On 5 Dec, 14:12, "'Mike'" wrote:
"Eddy Bentley" wrote in message

...



Many thanks to all those who have so kindly offered their thoughts on
how frequently to clean a septic tank (my posting below: "Septic Tank:
how often to clean").

I should say that I posted the question partly because the previous
owner admitted that he and his wife were, forgive me for mentioning it,
"very anal"! And since we've been here we have discovered this
admission to probably have been true. On the day we moved in, even,
they were cleaning and scrubbing every hidden corner until an hour
before our delivery truck arrived! When we viewed the house we noted
that their "detergent cupboard" was, let's say, unusually well stocked!

Like some people who have replied to my posting, we have come from the
side of a Welsh "mountain" (Welsh mountain = hill). There we had a
massive concrete septic tank embedded in the ground but it was also
somewhat at the top of a "cliff" so that it soaked away into land & a
stream about 30 feet below. Quite a "pull". On moving I asked the
owner about frequency of cleaning the tank and he said, "Don't touch it,
till you smell it, and you won't smell it till it starts bubbling
through the sides of the lid!" He was such a know-all I believed him
and we never got the thing cleaned. When we were selling the place our
buyer wanted to know about the septic tank and I took off the lid and
showed him the contents and repeated what I had been told! Thankfully,
the "cake" on top of the contents was well below the lid! Also
thankfully, I could see that "clear" liquid was departing through the
outlet pipe. What I did not know was how thick the layer of "clear"
liquid was! Or, in other words, how high the sludge level was! For all
I knew it could have been very close to outlet pipe. On moving into
this new property with a similar though smaller concrete septic tank
embedded in the ground, I did a bit of research and learnt that waiting
for the contents to start bubbling up round the lid was utterly foolish
and so got back to my buyer and corrected the information I had given
him and advised him strongly to have the tank cleaned as soon as
possible.

Anyway . . .

In addition to carefully reading all replies to my post I have also done
some research. It appears that, yes, tanks can be of different sizes &
involve more than one chamber but essentially they all operate on the
same principle. This principle is as follows:

1. All your waste flows into the tank via an opening fairly high up the
side of the tank.
2. The "heavy stuff" falls to the bottom.
3. The outlet pipe is roughly the same height as the inlet pipe and
usually on the other side of the tank. Only the "light stuff", i.e.
"clear" liquid should ever flow out of the tank through this pipe and
into the soakaway / gravel conduits / "herringbone" or what-have-you.
4. A good level of bacteria in the tank works on the "heavy stuff" at
the bottom of the tank and assists in continually reducing it.
5. However, sooner or later the level of the "heavy stuff", i.e. the
"sludge" at the bottom of all tanks, WILL build up sufficiently to reach
the outlet pipe UNLESS you intervene and reduce the sludge level, i.e.
have most of it sucked out.
6. If the sludge DOES get as high as the outlet pipe and starts to exit
the tank via this pipe it will move off into the soakaway land. No
problem will manifest itself for some time. Eventually however the land
will become clogged with the sludge and your only option then will be to
build a new septic tank on a separate and clean piece of land.
Expensive and possibly difficult if not impossible because of the
geographical requirements.

So, from all of this, it seems pretty clear to me that one needs to
devise a way of checking on one's sludge level!

Does anyone do that? I'm thinking of making a "sludge-detector" by
taking a long pole and fixing a fairly large flat "plate" (piece of
board) to the end of it. If I were to then slowly lower this down
through the top level of "clear" liquid I ought to be able to feel when
I hit the sludge level. If it is a good way below the outlet pipe, then
all is well. If not, then a clean is in order.

What do you think?

Yes, I know I should just make the "detector" and go test it . . . but
who wants to go outside in this awful weather and start poking around in
"heavy stuff" if it might be a complete waste of time?

Eddy.

P.S. By the way, when I said a commercial cleaner round these parts
charges £120 I meant £120 inclusive of VAT. They're all roughly the
same price round here and, no, the council here in this county doesn't
offer a septic tank service.

Well done Eddy.

Wonderful posting with a lot of research

Best wishes

Mike
P.S. I think you Sludge Level with a bit of board would work to a certain
degree, but not tooooooooooooooooo accurate because I feel that the board
would indeed 'sink' into the solid/sludge, but with practice I would expect
you to be able to 'feel' when it started to go into it.

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In the days of my youth we lived in the country outside Hastings, and
every 2 or 3 years we would dig a good trench 2 ft deep and the width
of the veg patch, the "Sludge" from the septic tank would then be
brought out by the bucket full and tipped into said trench, This was
then covered with the soil and the crop of runner beans we grew was
first class.
David Hill
Abacus Nurseries