Had the tank pumped for the first time since we bought the place, watched them empty it completely, and felt very smug about it. Lifted the lid nine days later out of curiosity and the liquid is nearly back up to the outlet pipe. Two adults, normal water use, nothing unusual. Is it refilling that fast because something is wrong, or is this just what it does?
Since you have the lid off habits: check it once a year but don't make a routine of leaning over an open tank. The gas coming off it is genuinely dangerous in confined spaces and people underestimate it every summer. Look, close it, walk away.
Write the date on the inside of a cupboard door or take a photo of the invoice. In four years you will not remember, and that is how people end up in your position wondering when it was last done.
It also needs to be full to work. The bacteria that break things down live in that liquid, and the tank separates solids by letting them settle in standing water. A dry tank digests nothing.
Which is also why the additives that promise to restock your bacteria are mostly a waste of money. You reseed it every time you use the bathroom.
@pumptest_pat · 4d ago · 3 replies
That's what it does. A septic tank is meant to be full of liquid up to the invert of the outlet pipe at all times, and everything above that line is just air. Pumping empties it, and then it refills to the outlet and stops.
Two adults using a normal 150-odd gallons a day will refill a 1000 gallon tank in about a week. Nine days is exactly on schedule. What you actually paid for was removing the sludge on the bottom and the crust on top, not for it to stay empty.
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@pumptest_pat · 3d ago
Right. The level you worry about is above the outlet, up in the riser, because that means the water isn't leaving. If it's sitting exactly at the pipe, the system is doing its job.
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@solo_supper · 3d ago
That is a relief and also slightly embarrassing. So the level being at the outlet is the healthy state, not the warning sign.
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