How to handle waste saltwater on a rural septic (sewage) system?

[theMeat]

Isn’t struvite kidney stones? Some sorta magnesium/ammonia combo?

Who mentioned struvite?

 

[KIRBLIT]

Hey what’s struvite I didn’t bother googling I chose the conversational path lol

http://www.google.com/url?q=https:/...QmhMIFSgAMAI&usg=AOvVaw378U7_Dg6dH40-TpV8uxrk

Mostly occurs in anaerobic environments when pH gets low can be common with high magnesium and phos. Don't know how prevalent it could be in a septic system, I'm just overly cautious because I have dealt with it in the wastewater field.

 

[Bunnee911]

I have wondered this for years. I try to find a spot to pour it most of the time, but thousands of gallons have been thru my septic system.

 

[ADAM]

If you have dogs just flush 1-2 cups of dog food down the drain a week and you won't have to worry about it anyway. No dogs, then get a gallon of whole milk every 2-4 weeks and let it sit on the counter for 2-3 days (gets chunky!) and pour down the drain. Have had many farmers and several septic contractors over the years tell me these two options, the ingredients in dog food and the bacteria that form in milk both feed the septic bacteria to keep the system running optimally. We had trouble with our septic stopping up about every 18 months, but since I've been doing dog food or milk "feeding" no one has had to work on the septic for 4 years now. BTW with 4 kids and 5 indoor dogs I have a gracious plenty of clorox, soaps and shampoo, and God knows what else going down the drain! HTH

 

[Marquiseo]

Just make a small scale evaporation pond. Pour the water there and let the sun do the rest.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I just dump it off the back porch. I don't care if it kills the weeds. Won't have to cut them as much... they still grow.

 

[brandon429]

All such great input it helps to learn practical outcomes and more boundaries for what bacteria can tolerate

My family was on well water for years during youth, I never knew any of the details other than they wanted certain tp and would add zyme powder. Dog food = neat life hack that would have helped to know 20 yrs ago

 

[ellisz]

I have been on septic systems most of my life and had saltwater tanks for half of that. I worried about it for awhile but at my last house, I had a 300 gal system with a water softener and did not have any issues. I was only doing 30-60 gallons per month so not this is not as much as some but the I have always had a water softener too. We had a pit that pumped up to the lateral field so I worried more about the salt water killing the pump than I did the bacteria. Spent 8 years there and never had an issue.

Just my experience though

 

[Gladmaker]

It's interesting to see that some said the saltwater did not kill their grass and others said it did. In my experience, it does kill the grass. I put it in a graveled area of my drive and it keeps the weeds out. There are weeds in an adjacent graveled area where I do not pour the water.

 

[PedroYoung]

We just rebuilt our house in the woods (both well and septic). I had a grey water drain line run from the fishroom out into the woods that I run both the RO wastewater and saltwater into. It's basically just 3" PVC that runs along the french drain, then runs another 30-40' out into the woods. Our water softener, which is in our pump house, uses about 40 lb of salt every 2 months or so and it discharges right into the woods. I've noticed no adverse effects to the trees or brush after 13 yrs.

 

[S-t-r-e-t-c-h]

It's interesting to see that some said the saltwater did not kill their grass and others said it did. In my experience, it does kill the grass. I put it in a graveled area of my drive and it keeps the weeds out. There are weeds in an adjacent graveled area where I do not pour the water.

Depends on the grass. Some species, like zoysia, are more salt tolerant. I can see a lot of lawns getting destroyed by just dumping your WC water on the grass...

 

[Roy 9121]

Wife and I are in the planning stages to build a house that is on it's own well water and own sewage system. I would like to add a larger tank and a fish room so my water volume will go up and thus waste saltwater would go up. Let's say the 40-50 gallons of saltwater to go down the drain a week. You cannot just dump it out on the grass or you wont have grass much longer.

So how bad is saltwater to a sewage system? Been reading that large amounts of saltwater will kill the bacteria that is required to make a sewage system work properly. So how much is bad or can you just add additives monthly to the septic to keep the saltwater from killing all the "good" bacteria? For people on their own system what do you do?
Thanks.

40 to 50 gallons a week, how big is your tank?
I wouldn't think it would be that big of a problem for most septic systems, but you could try to delude it if you find your having an issue. Maybe try disposing of 5 gallons a day, and not all 50 gallons at one time.

 

[RobertP]

Current tank is 130 gal but I am thinking future and will have a bigger tank at some point. Also planning to build a fish room and use my old 80 gal tank as a bigger fuge, a frag tank, and a big tub for extra live rock so more volume and expecting more waste. Of course if everyone has success with triton method then maybe that is an option and have less waste.

We were planning on installing a water softener so will have waste water there as well. There is a gravel road running adjacent to the property. So if it is a problem it should be pretty simple to drain it there.

 

[Letsarrange1]

I like the drywell idea