248 Septic tanks

Hi

We have had a fossa biologica (septic tank) for 11 years now and it works very well. You should get hold of a product called WC Net - sachets you put down the loo once a week to activate the process or to get rid of smells that they can sometimes throw back. Re cleaning we don't use any bleach based products in the toilet (ie no little blocks for giving you a nice blue flush!) but a quick whoosh round with bathroom cleaner is OK to keep things clean - nothing dire will happen! There are all kinds of tales about the best way to keep your fossa 'activated' included throwing a dead chicken or rabbit in the fossa, but we have never done that - just stick to WC net! By the way, if anyone knows any fossa-compatible cleaner I'd be interested to know.

We had a septic tank in the UK for a long time and nearly all cleaning materials say on the back if they are suitable for septic tanks.

I haven't looked here in Italy but I would assume it is the same as many of the products are actually the same.

I'd heard about the dead wildlife too and have to confess wasn't too keen. I'll look for the sachets!

J.

The sachets are a concentrated bacteria pack and work superbly well, be careful the other products by the same company are suitable for fosse biologica as they may also produce bleach based products which wreak havoc with your bacteria, you wouldn't beleive the problems caused in the UK sewage treatment works because of bleach over usage... if you have a biologica, don't use any bleach based cleaners at all in your waste water system, if you "have" to, then make sure that the following day you bung in another wc net sachet, Ohh yes drop in sachet and flush immediately :)

They break up to a sort of dark brown gooey mess, looks a bit like errrm, I forget the word... :D

I'm intrigued by the comments here bout septic tanks. Our houses in the UK and Italy both have a septic tank, Klargester in the UK, and an unknown make of fossa biologica in Italy - it was installed by the local handyman and he bought a large concrete sectional thing from BigMat.

We read and were told by others much the same information as people have given here - avoid bleach in particular. However, as a former biochemist and microbiologist, I was slighly sceptical both of the claims that bleaching the lavatory would seriously upset the septic tank and by claims that you need to add bacterial gunk to the septic tank.

One reason I'm sceptical of claims about bleach is that the septic tank is very large, contains a lot of organic material - which inactivates bleach, and that the quantity of bleach used would normally be small. Also anyone who has a washing machine and dishwasher is adding large quantities of bleach every time they use the washer. Bleaches are an essential component of washing powder and dishwasher tablets/powder.

As with all things, moderation is essential, glugging gallons of bleach down the lavatory on a daily basis would probably be a bad thing. Use of bleach one a month or so would hardly figure.

We have not avoided bleach in either property, and over a period of 14+ years have never had a problem at either house, nor have we ever used bacterial gunk. The bacterial flora in the septic tank will adapt to the stuff put into it, all by itself.

What *is* important to avoid IMO is the use of a water softener which adds large quantities of salt to the waste water. The bugs in the septic tank aren't salt loving varieties and too much will upset them.

We tend to use caustic soda for cleaning lavatories and the like, simply because it's the cleaner that we use a lot around the farm to get rid of traces of olive oil from storage containers and we have a lot of it around. It's a good cleaner in that it is inactivated fairly rapidly by organic acids in the septic tank - again, use in moderation, and never use on anything that can be attacked by sodium hyroxie (such as aluminium). An alternative for lavatory cleaning is vinegar, the concentrated distilled (white) vinegar or commercial acetic acid is the best. It removes limescale and leaves the lavatory as clean as bleach - it is mildly antiseptic - but again it is inactivated in the septic tank and can even act as a food source for the bugs in the tank.

Just to add my 10 pennyworth.
I seem to remember reading in a magazine a while ago about a family living in France who had an overflowing tank, the problem seemed to be that they had used too much bleach over a period of time and that a crust had formed on the top which stopped the system working properly.
I may be talking out the back of my head so please forgive me.
Stribs

Are lavatory cleaning products even neccesary at all? Despite what the adverts would have you believe, nothing is going to crawl up the sides of the bowl and kill you.
Flush it, brush it, and leave the good guys in the septic tank to do their thing as nature intended :-)

According to the "water treatment lads" I had many dealings with over the years, families in England use about 200% more bleach than they need to, and at sewage treatment works near big cities, this can wreak havoc on the bacteria, especially in the older beds, the new ones, maybe all now, are more tolerant as they use silica sand as opposed to gravel, consequently they have a larger population of bacteria. I also use vinegar and water for general cleaning and caustic for heavier duty stuff (a legacy from hygiene cleaning training when I used to work in the food industry) Ohh, I also use wc net at half the recommendation, unless the family are coming over, at which time I give the system a little boost, speaking of which........... :o
Marc, the theory is that the bacteria cut down on the amount of solid waste which you will eventually have to deal with

I haven't actually found any bleach yet here in puglia ( not just bleach like we buy in Uk )......Alex thought he had found some and i poured it down loo and it nearly blew my head off...it was amonia and should have been diluted 5000 times !!!!!.....I know should have read the label !!!!
What is bleach in italian....not in my 3 dictionaries ( one a huge Collins school type !!!!)....anyone else noticed that not many food stuffs are in the dictioneries...( before you all start I know Bleach isn't food !!!! :rolleyes: )......for example : dragonella......was looking for Tarrogon for weeks then found I already had it !!!! :D

Candeggina = bleach
It can usually be found near washing powders and other cleaning things in fairly bland white bottles.

Thanks to all for the vinegar tip - will try that.
Anne2

[QUOTE=anne2]Candeggina = bleach
It can usually be found near washing powders and other cleaning things in fairly bland white bottles.[/QUOTE]
If you are choosing a bleach t use with a septic tank, it may be worthwhile looking for one based on hydrogen peroxide. Sadly the manufacturers don't like to tell you what is in the products they sell. Normal bleach is sodium hypochlorite and the chlorine is the thing that interferes with the septic tank, since it kills bugs effectively.

There was (in the UK) a bleach named Ace which was hydrogen peroxide. Sadly, the bleach with the same name in Italy is the wrong sort. However browsing ingredients should help if it says ipoclorite (I think that's the way it is listed it is no good for a septic tank). I can't remember just now what peroxide is in Italian, but usually there are references to oxygen on the bottle.

from what i understand we should review our waste system as we have the toilet, shower and washing machine waste going in the same tank (old house)!! We thought it was wrong but we have been told that everybody (not quite!) has it like that. Would the vinegar and the sachets do the trick and save redoing the whole system?

Ciao

Nat