep the tank working comes from the stuff that goes into the system (if you know what I mean). Yeast and those additives don't do a thing. If they did I would have been out of a job a long time ago. Any questions shoot me an email.
I agree with you to an extent, but heavy use of bleach will kill off the bacteria. RidX will jumpstart with engzimes again. You probably don't need to do it every two months though.
The copper sulfate will vacate the lines of tree roots without harming them too badly.
If washing is overloading the septic lines, may need to just replumb and drain the gray water off into a French drain.0 -
Well,many many many years ago I use to install tanks also. The baffle in the tank could be rusted or if there is too much sludge on top you need to throw in some of this. Usually yeast WILL work along with RidX. This stuff here will clear out the lines.
http://www.purehealthsystems.com/bio-septic.html0 -
I you read these sites you'll know more about septic systems that the guy that would come to fix it!!!
http://www.montana.edu/wwwpb/pubs/mt9403.html
http://www.alsnetbiz.com/homeimprovement/septic.html
http://www.soil.ncsu.edu/publications/Soilfacts/AG-439-22/
http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/plumbing/septic/pumping/tank.htm
http://economics.ag.utk.edu/pubs/homeasyst/sp508d.pdf0
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