Question-
The problem I have is that the stone filled filter bed that is fed from my Klargester Septic Tank is not now filtering the discharged water efficiently and, under adverse conditions, the Septic tank can slightly overflow and make the ground wet around it. I have removed the manhole cover and pumped out the water surrounding the centre chamber of the Tank thus causing the ball valve to drop down inside the centre chamber and showing me that the chamber is nowhere near full and does not require emptying. It would appear that the filter bed is probably partly blocked by sediment from the discharging water and my question is whether giving the Tank your Septic Tank shock treatment followed by subsequent monthly treatment would help the situation? Incidentally, the water that I pumped out had only a slight smell, so it would appear that the Klargester unit is working as it should.
Answer:
It may be what has happened with your system is that solids have partially blocked the stone filled filter bed: either excess solids have been going across into the filter bed when the operation of the tank has not been 100%, or a small amount of solids has been going across all the time and the problem has simply built up over a few years.
The bacteria in eco septic tank treatment should be able to degrade some of these solids and improve the flow. It is difficult to say how much to add from a scientific point of view because we don’t have details of the tank or bed size.
Unfortunately we do not know the details of the set up of your Klargester system, nor do I think Ecohabit could be expected to know every system that is out there in detail. We want to get the dose of microbes as directly into the filter bed as we can, rather than putting it down the toilet and/or into the main bulk of the tank where it will get diluted before entering the bed. The best area may be the area ‘surrounding the centre chamber’ that you describe or there might be another way of putting the product directly into the outlet from the tank/inlet to the filter i.e. even closer to the filter bed and the problem. Try soaking the product in a bucket of warm water for an hour or so, and then it should have settled enough to decant the liquid portion into the system, or if not, pour the solution through some old tights or similar to avoid dosing too much of the insoluble carrier. The solids/carrier from the bottom of the bucket can then go into the main tank via a toilet of directly in whilst the cover is off.
A couple of treatments like this a two weeks apart should improve matters, and it might be worth devising a program of dosing every couple of months to stop the issue coming back. If it doesn’t work, it may be that the blockage is so severe that the microbes cannot solve it and other solutions, involving digging out the bed, are needed!
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