Hello permies,
I have a 300-litre septic tank that receives both a toilet flush and greywater from the kitchen, washing machine and bathroom. The manufacturers of the tank (Biodysa, we're in Mexico)
sell pucks of compressed bacteria that we're supposed to add each month to keep the system going. Biodysa clearly use the drug pusher's business model "first time's free" and the tank came with ten pucks... and now that I'm down to the last one and want to re-order I learn that each puck costs the equivalent of USD$13.
Rebelling at this expense I looked on Mercado Libre (the
local Amazon equivalent) and found that there are lots of alternatives out there, cheaper. But what do the bacteria actually do, and can I buy any type, say from Green Pig? The other manufacturers state that their bacterial mixes break down the solids and stop the outflow sludge from blocking pipes. But my main concern isn't really the consistency of the stuff but the vigorous pathogens that proliferate around here - what I'm after is having them dead and beneficial bacteria thriving instead. The outflow from the septic tank goes into a little reed bed and from there to a 4-m soakaway pit where it's got to go through 300 m of clay soil before filtrating into the
water table, so that doesn't worry me overmuch. But we also have the option of harvesting water (after the reed bed) for watering plants, so that's the point of possible contamination.
Ideally we could brew our own bacterial mix or ferment of bokashi for this - so hence my Permies question. Would you advise making a DIY septic tank booster? If so, with what recipe?
The septic tank is part of a self-contained system described in exhaustive detail here:
https://permies.com/t/139237/Urban-greywater-biodigester-rainwater-harvest#1391334
Grateful for tips, good people!
Emilia
