Luna Environmental

Here’s a 60 second break down of your aerobic septic system from the inside tank by tank.

We call these inspections “advanced system inspections” mostly because of what you see in this video.

Aerators sit inside of the aeration chamber of the aerobic system are need to be pulled out, disconnected, and cleaned inside and out.

The shaft you see is cleaning is easy to break/bend, and in our experience, this is the easiest part to skip in this inspection because it takes a while to clean it properly.

It doesn’t look like it, but all that brown material is actually fabric softener and soaps… this is how it clings to the aerator and appears over time. Nasty, brown, and sudsy when washed with water.

If you have a “surface application” septic system that means you’ve got sprinklers. The treated waste water will ultimately be distributed through sprinkler heads in your yard.

Broken sprinklers are one of the more common problems we see on any maintenance inspection. This is a great example.

If you’re getting high water levels in your pump tank, pooling water in your yard around a sprinkler head, or just see the sprinkler spraying in crazy directions… it might look like this.

A common reason for red alarm lights is a clogged pump filter. You can see in this video the filter on the bottom of the pump - it’s totally covered with solids.

A pump filter like this is going to have a hard time pulling liquid waste water up and out of the system for obvious reasons.

Making sure this is clean and clear is necessary. Without your pump working at full capacity, you’re going to experience rising water levels and ultimately increase the probability of an alarm light.

It’s a simple fix and a quick check box during our maintenance inspections… In the world of septic it’s the small things that add up that end up leading to big problems.

How much chlorine should you put in your aerobic septic system?

Let's first talk about the systems that require chlorine TABLETS... those white hockey pucks that smell too strong.

Our technician's GENERAL rule of thumb is: Around 1-2 tablets per 2 person household per month. Obviously each household puts a different level of strain on their system and that general rule can be adjusted for your situation, but that is a simple place to start so you can find a baseline.

Those chlorine tablets are designed as a final disinfection stage before the waste water is distributed through a surface application system. IN GENERAL, chlorine is only required for surface application systems, so if you know your septic system uses sprinklers... you need chlorine.

If you see these green circles in your yard, you have an aerobic septic system. We call these RISERS.

This is the access port to the inside of your system, and it COULD BE why you have so many red alarm lights going off.

The truth is, these lids are designed to be LIFTED off the ground, not FLUSH with the ground.

We get red light calls CONSTANTLY after heavy rain because these lids are sitting flush with the ground and have water leak into the tank almost every time it rains.

Simple fix: Install some risers that lift this port. Simple and permanent.

One of the most common reasons your aerobic septic system is discharging the waste water at the INCORRECT time is this… your timer is off.

Anytime there is a power outage your system’s timer is going to be off moving forward. That means you might be spraying effluent in the middle of the day rather than the middle of the night.

This is also one of the most common corrections we make during our maintenance inspections.

If your system is spraying or discharging at the wrong time, this is the first thing we check.

Inside of your aerobic septic system, the waste water starts in the waste tank. This is the first chamber in the system that receives everything from the house. In that waste tank sewage separates into 3 parts: Scum on top, sludge on bottom, and waste water in the middle.

After the waste tank, the liquid waste water in the middle flows to the aeration chamber. Here we pump air into the system to aid the growth of aerobic bacteria.

After the aeration chamber the effluent (waste water) flows to the clarifier chamber. The clarifier chamber flows finally to the pump tank where the final treated waste water is distributed through sprinklers or a drip system.

Here's what it looks like.😀

Training day. Here our technician is describing how to take a solids sample from your aerobic septic system.

The big straw is what we call a SLUDGE JUDGE. It takes a vertical sample of the entire chamber and shows us in real time what the solid build up looks like in the tank.

This is the only way we can know for sure if it's time to pump out the system or not.

The key in taking this vertical sample is not to stir up the waste water too much. Too much stirring and we don't get as accurate of a reading as we want... we'll have to wait for those solids to settle again before taking another sample. Easy does it with these vertical samples... straight down, and straight up.

Inside this waste tank you see the sanitary T. The is the pipe that pours everything from your house into your aerobic septic system.

If and when this gets clogged it can cause back ups into your house. The most sinister part is that it won’t set off the red light alarm :/ red lights are only triggered with high water in the pump tank.