For those of you who may have a problem with a wet leach field, I used this and it really worked to dry the area. Terra Lift or Terra Lift International
It will even work if you just have a wet area of your lawn you want to dry up.
I had it done 2 years ago when there was black,standing,stinky "water" in my front lawn.
I believe the recommended duration between pumpings is 5 years. Avoid dumping grease down the drain. It can pass through the tank and into the field thereby helping plug it up early. The sludge on the bottom of the tank is called "Ash" and is usually the remains of the digested waste. The problem comes when the ash builds up high enough to enter the outlet pipe (which has a "T" or "L" on the end to place the opening below the water line.) The ash flowing through the oulet will seep out through the drain field and literally plug up the little empty spaces between the rocks that surround the drain lines. Soap can also form a scum on these rocks which prevents the free flow of grey water. I don't know if powdered soap will have any different effect than liquid soap or bar soap. All soaps and detergents will kill bacteria, (that's why the lunch lady always told us to wash our hands.)
As far as dumping stuff down the drain to help the little bugs in there, I've never worried about it although I know a lot of people who do. There are several real expensive products available, some cheap things like Rid-X, or you can go the sugar and yeast route. All will probably work with equal efficiency. We're on a brand new septic system and I have not dumped one thing down the drain to start it. (Well, [img]/forums/images/icons/blush.gif[/img] I have, but it was 100% natural, free and available in great quantity.) My Mother had a new system put in at her house and we didn't do anything special to start it, either. The human gut has plenty of bacteria and yeasts in it to do the job. The little critters just need the chance to work in peace without someone mucking up the neighborhood.
I don't know too much about yeast, but I believe it devours sugars. Though Lager yeasts may work in cooler temps, would it really help keep a septic system clean? If so, is a DIY beer/wine supply store the best place to buy the yeast?
My Dad was a career plumber. Unfortunately, his son didn't pick up too much when he had the chance years ago. [img]/forums/images/icons/frown.gif[/img]
He also suggests the garden hose down the cleanout trick, not necessarily to clear a blockage, but as a routine maintanence item to keep the system from forming a blockage in the first place. Who knows? I just don't want the plumbing to go down again. I envy you lucky ducks who don't have septic problems. Believe me, you don't want them.
Yeast eats sugar. In goes sugar, out goes alcohol and CO2. So forth comes beer, ect. In bread, it eats the sugars, and generates CO2; that's the "rise". There may be some residual alcohol or other stuff, but the bread yeast strain is optimized for the "rise" from the CO2(from my beer making expierience).
In your septic tank, you will probably find very few sugars. Since there is little to no sugar, there is nothing for the yeast to eat.
So, I would go out on a limb and guess that yeast in the septic tank wouldn't hurt anything, but it also would not help any. That is, of course, just IMHO.
<font color="blue">In your septic tank, you will probably find very few sugars.</font color>
Robert,
I think you're right. But, there are probably more sugars in our septic tanks than we think. For example, I believe cellulose (toilet paper) and starches (peelings and disposal scraps) are complex sugars that may or may not appeal to yeasts. I just don't know. I'm a little skeptical about if yeast would help.
Walking a fine line here between grossness and natural phenomena, but here goes...
You're in a fishing camp and you take a leak in the middle of the night outside just off the beaten path. Next morning you get up and see a bunch of yellow butterflies congregating where you relieved yourself. What do you suppose they're feeding on?
Also, the septic tank guy around here calls effluent "sweet water." And then then there's the colloquialism for the truck he drives - the "honey" truck.
If you keep High acidic and high basic materials out, pump before it is really required [ this means checking it, not every so many years ] and try and place the tank so it stays warm and all should flow well.
After considering the possible reasons for the "inflow" pipe getting clogged - and fairly regularly I might add, I've come to he conclusion that it has either been squashed or there's a dip in it. Either way, I'll be dropping by the local tool rental place in the spring to have a second go on their JD 4400 to dig it up and replace it. I rented it earlier this year to redo my leach field.
I use the term "redo" lightly as really there was no leach field. I found that at some point all they did was plonk a septic tank in between the house and the old cesspool.
I must say that simple tasks get complicated real quick when dealing with a hundred year old house. In times of exasperation, I wonder if it would have been worth it to bulldoze the whole site flat and call up the pre-fab home people. But I do eventually come to my senses and realize that I'm just a blip in this house's history and I that owe it some respect.
I've always wondered about the 'honey" in honey truck. As an unrelated side note: "Agua dulce" (sweet water) in Spanish is the term used to describe fresh (drinkable) water as opposed to salt water.
Please don't take me as contrary and my following statement is not meant to be argumentative. I would like to throw in 2 cents worth on your "butterfly" example...Dietary sugars (glucose, fructose, sucrose) are effectively absorbed by the gut into the blood stream where the body deals with them and holds them tightly as a future energy source. Nondietary sugars cannot be used by the body, hence the term "nondietary". They are still sugars, full of energy, but our bodies can't process them. Anyway, I believe, nondietary sugars are mostly eliminated in solid waste (never absorbed). Urine is waste filtered from the blood stream. It contains expendible amounts of water, nitrogenous waste (from protein processing) and excess ions (hydrogen, sodium, potassium and chloride mostly). There may also be debris like sloughed cells, etc. Blood sugar is jealously guarded by the kidneys, as blood is filtered, and only "spills" into urine when the blood sugar level is so high that the kidney's resorption mechanism is overwhealmed. This virtually never happens in a "normal" person, but is frequent in disease states like diabetes.
Urine is our waste, but does contain useful nutrients for other organisms. For example, the nitrogen is appreciated by the compost pile, where bacteria use it to do their composting thing. (There are other sources of nitrogen for the compost pile...urine is not a requirement!). If butterflies are attracted to a person's urine because of sugar, that person may have a medical problem. I am not a physiologist, but this is my understanding of our inner workings.
Once again, please forgive me if this comes across in any way other than just informational.
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