DIY Septic Tank Drain Field Restore (Leach Bed Flush)
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- Опубликовано: 4 июл 2022
- THIS IS THE VIDEO I wish I could've found on RUclips (back when I'd first realized that my septic tank's drain bed wasn't functioning correctly).
You can't just skip to the part you'll need in order to fix it quickly. Not all problems have simple how-to vids that can be streamlined down to two minutes. This video is conceptual; it has been made to cover the topic enough to get you to think. If you do have a leach field problem, then it's in your best interest to watch the entire video and read all of the notes before acting.
Thus, there are no chapter markings. But here are the timestamps for the Notes~
One & Two: At start.
Three: 5 min 3 sec.
Four: 18 min 50 sec.
Five: 21min 5 sec.
Note on the sewer-jetter~
Be sure to get the ¼" hose if you want it to pass through a 90° elbow.
It's my opinion that this device would work better for this application if the nozzle were to only spray in one direction. Pressurized streams lose much of their affect whenever they're exposed to turbulence. Getting the spray away faster would probably help it to work better, not to mention that the water would also drain away better if it were being constantly forced it in the direction of the tank. Next time I do this, I'll make my own forward-facing, three-orifice jet nozzle. Then I'll shove the hose in as deep as possible before I start spraying as I pull out. Please suppress your predilection for puerility. I managed to keep out the toilet humor out of this project. Extend to me the same courtesy.
One more thing:
Using a breakdown product to avoid having to pump your septic tank means that you are just displacing the biomass. Doing so is neither a treatment nor a solution; it just means you're dumping your unfiltered sewage into the natural water supply like a hillbilly. Pump your tank, cheapskate. Do it every other year.
Please ask any questions and offer any criticisms. Fair warning, though: attempts to defend folk remedies will be harshly dealt with. I have neither sympathy nor tolerance for the ignorant, superstitious, and/or pseudo-scientific.
Flush-Mount drain field cleanouts:
► • Flush-Mount drain fiel... 
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i didnt even know what a septic tank was before this video, but i watched it anyway because p83 makes anything interesting
2 years later? Now THATS dedication!! Thanks..
Two years in the making!
and no quality difference, truly a time we live in.
Thank you for continuing to upload for us. These videos really are important to us all. Much appreciated.
;)
Just found your video and I can honestly say I can’t disagree with anything you said. I have a pump up system installed about 25;years ago. Everything goes into main tank, effluent rises and goes into second tank with pump and high water alarm and out to drain field. Perks on down through different aggregates and at the bottom there is perforated collection pipes, which take the water to the front of my house and into a catch basin. Paid EnCon 90.00 a year for the discharge of the filtered water. BUT the last year the water wasn’t perking into the ground. Found the end of my laterals, cut the ends off(4inch lateral) and jetted the 3 laterals all the way back to the distribution box. (50 feet per lateral). Lots of crap got cleaned out. The Biomat just finally clogged up the laterals. Going to add Roebic K-57 into each lateral from D-box. I am by no means an expert but from what you,did sounds exactly right. Well, this was my 2 cents. Little late here….
I have no need for septic solutions and probably never will, but your videos are always really informative and great to learn from. Thanks for sharing!
EDIT: I'm now interested in the transmission fix
Thanks. It was a beautiful puzzle. Perhaps the only more complex mechanical apparatus I've ever taken down to its bones was a mountain bike gear-selector.
But for the lawn tractor, I ended up having to cut a new notch in the plastic to allow for the additional movement of the shifter. By the time I was done, the grass was tall enough for things to hide in it!
@@pocket83squared 22:37 hi fromPoland Maine. What did you use for the bacteria? I’m gathering supplies to do the same thing. I have a different system but same idea
@@chrisbrackett9779 Look for something labeled 'septic tank treatment' or 'additive.' Read the bottle. They're just aggressive strains of bacteria that feed on, well, waste. Online reviews might speak to one product's efficacy over another, but most brands will probably end up being comparable overall.
It's always interesting to learn about new, practical things. Thank you for sharing!
thanks for the primer on septic tanks, i had no idea it was more than just a big tank that the "product" went into.
It says a lot about your consistency that, other than the audio quality, I wouldn't have noticed that the majority of the video was recorded two years earlier. Thanks as always for sharing this process with us, I doubt I'll ever even need to touch a septic system, but maybe I can impart some part of this on somebody else one day.
It might say something about my stubborn resistance to change. There _shouldn't be_ any difference in audio~ it's still the same camera. Might've been some audio artifacts caused by intense heat? Thanks ;)
I miss your insight in your videos. please more long winded videos. I never comment on videos but I was delighted when I saw you posted a video. I may never need help with a septic system but I could listen to you anytime. I wish you well and hope you continue making videos.
It's appreciated. There are a few videos I'm finishing up right now. Thanks for taking a moment to let me know you're there.
Not something I'm ever going to need to do but it was absolutely fascinating all the way through (and yes, I read all the notes). Got an insight into how a septic system works, some more good ideas on how to go about problem solving and some much needed attitude adjustment (don't get disheartened when the first attempt doesn't work). I'd rate this as 30mins very well spent!
