Can anyone here that has an Aerobic system, be it a from the start of it's life Aerobic one. Or a traditional anerobic that was changed over to Aerobic system, can you describe a few things.

1- What does the "Stuff" in the tank in the Aerobic "Look" like?

2- I have read that an Aerobic system has a different "Smell" Can anyone describe this Different Smell?

Thanks

 

Have we been through this before? Reading back on your threads I believe we have.

1. semi clear but we are talking multi chambered tanks or aeration of a seepage pit. If you try to aerate the single tank you will have a soupy mess on your hands that will probably just clog the feild..

2. No smell. No sewage smell to be exact..

Are we beating a dead horse?

What specifically are you trying to do, learn, or attempt?

 

For reference only this vid shows the color of the effluent in a multi chamber aerobic system.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVG_X9Ns1XI

 

I'm sorry to be asking so many questions. But I'm trying to compare my results, with what others have. I will make a formal posting after this continues to run more to see if anything changes.

I fully understand the aerating a single tank with a bubbler system is an absolute NO GO!

But I also remember someone describing the smell of their Aerobic system. How it indeed did not smell septic sewerage at all, but had a different "Smell" But searching for it, I can not find what the description was. But someone did describe it.

 

Yes I had trouble trying to explain the smell. Mine is musty..


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobic_treatment_system

 

OK, Musty, kind of like earthy, like the smell of good black dirt after rototilling or plowing.
Not 100% nice smell like fresh mown hay makes a pleasant smell and thoughts. but earthy, dirty, damp basement maybe smell? sound good?

 

Ok, This is what has happened. As you all know if following the earlier postings bla bla bla, I know that aerating a single 750 gallon tank is absolutely a NO-GO! So never went there. And it was getting worse by the week. So one last ditch effort to try to remedy this and right now I'm thinking I was 100% successful! It was getting so bad that it was starting to pond in the yard.This is what I did.

First I had the tank emptied. In the usual way. Big sucker truck. And I waited for the leech field to drain down. It eventually did most of the way, And I snaked a camera into the "D" box to take a look. And I saw the inlet and a single outlet. That was like 75% full of it. If you know what I mean.

So I got a high pressure hose and jetted that exit, Not having the truck still here like as seen in many videos, I just ran it till it went back into the tank itself, took lots of time and LOTS of water, filled the tank close to half way by the time it was done, and pretty clear water coming out.

Ran the camera in again, and discovered that I'm amazed that this leech field worked at all never mind since 1973. The leech field totally consists on a single line that is only 25 feet long. THATS IT!

OK, the Ultimate plan is to convert this into an aerobic system for the efficiency and eating up of the bio-mat right? So, Now I ran a 50 pound bag of the sodium perchlorate divided up into 4 once a day doses, with just enough water from a garden hose being injected into the field via this vent pipe "D" box area just fast enough to keep it wet and flushed into that 25 foot pipe. and none back into the tank.

I let this keep "Flushing for two days after the last dose of the powder. Then I let it go dry for two days. A quick camera look and like 75% or more of the gunk was gone.

I did a short flush with the pressure hose again just a short one to chase any loose stuff out and get the system moist again, and then ran,,, Off the top of my head I cant remember the name of the active chemical ingredient. But it was the stuff that is supposed to remove the hard pan stuff. I ran that in, and again kept it flushed and moist for two more days.

Let it dry and another camera look, Looking even better.

OK, now this is close to what everyone else has done. And the system is more or less still anerobic.

OK, the next two steps I had to wait till the tank was up to the exit line and sending effluent to the field again.

Once it did start this is what I did, First I added a Robec product that was as advertised to "Open Clogged Drain Fields" And it as claimed adds beneficial both anerobic as well as aerobic bugs. and is supposed to treat 1500 gallons! It went into the "D" box Zero gallons, it's not really a box but is a 4" "TEE" so the 1500 gallon treatment went into a 25 foot long 4" diameter piece of pipe. Strong! Yup Not sure the best to do but if it was to work, I bet it kicked it's ass.

Next was something that many have tried, but havent heard of results was areation of the "D" box area and leech field.

I took as simple as this sounds the largest fish tank air pump I could find, added to the two ends of the air hose two air stones, so there are 4 air stones. they looked like these.


I snaked them into the leech field itself so they were dead center in the middle of that 25 foot long pipe. And started the pump.

Now I added a blower ( actually a sucker ) to the top of that vent pipe. That will keep pulling fresh oxygen laden air throughout the whole system. It pulls air out via that vent pipe at the "T" or the equivalent of the "D" box. The only path the air can enter the system is via the main vent stack at the head end of the house, and via a vent that is in the septic tank itself. Smoke tracing shows a large flow into the tank via this vent. So much flow, that calculations has a complete air change in the tank is happenening every two minutes.!

The Idea was since I cant areate the single tank. Don't want to mix up the mess right? But I thought like a lagoon maybe I can still benefit some? Like in this drawing of the system in a lagoon.

Where near the surface some aerobic avtivity happens and deep down some anaerobic does, and there is some mixing of both. Hey cant hurt to try right?

Now to give the whole system a head start, I added 25 pounds of the perchlorate to the tank, and again to the vent pipe at the leech field, and added a dose of aerobic bacteria to both areas also.

Then the wait began to see what happens. As many thought, the smell sometimes was pretty bad. especially if the wind was blowing the right or should i say wrong direction towards the house on a nice 90 degree summer day UG!

Everything was looking normal. I saw no differences in the tank. The usual thick "Scum" layer that was like ohhh 6" thick or so? But the "Field" was draining just fine. just a say 1/4 inch layer of "Water" in the pipe at all times. Never got any deeper. This continued for quite a while. Along with the smell. UG!
Then ohh two weeks or so ago, suddenly something happened. No more smell. I havent looked at it in a few days, so thought maybe the air system died from the noxious gasses passing through it. But No it's still running,, the bubbler is still running, the flow level is still 1/4 inch in the field box. huh? but the air coming out that vent pipe is very different. It;s like i said below, a musty earth like fresh black dirt rototilling smell.

i go and open the septic tank, and what I see amazes me. The scum layer is totally gone! Nothing at all, no what looks like floating icebergs etc.. Nothing but this dark blackish "water" with hundreds of bubbles on it, this is what it now looks like,

I take samples at various depths of this "Water" from the surface all the way to the bottom. and from the surface all the way down till I get say a foot from the bottom. is just clear water that when held up to the light has just a tint of a blackish haze. any particles are too small to see by the naked eye, so it's like a black smoke, barely even noticeable. Interesting.

Now the big question is, what happened? and it all seems "Good" field is draining, no bad smell. I guess only time will tell.