Your home’s septic tank performs two functions when waste leaves the house. The first is the tank allowing solid matter to settle at the bottom. This called a “sludge” layer. While this sludge layer forms, liquids will rise to the top to form a “scum” layer. The layer that forms between the sludge and the scum is called effluent.
The second function of the tank is to break down the solids and destroy the pathogens present during the process. This is done with a bacterium that naturally occurs in the entire system.
As this process begins within the tank, the effluent will enter what is called the “soil treatment phase,” wherein it enters the drainfield and baffles keep larger floating solids out. A distribution pipe laid in a trench that is partially filled with gravel and covered with topsoil will serve as the site where most of the pathogens are destroyed. Effluent is percolated through the gravel bed where most of these pathogens are destroyed by the aerobic bacteria in the drainfield.
After this step, the effluent then enters the soil that surrounds the gravelly drainfield, where present bacteria finalize the breakdown process. By this time, the effluent has traveled three feet through the soil, a process that obliterates all pathogens and leaves behind nothing but filtered water.
How Chemicals Disrupt this Process
When you introduce harmful chemicals to your septic treatments, you defeat the entire purpose of this process. Necessary bacterial colonies are intended to digest the sludge and solids, but these chemical treatments instead loosen the blockages and force the solids to go further into the drainfield. This only creates problems in the long term.
How A Septic Cleaning Company can Help
Products used by a professional company digest organic matter at a rate of about 100 pounds per day, and allow for much-needed bacterium and enzymes to thrive within the tank and drainfield. Additionally, these products contain trillions of necessary bacteria per gallon, a number that doubles every thirty minutes to aggressively attack the sludge, effluent and other forms of waste that enter your septic system. This helps to restore your system to “like-new” condition.