Wow. thank you.
Same!
I appreciate your dedication.
This procedure worked on my chamber system which was backing up. I skipped the jetting as I didn't want to move too much earth. Thanks for the video!
@6:43 reflection confirms that Pocket does, in fact, have a head.
I had previously assumed he was the gestalt intelligence manifested by buckets of golf balls and pvc fittings.
That said, I find septic systems interesting because they seem very much to be the kind of passive infrastructure that wants as few moving or dynamic parts as can be managed in order to avoid maintenance and catastrophic failure. We had a drain field collapse on a rental we lived in and it was backhoes and tractors for 2 weeks. Plus the guys uprooted 2 trees that they just chipped instead of restoring the yard and turned over the top soil into the sand below so not even grass ever grew quite right in that yard again.
I can't say I relish interacting with such systems but the ingenuity and reliability to function unattended for 2+ years a t a time is a wonder in it's own way.
Maybe it's just a costume to trick us ;)
I've never seen a pumped septic system before. Cool!
You have a very dry sense of humour! Great video 📹
Sorry you had some negative comments, when what you did obviously worked. I designed and installed my own gravity Fed system 30 years ago and it’s still going strong. People can’t argue with what works! I intend to follow your advise and add bacterial product to my distribution box at the drain field rather than the toilet or tank. Thanks for the idea😊
Thanks, and good luck! It's pretty sensible once you think about it; why would you _want_ to break down the contents of the holding tank? It has to go _somewhere!_
Wow, you are not getting over 5 years with only 2 people in the house?
Thanks for the video work.
The previous owner was probably "getting" over seven, and so now I'm stuck nursing the system back to health. I'm just not _taking_ over two years. The idea is to establish enough of a balance that it stretches out the leach field for as long as possible.
And thanks for the appreciation. Videos do take some work.
You already know this, but I discovered when redoing some of the piping here (~1600s farm house) that the plumbing "it's all just water" gremlins had struck. All of the gutters at one side of the house had been rerouted to run into the sceptic tank... Flushing it completely into what we jokingly refer to as the leach-field - which is a clay pipe drain that leads away into a local stream after about a mile, 30m of vertical drop and a large quantity of added surface water.
I don't think what we have is compliant with... anything. But flushing out the sceptic tank with excess flow is almost as bad as not having one, since there is no processing happening. Your system is far better than ours!
Let's be honest, though. What was it ever hurting? Nothing-until that is, somebody else moves in about 30m underneath and within a mile downstream! Filtration 'treatment' is really more of a pay-it-forward societal courtesy than it is an ecological necessity. With enough people around, even the widest river will end up a flowing cesspool.
That was a great explanation. Not too long....fine.
Seems like rid-x could be put directly into the pump chamber periodically and still retain the main tank natural flora. Taking advantage of the more aggressive attributes in the leach field...
One thing I notice is the caps on these 4 lateral flushing/inspection pipes. I do believe that on a pressure mount laterals system, water will come up and out when a cap is removed for flushing the laterals. If you mound is like mine, there is only 60 holes total in the 4 laterals. Those he's in mine are barely 1/8" in diameter. Not nearly.enough escape for the 32+/- gpm your pump puts out. What they should do every 3 years or so is flush the laterals then some sort of pressure test with all 4 ends capped. The pressure test is compared over time to look for resistance to draining increases that can point at future issues in the mound.
Love the video and unfortunately, I'm having similar issues thank to my septic installer not installing the outlet baffle/filter when this system was I stalled 3.5 years ago.
In a case like you're describing, it might be easier to add a new lateral in between the original pair. I considered doing this for mine; the idea was to turn the elbows at the four verticals into tees, so that an additional lateral line could be run right through the middle. Less digging! The center line would act like an overflow for both halves.
Good luck with yours.
If your pump is running, water will always go to the point of least resistance, hence if your cap is off at the drain field pipe, water will naturally come out. This is not a sign of a drain field blockage.
We wound up having the laterals flushed out. They were very bad according to the jetter. Candy wrappers and who knows what else. He uses very high pressure, like 30,000psi? Have not had issues since. One these days (warmer weather and time) I'm going to do pressure and pimp down time tests again for a before and after jetting test/benchmark for future reference. After that, annual lateral flushes using just the dosing pump.
Jetter said the mound should be fine.
I do need to go back up In this posting to see what I've mentioned here previously to make sure I gave the full story.
I need to find "the rest of the story" and post that.
I need to find "the rest of the atory" and post it here.
Instead of electrical tape, could you use heat shrink tubing? Maybe it’ll be a smoother transition over the fitting
I had a drain field fail on a new construction after only 4 years. As it was entirely gravity fed, there was no secondary pump chamber like yours.
Well, my wife got the house in the divorce, so I didn't follow up on it, but I had tried converting the tank to an 'aerated' system by submerging an aeration tube fed by a powerful air pump.
