Hello, I live on Long Island and my home is 20 yrs old. I have a 2 tank system. The last two years I have had to have my second tank pumped each year because of it being full. After 8 months, the tank looks like it's almost full again as I see water from the riser. I had a different cesspool company come by yesterday and he told me that my previous company is probably pumping and then hydrojetting more waste back into my system and leaves with an empty truck. His idea was just to hydrojett and add chemicals he did not have a pump truck. He said I would be good for 5 years. Very confused. Please help with which is better. Thank you
Hydrojetting or Pumping
- Thread starter vscimeca
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Septic and effluent tanks are both full all the time. All but about a foot or so at the top. Water and waste comes in the top of the first tank, waste settles to the bottom and the effluent water runs out the top of the first tank to the second where it can be pumped into the fields.
That's what I try to do. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
You should have your tanks pumped out every few years. If solids build up to the point that they start making it into the drain field, you can end up having to have a new drainfield installed, and that gets expensive.
I have never heard of hydrojetting of septic systems. Might be something new, but it doesn't seem to make sense since effluent water generally filters gradually into the existing ground.
Maybe he has misunderstood the septic guy? I would a$$-u-me that one would hydro-jet if a blockage occurs between the first and second tank or @ or before the D-BOX (or pump in this instance).
If you hydro-jetted the second tank, wouldn't it possibly send solids to block the D-BOX and/or leach-field? In the case of a pump, you would disconnect the line @ the pump and see how far the blockage shoots?
Regardless, shouldn't there be an effluent filer @ the exit of the first (settling) tank?
The tanks should have water in them normally. The outlets in the tanks sit up near the top, like speedbump said, about a foot down from the top of the tank. Water will stay in the tank up to the bottom of the outlet. When it rises up higher, it drains out. Not sure if you're able to see it, but the final outlet on the second tank should have a baffle of some kind, an elbow or a tee pipe and not a straight opening into the pipe. The baffle helps prevent solids from exiting, and the baffle may or may not have a filter device.
I don't know what hydrojetting a septic system entails. Where I live they just pump the tanks out and leave it at that. The waste haulers dump what they pump at a wastewater treatment facility (it's not legal to dump it anywhere else, except back in the septic tank, but that kind of defeats the purpose of pumping in the first place). Also, no one should be adding chemicals to a septic system, including pouring stuff down the drain in the home. If the tanks aren't overloaded or backing up, then just leave them alone, they sound fine.
If any tank needs to be pumped it would be the first tank as that is where all the solids are going to be building up (though some solids can build up in the second tank, too, but not nearly as much). The reason you want to prevent the solid level from getting too high is it reduces the volume of water the tank can hold and decreases the holding time of the water, which means it will travel through the tank faster. The faster the water moves, the more solids it will keep afloat and carry into the next tank and possibly out into the drainfield. Inside a septic tank should be still and motionless, not turbulent and flowing.
I don't know what hydrojetting a septic system entails. Where I live they just pump the tanks out and leave it at that. The waste haulers dump what they pump at a wastewater treatment facility (it's not legal to dump it anywhere else, except back in the septic tank, but that kind of defeats the purpose of pumping in the first place). Also, no one should be adding chemicals to a septic system, including pouring stuff down the drain in the home. If the tanks aren't overloaded or backing up, then just leave them alone, they sound fine.
If any tank needs to be pumped it would be the first tank as that is where all the solids are going to be building up (though some solids can build up in the second tank, too, but not nearly as much). The reason you want to prevent the solid level from getting too high is it reduces the volume of water the tank can hold and decreases the holding time of the water, which means it will travel through the tank faster. The faster the water moves, the more solids it will keep afloat and carry into the next tank and possibly out into the drainfield. Inside a septic tank should be still and motionless, not turbulent and flowing.
