No matter the style of septic system installed on your property routine maintenance is a must. As a form of preventative maintenance it is recommended that you clean out your system on a regular basis. We suggest doing so every 3-5 years, but the actual time varies household to household depending on the number of persons that regularly utilize the system, and/or their water usage rate.

Whether you have a conventional or aerobic septic system the first tank in series is designed to specifically 'trap' all of the large solids and retain them from entering the following tanks in your system. As these solids collect it necessitates cleaning out the system by pumping the tanks completely dry. Failure to maintain the amount of solids inside this tank can result in plumbing back-ups and poor quality effluent being discharged on your property.

If you have a conventional system the following tanks provide a still, motionless environment to promote even further settling of solids and anaerobic digestion of organic matter. This allows for only a colorless effluent to feed the fieldlines of your septic system. The results of this further digestion is a sludge buildup that will also necessitate pumping of the system.

Today only aerobic septic systems can be installed in our area; if you have sprinklers or an air compressor, this is the style system you own. The tank following the solids tank in these type of systems is the aerobic treatment unit (ATU). The ATU is where the activated sludge process takes place, where air is pushed into the tank to promote the colonization of aerobic bacteria which digests the organic matter and ammonia in the wastewater. The ATU includes a partition called the clarifier; another still, motionless chamber following the aeration stage where the undigested matter can settle to the bottom. This settling again causes a sludge to form that needs to regularly be removed from the system.

Following the ATU the treated effluent then flows into the pump tank. In perfect situations the sludge buildup is minimal, but very seldom is this the case. Many homeowners have periods of peak flow through their system. The septic system is designed, in most cases, to handle peak flows and the effluent quality is minimally effected. One thing these peak flows can cause is inadequate retention time of the effluent in the clarifier and unsettled matter to pass through to the pump tank. This results in sludge that will settle to the bottom, but necessitates pumping once it is around 8"-12" thick as the effluent pumps are not designed to pump solids.