The problem was that this was being done in the primary tank with all the raw sewage coming from the house. I say 'primary', but there was only one tank. My plan didn't work as explained below.
My reasoning for 'aerating' was because I was led to believe that AEROBIC bacteria are 7+ times more effective at consuming the biomat film in the drain field.
What I didn't realize is that churning all the sludge & slime would clog the outlet filter of the tank in a day's time and overflow the tank just like a clogged drain field.
After more research, it seems the 'aerated' systems are at LEAST two tanks. The primary tank is a 'settling tank' that works ANAEROBICALLY (meaning without oxygen). Then what leaves the primary goes to a SECONDARY tank/chamber where OXYGEN is introduced which jump starts the 7x AEROBIC bacteria action, which, when it makes it to the field, consumes the BIOMAT and thus heals your system.
In your case, in MY opinion, I think you could have introduced an air diffuser plate (fed by a pond air pump) on the bottom of your pump tank. That effluent would/should be free of sludge/slime from the primary, and be an excellent medium to grow and distribute AEROBIC bacteria to your drain field, fixing it.
Since I never had the chance to test this theory for myself, I cannot give you 100% proof it has worked, but there appear to be others who have converted their secondary tank to AEROBIC through aeration and had great success.
Just a thought.
Really interesting stuff. I'm extremely skeptical, though. Although aerating a system would certainly help to cultivate a _different_ microbial environment, there's no certainty that the mixture that you end up cultivating would be one that really is 7x as aggressive. Further, a 7x hunger means a 7x consumption demand, so there would be a more strict dietary requirement, and populations would end up surging/crashing faster.
Let's look at the forest though, and not at a tree. The point of the process is to hold off the types of 'breaking down' that burden the field while encouraging those that unburden the field. The only reason to change a (functioning) system would be to establish a bacterial culture that allows one to pump the tank less frequently. But in the end, finding a perfect balance that _doesn't_ require the tanks to be pumped would be an extremely delicate matter, and this is not likely to be achieved by most people, since there will be lots of research and testing involved.
Empirically, such an approach is difficult to verify, because most of the people who claim they "don't need to" clean their tanks are not successful researchers and testers, but are instead just running a broken system that's pumping their waste into the local ground and surface water. [See comments.]
@@pocket83squared THANK YOU FOR REPLYING!
I may have to emphasize that I'm not suggesting anyone change their 'primary tank' system, and in your case, you're lucky.
You can leave the primary tank/anaerobic system entirely alone. The primary tank should not be aware of ANY change because the AEROBIC action would be downstream of it.
If I had had your setup with a secondary 'pump tank', I could have changed the 'drain field system' to AEROBIC (not affecting the ANAEROBIC primary sludge/slime tank system).
There are at least TWO sub-systems in your (or anyone's) rural septic system: The Septic tank and the Drain field.
From what I've seen, ALL primary tanks are to be ANAEROBIC, (and not to be churned like I mistakenly had done back in 2012!)
And the DRAIN FIELDS have to rely on that ANAEROBIC bacteria (in most cases) to consume the BIOMAT that develops in the DRAIN FIELD.
What I've been led to believe is that introducing AERATION in a secondary tank will then encourage the propagation of AEROBIC bacteria, which I've also been led to believe is 7x more effective at consuming the BIOMAT. The conclusion of these ideas was that 'AERATED' effluent could heal a drain field of normal biomat build-up. I don't think it was ever implied that aerated effluent could fix a field where 'SLUDGE & SLIME' had built up, so the primary tank would need to separate those before ever allowing effluent to the secondary.
But alas, I'm on a public system 1700 miles south now, so I don't have to deal with that anymore. Still, I wish I had had a secondary tank to experiment with. My ex had problems with it even after I left. We were a family of 6, complete with teenagers who liked LONG showers. I'm sure we overloaded it. Three of the kids married and left, so there might only be two people on the system now.
If I had to do over again, I would have dug & placed a secondary tank between the main tank & the drain field so I could introduce aeration to the effluent... as needed.
On a humorous side note, the first two hours after starting the aeration of my primary tank back in 2012 made an UNGODLY stench that covered 2 acres!
After that? No smell at all. You could stick your face in the top of the tank and not smell a thing. Weird.
I still have that air pump here in Florida, just in case I want to experiment again someday!
Thanks
COOP
...
Spoon fed septic. My favorite ;)
I'm 18, from Alabama. Been watching you for quite a bit of time now. It's always a good fk'n day when this man uploads. 🇺🇸
The clean out pipes at the end of the laterals only squirt if you left the test caps on.
They should squirt around 5ft high and equally.
Replace the test caps with an end cap (no squirt hole).
Intresting.. Never seen a sptic system with a pump, the ones we had were all gravity only ones. More complexity but also more flexibility!
