Septic Fields & Saltwater

so all the septic tanks that are close to the Ocean or a river suck!!! they are why I worry about getting hep c from surfing after a storm. From living out in the woods and seeing some of the tanks go in, they are not always what they say they are and some times they are a lot smaller than you think they are. Sure they are good most of the time, but if you ever been around one that backed up you know it's worth the extra time and energy to make sure it's working right. I think the fuge analogy is great, you have a bio-filter and I bio-load and don't want to crash your bio-activity. I think I would want to know just how big my septic tank is compared to how much water I'm putting into it just to know how much load increase it's going to have. As far as I know septic tanks are not meant to deal with large amounts of waste water compared to waist solids. I also think I would try to be very regular on using the recommended additive that provided extra organisms to keep the cycle consistent.

 

Personally, I dont dump saltwater down my drains. at our old house we had a step system. it was a septic tank beside our house for the solids and all teh effluent water was pumped into a neighborhood drainfield. I heard once that the salt water can kill the bacteria in the tank, so I never tested that theory. I did however plumb the drain for my RO/DI into the sewer line. made it simple and easy and did good to flush fresh water into the tank.

at our new house I elected to not tap into the sewer this time. I just ranteh waste water intot he flowerbed. I plan to hook it to a large storage tank for use in watering the garden.

 

Saltwater is good for the drains.

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have a septic tank and recently had to pump it because it was full 50 years of doo doo, when the company came and did it i asked them the same question and they said it would not hert the tank and that the bacteria would feed the other bacteria in the tank already.

he did however go on to say thet the chemical drano would kill the bacteria and to use a tank treatment every two months to help the empty tank establish a new bacteria cycle.

P.S. have salt softeners on my well and the water after is been ran through the purifier wont show up on a refractor.

 

RC, thats interesting.... Great insight!

 

The sodium in the treated or softened water would not show up on a seawater refractometer, its very low but still present. Its the salt in the brine that is produced when you recharge the ion exchange resin that is in question and yes it would probably peg a refractometer since it is high strength brine.

 

interesting.... that I didnt take into thought