On 5 Dec, 10:45, Charlie Pridham wrote:
In article ,
says...



"Rob G" wrote in message
...
...

I would like to challenge the vociferous cries from Sacha, Mary
Fisher, et al about the use of household chemicals and septic tanks.
I live in area of septic tanks - there must be around 20 in this
community, and one thing that is clearly apparant is that anyone we
know well here does NOT pay service to looking after their septic tank
bugs. I will admit to not having gone round my friends here and done
a detailed survey off their cleaning habits, but all (I think) have
dish-washers, washing machines, etc and I am totally unaware of them
taking any precautions with powders, etc. What I am aware of is that
like us they pump out every 10 years or more and have no problems with
their tanks. These are typically 70 year old double brick tanks
that drain into the local water courses, which are all healthy burns.

Rob

I challenge your claim that I've been crying vociferously :-)

All I've done is repeat what happens in a daughter's case, which is
different from most because of her organic certification. Others have
asserted that their tank has never been 'cleaned' too, it shouldn't be
necessary.

Mary

Its a pity really that we did not make clear at the beginning of this
thread that these tanks need de sludging not emptying, and the amount of
build up depends on how much usage as well as the design of the tank and
lay of the land.
A large tank of old fashioned design will seldom need attention and will
tolerate abuse, where a modern tank will need de sludging more often and
will work a lot better if some attention is payed to what goes in it.
Here I do speak from some experiance, having had to cope with ship board
systems that were physically very small for the numbers of people they
had to cope with.
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwallwww.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

Thanks Charlie - that's a useful input and does explain why some of us
are somewhat at cross purposes. Considering the overall volume of my
70 year old tank (2 chambers of near enough 100 cubic feet) I can
understand why it is more likely to withstand some abuse when related
to the modern fibreglass bottles.

Rob