The house I grew up in had a system with a pump. The drain field was built up a bit above grade with a slope going towards the backyard. The water table was quite high there, so it required that. I believe the original builder of the house paid quite a bit for that install. Lots of soil, rough gravel and fine gravel had to be hauled in
Not everyone is on a level lot. My house sits a little lower than the neighbors because the front yard had about 50 trees, and a number in my near back yard. Back 300' of the far backyard had 1-1 1/2 foot of dirt added to raise it above the regional park-ish wetlands and requires a pump. Since a lot of houses are on nicely cleared property, its usually not too difficult to add a little extra dirt to make gravity work for you. Thats just not always possible depending upon trying to keep existing trees or if its the builders first house build....
The jetter tip can get stuck, but when water is being fed the rear jets pull the line in and keeps it lifted off of the bottom of the pipe, so that will help prevent catching lips
First of all, thanks for the excellent video. You are a rare breed on RUclips. Thanks for proving that these types of remedies can work. I unfortunately dont have any clean out ports where I can bypass my tank to introduce a bacteria treatment. Do you think it makes sense to pour it down a funnel and tube inserted into the tank's outlet pipe that goes out to the drain field?
Thank _you_ in reply. Do you mean to add treatment directly to the vertical riser pipe that comes out of the pump? That's exactly where I put some of it. If you add it there and then quickly turn on the pump, it'll blast a seed bacteria all over the upper system, but it'll keep it from growing in the storage tanks. That's the idea.
@pocket8312 sorry if you already mentioned it but which type of treatment/bacteria did you use
I do wonder how septic science has changed as 40+ years ago as a kid we had a septic tank and there is no way we had it pumped every two years. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. And the leach field was easy to find as that is where the grass was green in the heat of the summer ... 😁
Not much, except for maybe some submersible pump tech. Of course, mileage will vary depending on how a system was installed. That said, it's my opinion that most systems are probably not operating the way they were designed to. Ours was also barely pumped. Around here, tank cleanings seem to be regarded as more of a 'fix' and less like routine maintenance.
Thus, into the streams it trickles. If a tank isn't being pumped, that, um, biomass has to go somewhere. It doesn't just va-poo-rize ;)
I have a similar three-tank system but my installation lacks proper clean out points. I think I will have to dig up and expose the pipes leading into the drain field and then perhaps cut the pipe and add appropriate cleanouts. Once I have cleanouts I can try the pressure washer as you did followed by Roebic treatments. I think I have tree roots as part of the problem so I may also need to rent a drain auger. It seems that new systems use chambers rather than perforated pvc pipe and are much better with much larger volume and absorbing surface area.
Good luck. Once you have a cleanout or two in place in the corners, you'll be able to flush out quite a bit of the system. There's probably a plug somewhere in-between that's been clogging up the works.
Hey, look at the bright side: 1) The digging isn't very deep. 2) One corner cleanout can be installed at a time, so there's not much pressure to rush. 3) It's only shovel-labor, with very little expense. 4) You're facing a high likelihood of success.
@@pocket83squared I hope I can achieve at least temporary success. The pipe tees off many times. I think ideally each branch needs a cleanout or needs to be individually routed to a distribution box.
Interesting. Is there a possibility that the drain pipes in the field are getting clogged with grass roots. Grass roots can I believe can go as deep a 8 to 10 feet.
What Is the treatment you used for your drain field clean out ???
I had a similar system with a similar problem. The problem started right after the previous owner needed to replace the 1/2 hp pump. He "upgraded" it to 1 hp. After I moved in I added a ball valve after the check valve so that the pump couldn't flow all the water in the tank to the field in 5 minutes. I throttled the flow at the pump so the pump cycle took 15 minutes or so and had no further issues for the remaining year that I needed it to work. After that we connected to the newly installed village sewer system.
Interesting. I wonder how much life would've been sucked out of a pump that run until death under that much back-pressure. Maybe the same flow reduction could've been achieved by just adding a larger airlock hole back at the check valve. It would just spew out, instead.
@@pocket83squared Perhaps that would have worked as well, but a centrifugal pump can be dead headed indefinitely and draws less current when dead headed then when pumping at full volume.
Ever notice that your shopvac increases in speed when you block the nozzle? That's because it's under less load when the nozzle is blocked. Your shop vac is also a centrifugal pump.
@@Balsamancnc Also interesting. Thanks.
@@pocket83squared No Problem. To do work it's force times distance or, with hydraulics its pressure times flow. No flow, no work is being done.
The big septic issues always seem to be related to either 1) a clog in the distribution lines or 2) accumulation of 'biomat' in the absorption field that keeps water from perc'ing down. 1 can usually be jetted out, but it seems like #2 can often lead to drainfield replacement. I've seen research where people have been able to clear out the biomat by using strong oxidizers (basically Oxyclean) dumped directly in the leachfield lines. That, or a specialized procedure where a large machine injects high pressure air into the field to break everything up. I know if (when) my field starts to have issues, I'll try the oxidizer chemical approach, as it makes sense to me. I agree that the talk about additives is mostly nonsense: your waste has plenty of bacteria, and there's no need to add anything else. It's not usually the current bacteria-levels that are the issue, rather the accumulation of biomat or other materials (from an overflowing tank) that stop everything up.
