Septic Tank Blues

[vegetableassassin]

Hey all. We had one of our tanks pumped out a long time ago, and the fellow on the truck said our drain field was done for. We haven't used it since then, as it is for a bathroom that we rarely use. I assumed that the tank must not have drained properly. The wife says that she remembered something about clay tile pipes going to the drain field, I figured one of them must have finally collapsed or something.
Anyways, I dug around today, and found the tank. There is a clay tile coming out of the sided of the tank, but it only sticks out about six inches. There is no more tile or pipe anywhere else, just this "nub". When I moved the dirt infront of it, water gushed out of the tank into my freshly dug hole. (Thank goodness it was clean!) There is evidence of gravel, I just have never heard of the gravel bedding starting right at the tank. Anyone ever heard of anything like this? Thanks in advance.

[joed]

You are correct. There should be a tile bed going out of the tank.

[xkvator]

i've seen older systems like that...put in without drain tiles to save a few pennies, I guess.
as the water level rose in the gravel bed, it backflowed into the tank

[vegetableassassin]

Well I've got some good news. We have 2 tanks, and the other one had a new drain field put in in 1995. We found some of the paperwork related to it in a folder. They used something called the Infiltrator which I can describe best as plastic lobster-cage looking things. I'm going to abandon the other tank and re-route the sewer line from it to the new one. The only thing that was draining to it was a bathroom that isn't used too often. I think since it's only 2 of us here we should be okay.

[6pack]

not a pro on septic tanks, always a city boy pryor.
I would start by saying I know of no water being clean coming from a septic tank! May not have solids but very very dangerous to an open sore. As what I know there should'nt be solids coming from it in the first place.
Our household also has just 2 people as a rule. We were informed that laundry should be done at seperate times in other words not 6 loads in a day,&
7 so on.
I'm going to dig out our paper work as to the exact size of our newer system.
I too have been experiencing some occasional problems, or what I feel to be something not working properly?
I get so many different solutions or possible causes that my brains flogged.
The last two times we had company(within 2 months)i have had water back up in the floor drain.Wife was doing laundry at both time's. I also had the tank pumped here this past summer.(again I spoke with others, with older systems who seem to never get their tank pumped.)I know for sure we have (quessing) a double set of the same stlye(infitrator)for the drain field. Possibly 60' each.With company we do use the shower more, and the toilet, but I would think that should not be a problem as no one else around here seems to have that problem.Unless they do not want to mention this happened to them!I plan as you to do a search before calling them in to check it out. There are two clean out points I plan to check this spring(after frost is out. I also have all sand soil so drainage should not be a problem nor is the field frozen. I have to reread the actual installation papers which I have and see whats up. Hey good flushing to you.

[K2eoj]

I know quite a bit about septics and can say that the type of soil that you are leaching into and how fast it can absorb water into the ground is the biggest factor but things like evaporation can be engineered into a system to make it work. Ground water is also a big problem with septics and changes form year to year.
My experience is that under designed systems in sand with ground water below 20 ft. rearly fail. Well designed systems in clay, sandstone or with a high water table often fail. I would never expect 2 systems in the same area to behave equally.
As far as solids in the tank. Some people/families produce enzymes that break down solids and the tank never has to be pumped. Some people don't and the solids have to be pumped. Solids filling the tank and getting into the leachfield is a problem.
My information comes from being married to a Health/Septic inspector for 20+ years. We meet on a leach field 24 years ago. I would ask her opinion here but you would probably get over 200 paragraphs on the subject.
Of course ours and my experience is in Colorado and of course there might be similarities but there would probably be a few differences regarding climates. K2

[AllanJ]

The gravel bed starting just outside the tank is the leach field. Apparently the person who installed that system judged that the flow rate of waste water from the house into that tank would never exceed the perk rate of the gravel bed and the soil below.

With the tank inlet and outlet properly baffled, no more solids will escape into the gravel bed compared with from the outlet of a septic tank into a proper leach field. Another reason for failure is, after a long time when enough grease from a kitchen saturates the soil, the perk rate dwindles and the leach field is done for.