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Default Septic tank -- how often to pump?

The county health department says every 2 to 4 years, which seems
like an awfully long time to me. I know when I rented a house my
landlord had the tank pumped every year.

I'm one person, and the tank is 500 gallons. Any guidelines?

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
"If there's one thing I know, it's men. I ought to: it's
been my life work." -- Marie Dressler, in /Dinner at Eight/
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Default Septic tank -- how often to pump?

"Stan Brown" wrote in message
t...
The county health department says every 2 to 4 years, which seems
like an awfully long time to me. I know when I rented a house my
landlord had the tank pumped every year.

I'm one person, and the tank is 500 gallons. Any guidelines?

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
"If there's one thing I know, it's men. I ought to: it's
been my life work." -- Marie Dressler, in /Dinner at Eight/


We pump ours every 3 years (2 people). Every 3 months we add two cakes (or
packets) of yeast in one cup of sugar water, The latter keeps the "beasties"
happy. This all is per the recommendation of the installer and pumper.


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Default Septic tank -- how often to pump?

On Oct 16, 12:22 pm, "free-0-fat" wrote:
Every 3 months we add two cakes (or
packets) of yeast in one cup of sugar water, The latter keeps the "beasties"
happy. This all is per the recommendation of the installer and pumper.


Adding anything other than literal crap to the tank isn't needed,
won't help, and might hurt. From the University of Minnesota:

Septic Starters, Feeders, Cleaners and Other Additives

There is no quick fix or substitute for proper operation and regular
maintenance. Do not use starters, feeders, cleaners and other
additives. Many of these additives suggest they work via "enzyme" or
"bacterial" action.

! There's no such thing as a safe AND effective septic system
additive. !

Starters: A starter is not needed to get the bacterial action
going in the septic tank. There are naturally occurring bacteria
present in sewage.

Feeders: It is not necessary to "feed" the system additional
bacteria, yeast preparations, or other home remedies. There are
millions of bacteria and plenty of food for them entering the system
in normal sewage. If the bacterial activity level is low, figure out
what is killing them (for example, household cleaners) and correct it.
High levels of activity will return after the correction.

Cleaners: Additives effective in removing solids from the septic
tank will probably damage the soil treatment system. Some additives
may suspend the solids that would normally float to the top or settle
to the bottom of the tank in the liquid. This allows them to be
carried into the soil treatment system, where they clog pipes and soil
pores leading to partial or complete failure of the system.

Other Additives: Additives, particularly degreasers, may contain
carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) that flow directly into the
groundwater along with the treated sewage.

Many state regulations ban the use of septic system additives that
contain hazardous materials. In addition, they specify that additives
must not be used as a means of replacing or reducing the frequency of
proper maintenance and removal of scum and sludge from the septic
tank. EPA or USDA approval statements on labels only mean that the
product contains no hazardous material. It does not mean the product
is effective at what it claims to do.

! Additives and cleaners are heavily promoted to homeowners through
direct mail and telephone. Don't be misled! !

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Default Septic tank -- how often to pump?

Stan Brown wrote:
The county health department says every 2 to 4 years, which seems
like an awfully long time to me. I know when I rented a house my
landlord had the tank pumped every year.

I'm one person, and the tank is 500 gallons. Any guidelines?

According to this link, every 5.8 years:

http://rps.uvi.edu/CES/SEPTIC.overview.htm

Google had 324,000 hits on 'how often to pump septic tank'. The lookup
tables do not seem to agree real well on 3 tables checked at random.

I forget how big my tank is, but it is sized for a 3 BR house, so I
assume at least 1000 gallons. Suppose I oughta dig up the Big Box of
House Purchase Paperwork, and see if it is listed, or call the company
that did the inspection. But I live alone, there are no regular female
visitors, and I try to be real careful what I put down there. So I
figure I might bother to get an inspection in year 5 or so. Note that
size of finger system and local soil types are a big variable.

One of many items on the long list of stuff I never got around to doing
was to set a marker (paver block flush with the turf) where the septic
cleanout is, and now the grass has grown back in so well I can't find it
by eyeball. Some people actually put a hunk of concrete pipe with an
insulating plug, and a manhole cover, over the cleanout. That makes
cleanouts trivial.

aem sends....
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Default Septic tank -- how often to pump?

In article ,
Stan Brown wrote:
The county health department says every 2 to 4 years, which seems
like an awfully long time to me. I know when I rented a house my
landlord had the tank pumped every year.

I'm one person, and the tank is 500 gallons. Any guidelines?


Presumably you had the tank pumped when you bought the house? What you
could do is pump it at two years, and then look at the report from the
pumper. That report should tell you the depth of the various layers,
and the amount of clear space you had. From that, you should be able to
figure out about how frequently you should need to have it pumped.


--
--Tim Smith


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Default Septic tank -- how often to pump?

The county health department says every 2 to 4 years, which seems
like an awfully long time to me. ...


We pump ours every 3 years (2 people). Every 3 months we add two cakes (or
packets) of yeast in one cup of sugar water, The latter keeps the "beasties"
happy. This all is per the recommendation of the installer and pumper.