Did you watch this video? Do you have an issue with some part of my approach? Do you understand that the goal was to reduce the mass that's in the absorption field by establishing a long-term bacterial presence in the pipes? Are you aware that the treatment apparently worked?
Don't get snippy with bnasty @@pocket83squared
sometimes laundry or bath soap or acids will kills the bacteria. sometimes you need agressive bacteria to restore flora n fauna otherwise there should be no problems like it.
@10:04 What brand is it?
Maybe the carb needs cleaning as it sits around most of the time unused!
I live in a subdivision (very hilly in E. TN) where the soil is clay and rock. Several of my neighbors have had to have their laterals dug up and replaced. I think they let their septic tanks fill up with sludge and ruin their laterals. It seems to me that from what I gather, some people never have their tanks pumped and some do. I had mine pumped once in 24 years and it didn't have too much sludge. I think the key is to not put bad stuff in the drains of the house, like grease, hair, too much solids . . . Similarly, some use RidX and others don't. It doesn't seem to make much difference.
It _does_ make a difference. It comes down to biomass. If you pump the mass up and into your leach field, that mass isn't going to disappear. Until somebody invents Va-Poo-Rize, you can either pump your holding tank occasionally or else wait for the field to fill up.
It's not unusual for a leach bed to take many years to fill up. The mass is dissolved, and so sometimes it can percolate through the rock and settle into the ground. Just know that that's _not_ how the system was designed to operate, and it will likely fail eventually.
Try looking for 'springs' around the base of the mound; wet spots and odors are signs that the system isn't functioning correctly. Just as what goes up must come down, what goes in...
@@pocket83squared, thanks for the reply. Va-Poo-Rize . . . nice play on words. :)
I'm surprised you didn't mention it, but most septic systems don't have a pump, the leach field is lower than the tank outlet and gravity fed.
my septic tank system has a sewage pump because half of the house is below the leach line and tank. the sump croc is sealed obviously, but every time i walk passed it in the utility room i know that one day... the pump will fail. and i was have to open that croc of shit. its been about 30 years so far though, and its only failed once and was replaced before i moved in. i think my current pump is about 10 years old. luckily i've never had a problem with the tank itself though. its been drained a few times and access is super easy. it has a regular style manhole cover. my parent's have a tank with a buried access hatch and they have to excavate the damn thing before it can be drained. its about a foot underground.
i've never heard any fold wisdom about tanks though. just that the grass will grow MUCH stronger over the leach line, which isn't actually true in every case. at my parents house, the grass grows about 5 times faster over the line, but at mine it grows slower for some reason and is almost always yellow. maybe i need to throw a bunch of random garbage in my tank lol
Every house has a few ticking bombs like that. My advice is to install a water alarm, TODAY. At my last house, the utility room suffered the occasional sewer lateral backup, so I made one of these:
ruclips.net/video/aTIfF8AfeH8/видео.html
^It worked great. Also, highly recommended channel right there.
Did you use Roebic ? I had the same issue 12 years ago. Started using Roebic every 3-4 months ( cheap insurance) and no issues or pump outs. Great stuff. I didn't see what type you used but good video.
Which Roebic did you use?
K=87 primary but every couple moths put in some K37 * K47 as they compliment each other. I have had no issues in over 10 years. @@FloryJohann
But the real question, how did the mower repair go?
Honestly I’m only here because I have an interest on how septic systems work 😂
4:10 wow now everything makes sence! 😅
I had a problem lately with my septic tank(27 years old}I had to replace the Pump after 25 years, and had a problem when it Rains a lot that Alarm will go off so I have to shut my pump off at the electrical box.I had the Sewer guy come in and he installed 3 Lateral Cleanouts like the ones you have at the End of your cesspool.Myself the alarm still goes off when it rains heavy. and I have to run outside to take one of the 3 Cleanout plugs off so the water can drain out and my alarm will shut off within a few mins when all the water is gone.I just leave one of the 3 plugs off all the time in the summer so if it rains hard I don't need to run outside......Just wondering is it SMART to leave one of the plugs off just incase?Because the cesspool guy says when I hear the alarm just take the plugs off.....Think its better to leave 1 off till winter time here in the Poconos................
If you're pumping out rainwater, you're overworking your pump. It sounds as though it might be a rising water table. If so, that's not necessarily a problem with your system, unless you have a crack in the tank that's allowing the water in. Does the alarm go off immediately when it rains, or does it take a few hours/days for it to rise first?
Another question: is your tank sitting in a 'low spot,' like in a bowl in the yard? Does water seem to pool on the ground above it? If so, there could be a grade problem that might be alleviated by getting the surface water away before it can flood the tanks.
I hope you know bacteria grows in the soil around the pipe, not necessarily in the pipes. It grows into what some people would call a bio-mat, and that is the life of your septic system. Ask any QP2 installer, or engineer and they'll say residential systems are expected to last 20-25 years before they need replacement. Its when the solid around the pipes gets plugged up with the bacteria that is eating the pathogens you're putting out. I am a plumber and a septic system inspector. I work closely with QP2 installers, engineers, and more specific engineers that design large on-site treatment facilities, and we're all on the same page with what I said above. I've seen in at least 500 septic fields in the past years. I have a couple sewer cameras I can slide down in the field pipes to inspect them.
