Mike Byrne

John F Dean wrote:Pete has provided some reasonable advice. I would like to see a little more info. How many people will be using the house?   Is the soil Sandy, clay, etc?

Most of the time one person, me, and the occasional visitor. In reality it will probably be empty more than occupied, at least for the next several years. The soil is volcanic, a little bit of sand and doesn't seem to have too much clay, although I'm not too well schooled on that.
I can say it drains quickly, even after very heavy tropical rains there is never any water pooling on the ground, or muddy patches. It was used years ago for sugar cane growing, and for most of the year just about anything grows, and very fast.

Pete Podurgiel wrote:If the tank you purchased doesn't have a baffle, I would consider adding one to the outlet (if possible) so solids don't flow out into the leach field and clog up your pipes.
If unable to add a baffle, might be a good idea to add some kind of clean-out or inspection cover/access to the 4" PVC just in case.

On the inlet side there's a Tee, the down section has about 16" of tube on it, on the outlet side there is an elbow with about 6" of tube (from memory) pointing down. There's a decent height above and distant from the creek, it's very unlikely it would ever get anywhere near the level of the drain field.

And thanks for the info about the pipes.

First of all, there are no regulations where I live for septic tanks, and for many people they just run a drain from the house into the nearest creek. I'm not doing that, however.

I'm also not paying a plumber, and the local builder that I spoke to about building a tank knew less that than me.

So far I have installed a 1100 liter tank, it's a single chamber as they are the only ones you can buy here. The house will probably never have more than 3 people in it, most of the time only 1 person. There is no frost ever. There's a small dirty creek running just over the back fence, and the tank is installed about 12m from the house, slightly downhill. There are no wells or water sources anywhere near me.

As far as I know I can't buy perforated pipe here, so I'm planning on just buying about 18 m of  orange 4" PVC drain pipe and drilling two rows of holes, about 120 degrees apart for my drain field. What size holes should I make and how far apart should they be spaced? Should the ends of the pipes be capped? Anything else I should know?

Thanks in advance
Mike  

In Guatemala the water gives travelers the runs, but by drinking a very little (1/4 glass) one day, then two days later increase that to 1/2 a glass, then two days rest and then another half glass, etc, you build up resistance or get your stomach acquainted with the local bugs and can then drink water straight from the tap (most of the time). By starting with a small dose and giving yourself a day between initial doses, even if you get a bit "loose" it's not serious.

For rinsing dishes it's no problem, even brushing teeth, if you don't swallow it.