Septic Tank

[MossRoad]

Put in a seperate smaller system for the washer and kitchen sink only. Some areas don't allow this, but others do. The efluent from the washer and kitchen sink are considered gray water. You don't have to treat it the same as the sewage from the toilets. It might be worth looking into.

 

[billboe]

I was hoping more for a solution like a bucket with a screen on the bottom with a hose coming out of it that feed into the normal washer waste pipe... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[TerryinMD]

Another suggestion made to me by the "honey dipper" was to have a separate tank for your water softener backflush water. He suggests that there is a higher concentration of salts in the waste and this can lead to earlier septic tank failures. The salts can be highly corrosive which can lead to the concrete failing and the wire mesh and rebar to corrode.

What he suggested was to get a large platic tank, dig a pit, line the pit with stone, drill some holes on the sides of the tank (not specific on placement), and backfill with more stone around the tank. This way the backflush water will be held, the heaver salts and particulate would settle to the bottom, and the cleaner water would drain into the stone. When the 'honey dipper" comes back to pumb out the septic system, they also pump out the backflush tank and remove all of the deposits. Sounds good in theory, but I haven't heard of anyone doing this.

Terry

 

[Egon]

Salt
The salt will be in solution and will not precipitate unless the solution becomes saturated. With the amount of water used for the backwash this may not happen.
Egon

 

[TerryinMD]

Egon,

Do you mean that the water is saturated with a lot of salt? Just trying to understand...

If that is the case, then the "honey dipper" mispoke, correct.

Terry

 

[BMW]

frank_f15
<font color=red>this spring i have a whole bunch of work to do re-grading and planting grass. want to help?</font color=red>

I'd love to help. Just buy me a trailer and a truck to pull it with and I'll bring the Kubota and the box scraper right up./w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif We'll have it knocked out in no time.

Later
Mark

 

[Egon]

Terry:
The salt is dissolved in the water just like sea water. The only way for any significant amount of solid salt to fall out is if the water contains more salt than it can absorb. With the volume of water used regenerating and rinsing this is very unlikely to happen.
Egon

 

[Joe_W]

Billboe, here's a link to a washing machine filter that will trap enough lint in a year to carpet your living room (according to the author). This site also has a lot of septic system information.
Joe W.
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.septicprotector.com/products.htm>http://www.septicprotector.com/products.htm</A>

 

[billboe]

Thanks for the link Joe. Looks like an interesting product. Has anyone here tried it? Is it overkill? Would something simpler work as well? I wonder if you really need to worry about the very fine particles?

Thanks again!

 

[RJohnson]

Billboe
It is the really fine particles that you have to worry about. They can easily get out of the tank and into your leach field. If you wear any type of synethetic clothing these fine particles eventually get to your soil and clog up the pores. These type of particles do not break down in the soil and eventually you have to have expensive leach field repair. I have heard very good things about filters inline with the wasing machine drain line and I personally would recommend an effluent filter in your septic tank to keep as many solids in the tank as possible.

Randy