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Do you know of any natural septic tank treatments?

Matt McSpadden

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posted 6 hours ago

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Have you ever used a natural septic tank treatment that you would recommend?

I am looking to give our septic tank a little pep talk and help the good bacteria do their thing. I see a gajillion treatment products online. Many tout to be all natural. I'm looking to see if anyone had tried any of them? Or are there simpler options that I simply have not thought of? Do they even work?

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r ransom

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posted 5 hours ago

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Wow, i learned something new that people buy treatments. I didn't know that was a thing.

I was always taught to empty the half a container of old yogurt from the back of the fridge down the toilet every other month or whenever the yoghurt, sourkraut, sourcream, or other forgotten fermented food goes nasty.

There have been times when we bought a 1 ltr plane yoghurt to flush down the toilet if the feild isn't smelling great to get us through a few weeks until the guy can bring the big truck. It often works well enough the guy didn't find anything wrong when he finally showed up.

But now we live with only people who are septic trained, we have less problems with unfriendly (like not septic specific toilet paper or strong cleaning acids/alkili) stuff going down the drain. So we haven't needed to give it a boost.

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Timothy Norton

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posted 5 hours ago

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I'm a no treatment kind of guy.

I try not to send anything to the septic that could throw off the biological balance and haven't had issues in years. The only time I have seen references to treatments is from sources that are trying to sell me the treatment.

My system is old (1920-1960?) but functions well.

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Ali Green

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posted 5 hours ago

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I've not lived with a septic tank, but grew up in a community where a lot of people did (including my grandparents). A bit of wisdom I heard and stuck in my brain was that if you were having problems/ some people said every x number of years, you should chuck something dead in the septic tank. This was generally road kill or the guts of something that had been shot.
I have also recently started a bokashi bin for food waste, and from my research beforehand, the liquid given off can be great for boosting the microbial action of septic tanks, and can even unblock drains.

Carla Burke

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posted 4 hours ago

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My dad was also one to toss something dead into the septic tank, once it twice/ year. I switched from toilet paper to bidet & cloth, nothing goes in but bodily waste. The number one best thing, after a very strict 'no chemicals' rule, (according to the septic guy who emptied the tank at my rental, the last time I needed that's done in 1999!), is to control the amount of water going in. The more water that goes down, unnecessarily, the more diluted the beneficial bacterial become, the more troubles you'll have. I've followed his advice ever since, and haven't needed my septic tanks emptied, in the 3 homes I've lived in, since.

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Matt McSpadden

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Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

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posted 4 hours ago

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r ransom wrote:Wow, i learned something new that people buy treatments. I didn't know that was a thing.

I was always taught to empty the half a container of old yogurt from the back of the fridge down the toilet every other month or whenever the yoghurt, sourkraut, sourcream, or other forgotten fermented food goes nasty.

There have been times when we bought a 1 ltr plane yoghurt to flush down the toilet if the feild isn't smelling great to get us through a few weeks until the guy can bring the big truck. It often works well enough the guy didn't find anything wrong when he finally showed up.

And sometimes people just forget about fermented food as an option :) I was thinking maybe kefer or sauerkraut, but I don't make those and buying seemed expensive. We do go through a good amount of yogurt though, and occasionally they go bad in the back of the fridge... I will keep this in mind.

Matt McSpadden

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Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

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posted 4 hours ago

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Ali Green wrote:... A bit of wisdom I heard and stuck in my brain was that if you were having problems/ some people said every x number of years, you should chuck something dead in the septic tank. This was generally road kill or the guts of something that had been shot...

Carla Burke wrote:My dad was also one to toss something dead into the septic tank, once it twice/ year...

This is why I ask questions :), I would never have thought about throwing some roadkill down there... but I can see how it would help. I'm going to keep this in mind too.

Matt McSpadden

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Location: Central Maine (Zone 5a)

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posted 4 hours ago

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Timothy Norton wrote:I'm a no treatment kind of guy.

I try not to send anything to the septic that could throw off the biological balance and haven't had issues in years...

This is what I aim for... unfortunately I live with people who do not think the same way as I do... and when I have my kids... it's a bit more than the system was designed for. So I end up needing to do some extra work to try and avoid some extra pumping.

r ransom

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posted 57 minutes ago

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A family member reminded me, we also buy yogurt for the septic feild if someone's on antibiotics.

Often we talk with the dairy guy in the grocery store. Here the can sell up to the best before date, but policy says they have to take it off the shelf two days before. We can usually get old stuff half price.

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