MC wrote:
I purchased a house with a 15 year old 1500 gallon concrete septic
tank. The home inspector found that the level of fluid in the tank was
6 inches lower than the outlet pipe, suggesting a leak in the tank,
since the tank had not been pumped in 2-3 years. Only 2 adults and one
child live in the house with a septic sytem capacity built for this 4
bedroom house. Baffles were normal. The leech field was in excellent
condition.

A contractor for the seller pumped out the tank and inspected it
revealing some cracking next to the gasket joining the upper and lower
halves of the tank. He repaired this with hydraulic cement, but felt
that the crack did not seem significant. He also said that there was
very little mortar left around the collar of either the outlet or
inlet pipe (can't remember), and also repaired that with hydraulic
cement.

My question: Do the findings of the contractor reasonably match the
severity of the problem (water level 6" below outlet pipe)? In other
words, is the low level of water usually in your experiences due to a
HUGE problem, or sometimes just due to small fixable cracks, like I
described above?

THANKS!

I can remember reading many years ago, that some septic systems utilized a
syphon system in the second tank. The purpose of the syphon was to hold the
liquid until the second tank was full then the syphon would automatically
activate and empty the tank into the leach field. Checking the tank after
the syphon had emptied it would look like a tank that was low due to a leak.
I don't know when they stopped using syphons, if they ever did, in some
areas. I have never seen one in person, despite using septic tanks for the
last 55 years.