Septic do's and don'ts....

[Suzyq2u]

We're buying a house with a septic tank, we're new to having one.
I know I need to stop bleach, antibacterial soaps and drain cleaners...what else?
Any tips? Thanks

[TnAndy]

Hmmm.....we've been on one for 30 years and use bleach and any kind of soap we want......never use drain cleaners, as we've never had the need. My "guess" is drain cleaners are for folks that dump grease down the drain on a regular basis, where it congeals and causes a problem.....our grease goes in the trash can after it cools.

Had the current one pumped after 20 years use, and it really didn't need it then. Probably never do it again.

The one thing the health dept guy that laid out our first one in a previous house said was "avoid garbage disposals".....too much stuff goes down them that doesn't break down.

So, assuming you had a good system put in to begin with ( I did my own ), you shouldn't have a problem.

The other one thing I'll add is TOO much water.....check your toilets on a somewhat regular basis and repair as needed. My neighbor is a septic installer and the one issue he sees is too much water in systems not designed to handle it, and primarily from leaking toilets. Dump a couple teaspoons of food coloring in the tank, and if you see any color in the bowl in a minute, fix the toilet.

[Harry Chickpea]

Ditto TnAndy's advice. No garbage disposal, stay away from charmin and scott. Angel Soft dissolves well, learned that in the camper trailer. Bleach and anti-bacterials degrade quickly. Now copper sulfate (Root Kill) might be a different story.

[mothernature]

We've always put RidX down our commodes every other month for the past 20yrs. Any natural bacteria products should help with septic digestion!!

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by mothernature

We've always put RidX down our commodes every other month for the past 20yrs. Any natural bacteria products should help with septic digestion!!

We put natural bacteria into our septic system every day that does as good, if not better, job then Rid-X....best of all, it is free!

Scott single ply is a good tissue to use with septics.

You can use bleach and anti-bacteria soaps in moderation.

Do not use powder detergents. They contain fillers that will collect in your septic tank.

Do not pile up laundry to wash on Monday. Do your laundry throughout the week.

[NostalgicGranny]

We've used all those too. You can buy the little beasties that help break everything down at Wally World or something like that. We also use Charmin but here it is marketed as septic safe. And Angel soft when they have it. It'll be labeled if it is septic safe.
The biggest no-no that I can think of is grease. If I'm cooking something with grease I wipe the pan out with a paper towel before I wash or rinse it.

[TnAndy]

I think bacteria additives are not needed in a properly sized system....lot of sales hype in that market.

Where they might come in handy is IF your tank is too small to allow the time required to break down the "solids"....then some additional bacteria 'might' help.

Here, the specs are 1,000 gallon tank for up to 2.5 baths/3 bedrooms, 1,500 gallon tank for over that.

And a minimum of 300' of field line.

Those specs will vary greatly all over the country, of course, depending on soil type and drainage conditions....but work well here as a rule of thumb.

[jlrbhjmnc]

Originally Posted by Cabin Fever

Do not use powder detergents. They contain fillers that will collect in your septic tank.

CF - Does that include all powdered detergents, even for the dishwasher?

[Suzyq2u]

Very interesting everyone, thanks.

Originally Posted by jlrbhjmnc

CF - Does that include all powdered detergents, even for the dishwasher?

Pour a bit of powder detergent into a glass of water. Stir vigorously for a minute or so then set it aside to settle down. If after five minutes or so you see solid matter in the bottom of the glass you'll have your answer.

What TNAndy and Cabin Fever said is what my family does.

[TnAndy]

Originally Posted by jlrbhjmnc

CF - Does that include all powdered detergents, even for the dishwasher?

I'd guess you're safe with dishwasher power.

My guess, based on our experience, is washing machine power ( which use peanut hulls as the filler ) you're also fine with.

Again, this assumes a properly sized system.....Lord knows there are all kinds of cobbled up ones out there....I have more than one neighbor that uses a 55gal drum or two for the "tank" and has maybe 50' of field line....and they work on them regularly AFTER the yard swamps up and stinks enough.

Most all new washers and dishwashers are going to liquid ( HE ) type detergents anyway, and far less water use, so this will become less of an issue down the road.

[Cabin Fever]

Originally Posted by A.T. Hagan

Pour a bit of powder detergent into a glass of water. Stir vigorously for a minute or so then set it aside to settle down. If after five minutes or so you see solid matter in the bottom of the glass you'll have your answer.

What TNAndy and Cabin Fever said is what my family does.

Well, there ya go!

Do the same with the toliet paper you use. Put a few sheets in a mason jar that is half full of water, and give it a few shakes. If your TP doesn't disintegrate, find a new brand.