Nothing in the video contradicts what you've just said. In fact, I mention the "bio-mat" at one point. It doesn't sound as though you watched. Not that I blame you, since you're already so familiar with the topic. But do you understand the premise behind the approach to treatment being suggested in this video? Lining the pipes was only the first step in cultivating, and ultimately establishing, a long-term bacterial colony that is capable of spreading out and into the gravel/soil bed substrate. Do you find disagreement with something about any of this?
What do you do with cleaning paint brushes, and other stuff people normally throw down the drain?
Country folk don't throw anything that isn't natural waste down the drain. Septic systems typically cost 30k to install/repair. Doing what you describe would be foolish if you own a septic system. That's a city thing.
Yep. Just as Eric said. When I'd first moved here, I was really concerned about stuff like that, but it turns out to be way less of a problem than it sounds. It takes an adjustment, but to be honest, I now consider that 'normal' lifestyle to be a lazy, wasteful, and inconsiderate lack of self-sufficiency. Nothing personal, man; I did it too, so I get it. It's not like you have much choice in the sub/urban world.
Here's some of how I handle it now. Maybe I'll make a vid about how I do some of this~
First-and obviously-my used motor oil is taken most seriously. It gets stored in milk jugs and then brought to the local _Advance Auto Parts,_ where they are considerate enough to process it for free, with zero questions. They would receive zero of my business if not for this service. Thanks, Advance.
Water-based paints are diluted with rainwater. A brush can be well-cleaned using less than a gallon with an efficient procedure. I use a scrub-brush and a bucket that's at a slope. Rollers, of course, are a pain. I use a spinning drill jig and a bucket of water for these, but they usually end up requiring quite a few gallons. Paint water is dumped in the weeds around a drainage ditch behind the garage. It acts like a big wastewater filter. A char pit would also serve this purpose well.
When needed, small amounts of other paints, solvents, and other oily things are sopped up with sawdust and then thrown away. The nasty ones are spread over a bed of dry brush (so it doesn't soak into the ground) and burned. As for polyurethane, you can watch how I treat that in this video:
ruclips.net/video/X85Gj4g0NuA/видео.html
Another big difference out here is in the trash that we throw away. Anything organic goes into a compost pile (except for bones, corncobs, peach-pits, bubblegum, et cetera). Night prowling omnivores are _not_ considered a nuisance since they provide a service. Squirrels and deer are the far worse pests. Steel cans are rinsed & recycled, and I try to repurpose glass & plastic bottles where possible~we even choose some of our brands by considering the container. Thus, the garbage bags are smaller and don't have much of a smell. Some of the neighbors don't even use bins, because their trash is clean enough that it doesn't appeal to the raccoons. Oh, and kitchen sink garbage disposals are a no-way here. Fine with me, too; those things are just loud, smelly, unnecessary plumbing as far as I'm concerned.
i have septic tank but i dont have that check valve. septic company told me i need a new drain field. one guy recommends chambers he said it's better than ez flows.
Whether or not you have a check valve may depend on your climate. If it gets _too_ cold where you live, pipes holding water can freeze. As for your drain field: of course, just about anybody you ask will say that you need a new one-liability. Are you _certain_ it can't be restored? Most of them just need a break from abuse.
@@pocket83squared i had the county inspector to come in he said usuallt drain fields need to be replace around 25 yrs. he was surprise my drain field is 40 yrs. not sure how true it is that drain fields need replacement after awhile.
Is that poop on your hands? Hahaha!
👍
so what additive did you use, i jetted mine 4-5 years ago, and its slowing down again, i dont have a check valve, may have to disconnect and cap it and put a valve in there
It'll be a dirty job, but it might be worth it. A check-valve also reduces the total volume that ends up passing through your pump, so it helps efficiency. Before adding one in, just make sure that where you live isn't so cold that ground freeze becomes a problem. Lines that are full can fracture. For comparison, note that I live in SW central PA.
As for what brand of additive to use, it doesn't matter much; just read some reviews (and the product's label) before you decide. The one used here was a rather aggressive strain.
@@pocket83squared gonna try k-570, maybe just put in right in a pump chamber, im in a centre county pa
@@pocket83squared found only 2 cleanouts, what distance are your cleaned outs spaced?
34 years a simple concrete tank.. single compartment...only pumped twice in that time...dont know why your leachfield got overburden...since you have an effluent tank along with your main tank...effluent filter?
What treatment product did you use? Thanks for your time.
It doesn't matter. Any brand will work. All of them will be bacterial cultures that have been selected for this function. However, I'd look for something that uses a marketing term like 'aggressive,' because many products are designed to be put directly into the toilet, and so they'll be milder; as long as you're only putting the product into your system _after_ the check-valve, you can use the strongest stuff they make.
