My daughter and son-in-law has just had a new mound septic tank system installed on their rural property in MN.

Does it need any type of "starter" to make the system work effectively from the start? They have not moved into their house yet.

Thank you.

 

They should talk to the installers of the system. Mound systems are engineered and require maintenance and inspection depending on the type of system they have. Because of their "non standard" nature and special needs many counties are beginning to require homeowners to have maintenance contracts with a company certified to service them.

 

I had a mound system when I lived in fla [as did most of my neighbors] and for the most part it works just like a normal system. The only trouble I had with mine in the 13 yrs that I lived there was due to an improperly installed drain field.

In my non professional opinion nothing needs to be done although I always figure it doesn't hurt to dump in a packet of yeast to help jump start it.

 

Here in Vermont, the "mound" is the drain field.

 

The way mine was [I assume most are the same] is I had a partially buried tank [over half was above grade] and then sand/gravel was brought in to elevate the drain field.

The idiots that installed mine [before I bought] laid the drainfield on top of the gravel and then covered it with dirt/seed. I had to redo that portion along with adding 40' more feet. It worked great after that!

 

The contractor that constructed my septic system, threw in a dead rotting road kill into the septic tank to act as a starter. Septic worked fine for decades. He told me that the first time the septic tank is cleaned, the bones and anything left would be sucked out.

 

It is not certain whether the bones of the roadkill will have each not remained whole.

The septic may have worked fine for decades but having not touched it for so long you are not certain whether the leach field has started to degrade from fine particulate matter and grease (sludge and scum) that came out of the septic tank because the quantities of those materials got to the point where some floated at about the vertical level of the output pipe.

 

Slightly off-topic . . . . but still related; I have a 1997 Newspaper Article from Hopkinton, Rhode Island where a man murdered his next door neighbor and stuffed her body down into the main cleanout of her septic tabk (weighed down with tire chains) in order to inherit her estate. (I guess she had befriended him because he took care of her dogs).

Years later, the new Owners smelled something odd in their backyard, and decided to have the septic tank pumped. The first thing that the Septic Serviceman encountered when he opened the main cleanout was the floating skull of the former Owner, which had come loose from her spine.

So no, all of the bones probably won't decompose.

I could upload the whole article . . . . but the Moderators would probably bump it.

I can't make this stuff up !