[jlrbhjmnc]

Okay - I put a sprinkle of the powdered dishwasher detergent in about 10 ounces of cold water and stirred. The box says it contains sodium carbonate, sodium silicate and enzymes. After maybe 2-3 minutes there is solid stuff on the bottom of the glass, uh-oh.

[ronbre]

never use charmin toilet tissue..make sure that any tissue you use will completely disintegrate in a glass of water in just seconds..pump them every 3 to 5 years..depending on amount of use

[Helena]

We have a septic and a leach field for the gray water from the tub, bathroom sinks and kitchen and washing machine water. Only the toilet goes into the septic which does well. Have had it pumped a couple of times in the last 30 years..I would also caution on flusing any female products down the toilet.. (tampax aka..white mice or the applicators or kotex) City people can do this without the worry of problems..but country people can't with septics. With having 3 women in the house my husband in past years use to be under the house cleaning out the pipe to the septic with either these or too much toilet paper. The joy of raising daughters. Have used bleach to clean the toilet..but not very often. Also..keep this in mind... If it is yellow..let it mellow..if brown..flush it down. Might save your septic in years to come.

[meanwhile]

If you do have too much water going into the septic, try and separate the gray water and send it out and off someplace else. You will have to figure out if it is illegal in your area and if you have a good spot to drain the gray water. If you do, then it is a great way to reduce the amount of water going into the septic tanks and drain field.

[tiogacounty]

Originally Posted by Suzyq2u

We're buying a house with a septic tank, we're new to having one.
I know I need to stop bleach, antibacterial soaps and drain cleaners...what else?
Any tips? Thanks

I've been using various septic systems for nearly thirty years now. As a builder I have built dozens of them, and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to do so. I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that any information regarding the dangers of bleach, toilet paper, colored toilet paper, antibacterial soap, or a few dozen other silly things you hear, is bull. Any functionally adequate system, built to reasonable standards, and adequately maintained, will handle all of the above and more. As for drain cleaners, I can't say. Drain cleaner are a band-aid. If you have a problem that you think you need a drain cleaner for, you actually need a repair or proper maintenance, not a bottle of toxic waste. I have seen two issues in the last twenty years of building. A customer who had a fetish for something called, IIRC "Dreft" baby detergent. This stuff was a hoot. It created fairly dense bright white hard foam that clogged the system. Easy fix, and switching to adult soap eliminated the issue. The other issue is failing to have the tank cleaned out on a regular basis. That's it. I have seen "keyboard experts" declare that even a cup of bleach will destroy a septic, other experts that will tell you that brand X toilet paper will cause prolems, and other fools that regularly put used toilet paper in a bag because they KNOW FOR A FACT that the brand new septic system I installed for them will fail if it get's TP in it. BTW, Any honest septic service co. will tell you the same thing that our state's DEP tells you on the septic permit. Additives are a hoax, you are accomplishing nothing but wasting your time and money. Getting the tank cleaned out on a regular schedule is far more important than adding "magic potions" or listening to silly claims about detergent or toilet paper.

[Suzyq2u]

Originally Posted by meanwhile

If you do have too much water going into the septic, try and separate the gray water and send it out and off someplace else. You will have to figure out if it is illegal in your area and if you have a good spot to drain the gray water. If you do, then it is a great way to reduce the amount of water going into the septic tanks and drain field.

Funny you should mention that....it does indeed have a separate run off for the gray water...but it is not legal there so it will have to remedied. Bah.

[Michael W. Smith]

Much good advise above.

If you are worried about the toilet paper, just have a garbage can beside the toilet. We flush the worst of the toilet paper after making a bowel movement. The rest goes into the garbage can where you can either burn it or put it in the garbage.

We live in an old house so the only thing connected to our septic tank is the bathroom (1 toilet, 1 bathtub, 1 sink).

The kitchen is connected to the pipe from the gutters of the house as is the clothes washer. (Probably illegal in today's world, but the drain goes to what used to be the bottom of the pig pen, but the water doesn't cause any wet areas.)

Ideally, if we ever remodeled the bathroom, I'd like to drain the bathroom's bathtub and sink into the "gray" line as well and only have the toilet on the septic.

The less water that is added to a septic tank just allows more time for the solids to sink - thereby making sure no solids go into the leach line to plug it up.

We have to use drain cleaner from time to time in our bathroom. The pipes are original to the house, so I figure we have at least 60 year old pipes. Alot of gunk I'm sure has built up in it, and it's the bathtub that has a slow drain, so every once in a while we have to "clean it out" with drain cleaner.

Not ideal, but doesn't seem to hurt the septic tank over all.

[nodak3]

We were on septic about 15 years and only had to pump once I think.

That time the problem was dishwasher gel--stuff just plain sat on top and gunked up.

Switched back to powder with hot water and no more problems.

Ditto the no grease.

Had no trouble with antibacterials or bleach, but then we don't over do them either.