If your home depends on a septic system to deal with the household's waste, you may not give much thought to the balance that should be found within the tank. Instead of just a depository for liquid and solid waste, the tank has a delicate ecosystem that serves to break down the contents to keep the system from backing up. To help maintain a healthy ecosystem within your home's septic tank, use the tips discussed below every day.
1. Refrain From Pouring Harsh Chemical Cleaners Down the Drains
One thing that you can do each day to help keep the ecosystem within your septic tank healthy is to refrain from pouring any harsh chemical cleaners down your drains. Since most of the household cleaners that you use in your house are designed to kill germs, having the cleaners within the tank could disrupt the breakdown of waste by killing the bacteria.
While killing bacteria in your house may be a good thing, the ones found within the septic tank are essential. They eat away at the solid waste to help keep it from becoming too bulky.
If you pour too many cleaners into the system and kill too many of the bacteria, the waste will start to build up. This would then require more frequent pumpings to keep the sewage from backing up.
2. Avoid Flooding the Tank With Too Much Wastewater at Once
Another thing that you can do to help keep the environment inside of the septic tank balanced is to avoid flooding the tank with too much wastewater at once. When too much water is introduced into the tank, it stirs up the solid waste. And because the water will take longer to leach out, this can disrupt the decomposition of the waste.
To help combat this, try to stagger the times when high-water consumptive appliances and activities are done. Try to wash only one load of laundry a day, and try to space out the times when your family takes showers and runs the dishwasher.
Keeping up with the water going into the tank while ensuring that minimal chemicals are introduced can help to keep the ecosystem with the septic system healthy. However, you will still need to have the tank professionally cleaned and pumped out every few years. If it has been a while since this has occurred, contact a septic tank maintenance service near you to schedule a time for them to send someone out to your home.