Note that it is my belief that additives should not be used in the tanks themselves, no matter how mild they are. Any further 'breakdown' of the tanks' contents will only end up making the (drain field's) problem worse.
Oh thank you for your reply, so here's what I've been doing I don't have clean outs at the end of infiltrators nor do I have any pumps, just a concrete tank to a distribution box about 5 ft away and then two drain field lines that go into infiltrator domes. I had my tank pumped about a month ago and I'm just getting very slow drainage one line seems to be pretty backed up I've put Roebic in the distribution box a couple times I don't think it's reaching the field. Here's my course of action, I have a water pump and a 275 gallon tote tank, I've been pumping my own tank to keep it below the outlet baffle, yesterday I put the suction hose into each drainfield pipes and pulled an amazing 200 gallons out of the ground. My plan is to now try and get the chemicals further down the lines and keep pumping the tank a few feet below the outlet in hopes to give the Roebic time to do it's thing and maybe let any other water in the field drain. In case people are wondering I'm taking the IBC tank and it's contents to an RV dump station , thanks if you have any other ideas.
What the hell is a groundhog?
My experience is a rodent that digs big holes in the ground.
Ashy do you not wear protective rubber gloves?
Nothing I did here was too icky. Risk is minimal-IF you rinse/wash your hands frequently, don't touch your face, and make sure not to expose any open wounds to the sauce. Besides, without perfect containment, dirty gloves end up spreading bacteria to other things.
Of course, a healthy diet, frequent exercise, drug & stress avoidance, and youth will all further contribute to a robust immune system, too.
Sounds like you drove a big truck on your leach field
Enzymes. There are bacteria present, but the enzymes consume the solids. Buy some enzyme and add it monthly. That is why your field potentially is clogged. There should be a screen before your pump to prevent solids from entering the field. The enzymes will deposit solids in the bottom of your tank. Those solids need removed every five years or so. Your neighbors must not be close because sometimes when they smell effluent, out comes the county and that can get expensive. A contractor can jet your field, but that is not guaranteed to work. I would caution you working on your own system without a license. Some communities and or states frown on that.
You didn't watch the video, and you certainly don't know what you're talking about. Simply stated, a biomass is exactly what it sounds like, and you can't make one disappear with "enzymes," no matter how much it breaks down. There is no effluent smell, and my system has been working well ever since. A license to maintain my own plumbing?! Wow.
The key to a trouble free septic system is plenty of water! Yes, a drain field does have a limit to the amount of water that it can leech, but too little water will allow the build up of solids...water is your friend. Take more baths!
Not exactly. In some respects, the less water you use the better. Most of what's going on here is a _holding_ of the bulk of the mass until it can be removed. The water is just a transport system. But in order to use that transport system, we have to pay a tax, and that's dirty water. The dirty water carries away some of the mass, and then it becomes problematic up in the drain-field. The idea is to pay as little tax as possible.
Though there is a minimum rate of flow you'll need in order to keep things free-flowing and functional, in general, more water means more biomass ends up in the drain-field. It also means more electric consumption and more pump wear, so water conservation is still prudent.
As soon as you mentioned how little water you try to use, I knew instantly why you are having problems: your solids to liquid ratio is bad. More water, more better.
Our septic system has been trouble free for 26 years. Inspected, but never needed pumping.
@@MrGus.1 Wow. This video gets so many 'I know what you're doing wrong' comments from people who don't even watch it. And now, just like the rest, you're dead-wrong and you aren't even listening to my replies.
No, my solid-to-liquid ratio is not "bad"; that's total nonsense. I bought this house with an already-strained system. My fixes have now restored it to functioning the way it was designed to. In contrast, your "never needed pumping" system is functioning as a watered-down slurry waste pump that's burdening the local water supply, and ecology, with your untreated filth. Hopefully you are far away from neighbors-and any streams.
For the love of civil decency, try to understand both my video _and_ the reasoning behind having a holding tank in the first place. You might as well be running an open pipe over the hill. It's people like you that have created all the folk-wisdom surrounding this topic!
@@pocket83squared Have a nice day.
Don't scoff it off. Read up on how a septic tank works. Browse the Wikipedia article.
It was helpful! Or it will be... :)
So it's my understanding that the (majority of the) additives you can put into your septic system, are mostly designed to function in conjunction with your tank.
My understanding is that those solid waste materials are SUPPOSED to be broken down by the natural bacteria that exist, over time - into those smaller particles you mentioned. It is only supposed to accumulate to a point, and no further - and if maintained properly, this balance can be carried on for a looooong time. Is this accurate or not?
I keep coming across these videos that definitively say you have to pump your tank every so many years, when tonnnnnns of people go decades without doing so, without issue. Does anyone know why this is?
If we are constantly adding things to our system (ie bleach, fabric softener, etc etc) that cause problems and create imbalances in the "living" environment, is it not logical to assume that periodically boosting the bacterial production in the tank is a fairly intelligent endeavor? Were these systems DESIGNED to have to be dug up every so often and pumped at a grand a shot, no matter WHAT the home owner does? That seems.... Inefficient to me.
