Maintain Your Septic System By Pumping It Out
When you don't live in town, you likely aren't connected to a municipal sewer system, which means your wastewater doesn't leave your property. You need to have a solution for that issue. The answer is to have a septic system. This system is made up of a tank with two chambers and a leech field.
Septic Tank
The first chamber of the septic tank is where the wastewater enters. It is full of anaerobic bacteria. Those bacteria live off the solids in your wastewater. They will munch on it and break it down. As they break down, the solids turn into sludge that falls to the bottom of the tank. The water that is left over will then go into the second chamber for further treatment. When done in that chamber, the water will go out through pipes into the leech field. There, the water will filter down into the ground to get further filtered by the soil and eventually rejoin the groundwater.
Sludge
The bacteria are steadily doing their job in the first chamber of your tank, and the sludge on the bottom of the tank is building up. As the sludge builds up, it leaves less space for the wastewater to come. It will also block the entrance pipe for the wastewater. Eventually, that will mean that nothing new can get into your tank. You will notice this because your drains will start to drain slower and slower because there is much less space for the water to go. You may also notice a foul smell coming from your drains. When that happens, you need to have your septic tank pumped out.
Pumping
Getting your septic tank pumped out is pretty easy. All you need to do is to call a septic tank service company. They will come out with a truck with a huge tank and a vacuum hose. The vacuum hose gets stuck down into your septic tank and sucks everything out of it and into the tank. When the service tech is done pumping your tank out, they will ask you to run some water down the drain or flush the toilet to ensure everything is working.
If you have a septic tank, you need to remember that it has a finite amount of space and will eventually fill up with sludge. When that happens, you need to get your tank pumped out to have room for more wastewater. For more information on septic tank maintenance, contact a professional near you.
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