I used to get industrial plant trade journals
and was amused by the ads for custom-modified bacteria for waste treatment
and how "our bugs are better than theirs".
I'm unsure if they're available for home use.

I eat yogurt with active cultures to keep my "personal bacteria"
healthy and replenished, so it sounds reasonable to me to
aide/maintain the septic tank's bacteria too.

--

-- mejeep deMeep ferret!
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Default Septic tank -- how often to pump?

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 22:35:26 -0700 from Tim Smith reply_in_group@mouse-
potato.com:
In article ,
Stan Brown wrote:
The county health department says every 2 to 4 years, which seems
like an awfully long time to me. I know when I rented a house my
landlord had the tank pumped every year.

I'm one person, and the tank is 500 gallons. Any guidelines?


Presumably you had the tank pumped when you bought the house? What you
could do is pump it at two years, and then look at the report from the
pumper. That report should tell you the depth of the various layers,
and the amount of clear space you had. From that, you should be able to
figure out about how frequently you should need to have it pumped.


Thanks to you and the others who answered.

Yes, the tank was pumped shortly before closing. I agree that it
makes sense to see how nearly full it is at first pumping and
extrapolate from there. My concern was how long to wait for first
pumping.It's been about 15 months now, and based on what I'm reading
that sounds like it's way too soon.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
"If there's one thing I know, it's men. I ought to: it's
been my life work." -- Marie Dressler, in /Dinner at Eight/
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Default Septic tank -- how often to pump?


"Jeff Jonas" wrote in message
...
The county health department says every 2 to 4 years, which seems
like an awfully long time to me. ...


We pump ours every 3 years (2 people). Every 3 months we add two cakes (or
packets) of yeast in one cup of sugar water, The latter keeps the "beasties"
happy. This all is per the recommendation of the installer and pumper.


I used to get industrial plant trade journals
and was amused by the ads for custom-modified bacteria for waste treatment
and how "our bugs are better than theirs".
I'm unsure if they're available for home use.

I eat yogurt with active cultures to keep my "personal bacteria"
healthy and replenished, so it sounds reasonable to me to
aide/maintain the septic tank's bacteria too.


Would you not think that the bacteria best suited to your tank would be the ones
that naturally flourish in it with the nutrients regularly added?

Bob


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Default Septic tank -- how often to pump?

Dan Warren wrote:

I had the tank pumped out back in 85 then didn't have it done again till 2
years ago. I lived alone for about 15 years. The guy who pumped said it
was in good condition. So I wouldn't worry about gettting it pumped out so
soon. Living alone, every 5-10 years should be adequate.


The answer is so heavily influence by what gets flushed, the number of people
using the system, the size of the tank and several other factors that a rule of
thumb won't work.

It's not that hard to drop a dip stick in the tank a couple of times a year...

--
"Tell me what I should do, Annie."
"Stay. Here. Forever." - Life On Mars
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Default Septic tank -- how often to pump?

28 Oct 2007 20:23:06 GMT from Dan Warren
:
Stan Brown wrote in
t:

The county health department says every 2 to 4 years, which seems
like an awfully long time to me. I know when I rented a house my
landlord had the tank pumped every year.

I'm one person, and the tank is 500 gallons. Any guidelines?

I had the tank pumped out back in 85 then didn't have it done again till 2
years ago. I lived alone for about 15 years. The guy who pumped said it
was in good condition. So I wouldn't worry about gettting it pumped out so
soon. Living alone, every 5-10 years should be adequate.


The previous owner lived here seven years, and in an email he said he
never pumped it until right before settlement.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
"If there's one thing I know, it's men. I ought to: it's
been my life work." -- Marie Dressler, in /Dinner at Eight/


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Default Septic tank -- how often to pump?

Dan Warren wrote:
Stan Brown wrote in
t:

28 Oct 2007 20:23:06 GMT from Dan Warren
:
The previous owner lived here seven years, and in an email he said he
never pumped it until right before settlement.


Generally pumping out is required at the sale of a house. A big question
is do you have a garbage disposal? If so, more pumping, if not, you most
probably can go longer.

As an aside. Never flush antibiotics down the toliet if you have a septic
system. They can kill the bacteria in the tank.


So what do you do when you get prescribed antibiotics to take? Crap in
the yard? They do go right through you, you know. That is why you have
to take them for a week or ten days. Also keep in mind the relative
volumes- the tank is an order of magnitude or three bigger than your gut.

It is real hard to kill septic tank flora. Even if you do, a few days of
normal use will restart it, short of some sort of antiseptic chemical
load in the tank.

aem sends...

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Default Septic tank -- how often to pump?

aemeijers wrote:

So what do you do when you get prescribed antibiotics to take? Crap in
the yard? They do go right through you, you know.


90% of it does anyway.

I think the bigger concern is dumping a container of pills down the toilet.
Although it probably will have a limited long term impact on the tank, it's a
bad idea in general as it has the potential to create more resistant bacteria in
the tank.

--
"Tell me what I should do, Annie."
"Stay. Here. Forever." - Life On Mars
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Stan Brown wrote in
t:
The previous owner lived here seven years, and in an email he said he
never pumped it until right before settlement.