Your drain fields are clogged with bio mat. Break up the biom mat and problem with go away. I've been using formulation of a combination of brewers enzymes and bakers yeast. To keep bio mat under control. 12+ year old 1000 gal. system with 6 adults using it. So far so good. I also have the tank churned and drained yearly.
The one problem I see is that your drain field is higher than your septic tank, and that doesn't flow as designed. You need the pump obviously to get the water up to the drain field, and my guess is your pump is sending a much larger volume of water through the drain field causing it to come out of the pipes instead of percolating through the drain field and into the ground. This design of the drain field being higher than the tank is prime conditions for a back up into your house. I'd quit guessing at this and call the pros before your house is flooded with sewage. If you can, I would have a new drain field installed in a part of the yard that is lower than the tank.
There are two problems I see with your comment. First, you clearly didn't watch enough of the video to understand the premise, and second, you even more clearly have no idea what you're talking about.
@@pocket83squared
Okay bud. Tell me what the expert says if you should make the right choice to call one.
You will learn that either the pump is sending too much at one time to the drain field, or your drain field is restricted from not having a filter inline to protect the drain field. Gravity fed systems are always better because it flows downhill naturally without the need for a pump.
My brother in law swore by throwing a whole chicken in once a year.
That works great! Until it doesn't.
I have to put a septic tank in and they say in my area, there is a strong chance that I will need an above ground type that could cost 30k … I’ve lived with these things… it’s so much easier to compost toilet. And compost everything. People are so freaked out over compost toilets but they prefer keeping all that crap in a tank … then it gets spread out all over their yard and they get stinky water like this … it’s absolutely insane. There are better ways to deal with this stuff. So much better. Like way better. I lived with a septic tank before.., hate them.
Bacteria do not just break big particles into smaller particles. Where did you come up with it? Bacteria eat organic matter and converts it into liquid (mostly water) and gas (carbon dioxide, methane, etc). Commercial septic products also contain enzymes, that break complex molecules of starches, proteins, carbohydrates, and cellulose into smaller, simpler pieces that easier for bacteria to digest.
Lipase - breaks down greases
Protease - breaks down proteins
Cellulase - breaks down cellulose
Amalase - breaks down carbohydrates and starches
The growing bacteria will then start to produce more enzymes on their own.
Yes, all of that is correct. And in any Stoichiometry problem-or any other ideal scenario or system, for that matter-every single molecule _could_ be accounted for. That said, tell me: where did you come up with the assumption that a septic tank is an ideal system?
What made you think that a septic tank could _ever_ complete all of those processes that may've begun inside of it? What are eutrophic/dystrophic bodies, if not solutions of water that have bitten off more nutrient than they can chew? Isn't this precisely what happens in any holding tank that is continuously taking in additional contents?
Though nobody likes to admit the reality, holding tanks were only designed to chemically _delay_ the inevitable: eventually, it'll need pumped.
If you're so against rid-x how come you're the one with the problem
What? You are confused. Treatment products can work well-as long as you put them in the right place.
Do not Rid-X your solids tank unless you _want_ its mass to break down and be pumped into your leach field. Mass doesn't disappear when it breaks down, you know; it'll just move via the water, and then clog up your microbial mat.
My "problem" was the result of a previous owner (a widow), who ignored septic maintenance for several years. Now I have to further break down the mass that's stuck in my leach bed. Treat your toilet bowl, and you'll eventually end up with the same problem.
Engagement
Polite reply
fix the problem you need a front load washing machine ,,too much water in system, all septic systems works best with front loader washer 6 gallon -vs- 40 gallon top loader
The washing machine had nothing to do with it.
No.
Wrong.
Annoying….couldn’t even wait long enough for you to get to the aforementioned drain fields restore
You want a quick fix? No patience?
Well, too bad. Dumping magic juice down the toilet won't help.
You have two options: either learn how to restore it, or else dig it up. There's no easy way out. Impatience is probably the reason why your field isn't draining in the first place.
Sorry to say BUT you have no idea what you are doing
What are you talking about? Not only is this method built on sound science, but it has helped my (broken) system to function incident-free for years now. Name a single thing in this video that's questionable, Mr. Expert.
I have been in the septic service for over 45 years . License in Soils >Design>Installations >Pumping >and inspections. So yes you may call me and EXPERT.I have 17 trucks on the road Excavators dump trucks and millions of dollars in other equipment .WE know what we are doing .So don't tell me about your so called sound science. @@pocket83squared
Oh. Then tell me ONE SINGLE THING that's incorrect, and stop acting like a child. Demonstrate some of this expertise.
And for the record, I've known more than a few morons who've logged 45 years of experience; time spent does not equal time improving. If your writing quality is any indication of your "service," then I have more respect for my present shit-sucker, who actually holds a degree in biology, and who _also_ owns millions in equipment. Since this is for the record, he agreed with the method discussed here.