02 Nov 2007 03:07:18 GMT from Dan Warren
:
Generally pumping out is required at the sale of a house. A big question
is do you have a garbage disposal? If so, more pumping, if not, you most
probably can go longer.


No, no garbage disposal. I'd like one, but my plumber discouraged me.
I need to find a different plumber anyway, and I'm going to get a
second opinion. Frankly, if I have to pump the tank every year
instead of every two years, it would be worth it to me. I'm only one
person, and I don't generate even one whole bag of garbage a week, so
right now the kitchen can gets pretty funky in the summer.

As an aside. Never flush antibiotics down the toliet if you have a septic
system. They can kill the bacteria in the tank.


Right, and I read somewhere that those various "enzyme" systems are
as likely to do harm as to do good.

I'm careful about grease, too -- I have a soup can that gets any
liquid grease e.g. from bacon, and I paper-towel any greasy pan
before washing it.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
"If there's one thing I know, it's men. I ought to: it's
been my life work." -- Marie Dressler, in /Dinner at Eight/
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Default Septic tank -- how often to pump?

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 03:51:35 GMT from aemeijers :
Dan Warren wrote:
So what do you do when you get prescribed antibiotics to take? Crap in
the yard? They do go right through you, you know. That is why you have
to take them for a week or ten days.


Good lord. Let me reassure you: antibiotics do *not* "go right
through you". Maybe you're thinking of the sometime side effect of
diarrhea -- that happens when antibiotics kill the digestion-aiding
bacteria in your gut along with the ones that are making you sick.

Antibiotics must be taken for the full course because when your
symptoms disappear a few of the bad bacteria are still living. These
are the ones that have lower susceptibility to the antibiotic. You
continue taking the medicine to kill those. Otherwise they quickly
breed back to high numbers and make you sick again, but this time you
have a strain that is resistant to the antibiotic.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com/
"If there's one thing I know, it's men. I ought to: it's
been my life work." -- Marie Dressler, in /Dinner at Eight/
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Default Septic tank -- how often to pump?

Stan Brown wrote:

Good lord. Let me reassure you: antibiotics do *not* "go right
through you". Maybe you're thinking of the sometime side effect of
diarrhea -- that happens when antibiotics kill the digestion-aiding
bacteria in your gut along with the ones that are making you sick.


No. This link refers to animals, but the effect is similar in humans:

Antibiotics are routinely used in livestock production as both a prophylactic
and growth promoter. Due to low absorption rates, it has been estimated that as
much as 75% of antibiotics administered to feedlot animals could be excreted
unaltered in feces.

http://www.seas.harvard.edu/envmicro/research.html

Antibiotics must be taken for the full course because when your
symptoms disappear a few of the bad bacteria are still living. These
are the ones that have lower susceptibility to the antibiotic. You
continue taking the medicine to kill those. Otherwise they quickly
breed back to high numbers and make you sick again, but this time you
have a strain that is resistant to the antibiotic.


That's true, but the course is based on the bioavailability of the drug, which
is a small percentage of the size of the dose. That's why many drugs state "do
not crush", or restrict what foods you can use. Milk in particular can lower the
amount of drug that gets absorbed by the body.

--
"Tell me what I should do, Annie."
"Stay. Here. Forever." - Life On Mars


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Default Septic tank -- how often to pump?


"Dan Warren" wrote in message
8...
aemeijers wrote in
:

Dan Warren wrote:

As an aside. Never flush antibiotics down the toliet if you have a
septic system. They can kill the bacteria in the tank.


So what do you do when you get prescribed antibiotics to take? Crap in
the yard? They do go right through you, you know. That is why you have
to take them for a week or ten days. Also keep in mind the relative
volumes- the tank is an order of magnitude or three bigger than your
gut.


You notice I said FLUSH. Most antibiotics are metabolized and excreated as
inactive chemicals. It's the concentrated unmetabolized drug that does the
damage.


I've read of studies showing antibiotics in streams downstream of treatment
plants, and antibiotic resistant bacteria in those same streams.

Bob


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Default Septic tank -- how often to pump?


"Stan Brown" wrote in message
t...
Stan Brown wrote in
t:
The previous owner lived here seven years, and in an email he said he
never pumped it until right before settlement.


02 Nov 2007 03:07:18 GMT from Dan Warren
:
Generally pumping out is required at the sale of a house. A big question
is do you have a garbage disposal? If so, more pumping, if not, you most
probably can go longer.


No, no garbage disposal. I'd like one, but my plumber discouraged me.
I need to find a different plumber anyway, and I'm going to get a
second opinion. Frankly, if I have to pump the tank every year
instead of every two years, it would be worth it to me. I'm only one
person, and I don't generate even one whole bag of garbage a week, so
right now the kitchen can gets pretty funky in the summer.


My house has a disposal in a little side bowl of the sink, which I never use.
(Old house and piping - why chance it) I have given thought to re-piping its
outlet to an outside compost container - something like one of those green cones
with the underground baskets. I figure the water would drain into the ground,
and the basket could be emptied into my real compost pile a few times a year.

Bob


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