Septic System Vent Maintenance Tips and Tricks

Living with a septic tank, while hardly “roughing it,” does require some extra care that our friends with sewer lines don’t think about. Fortunately, there are some tips and tricks to make life easier with a septic tank. We have five septic tank hacks to keep it working well that we think you’ll appreciate.

Go With the Low Flow

“Work smarter, not harder” is an axiom that we can apply to our jobs, our chores, and our water fixtures. By installing low-flow faucets, valves, and toilets in your home, you’ll put less strain on your septic system by sending less water to the tank. What’s more, the water savings will pay for the investments over time.

Dishwasher Deterrent

Fitting all your dirty dishes in the dishwasher can be a little like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, only without the satisfaction of looking at a Scottish castle when you’re done. It’s tempting to run multiple loads rather than one high-capacity load, but these surges of water and detergent are hard on a septic system. Only do the dishes when there’s no empty space on the racks.

Bubbling Baking Soda

Let’s take a trip back through time—set the controls for your second-grade science fair. Remember the volcano you made with baking soda, vinegar, and food coloring? This neat trick is now a useful lifehack. Eighty-six the red dye and stick to the acid-base reaction, which unclogs your pipes without damaging your septic tank and its delicate ecosystem. Send ½ cup baking soda down the drain, followed by a cup of vinegar a few minutes later. Give the mix time to react before flushing. This will push tough clogs through without the caustic chemicals of drain cleaners.

Septic System or Failing Vaudeville Act?

Let’s talk more about your septic tank’s ecosystem. To function properly, a septic tank relies on a bacterial colony to process waste. However, you can bolster that colony with—of all things—rotten tomatoes. If you’ve had some tomatoes in the fridge that never made their way into a salad or pasta sauce, don’t lob them at a bad comedian! Grind them up as healthy reinforcements for your septic system, where their enzymes will fortify your system’s ability to break down solids. That’s no joke.

The Yeast of Your Worries

If visions of ground-up rotten tomatoes don’t appeal to you, there’s a more discreet way to shore up your system. Simply flush about ½ cup of dry yeast down the toilet, where it’ll get to work by digesting starches present in the tank, just as a yeast culture digests the starches in dough. Just don’t expect the smell of fresh-baked bread to emanate from beneath your yard.

The DIY approach can only take you so far. Our five septic tank hacks to keep it working well should serve you well, but eventually, even the best-kept septic system needs pumping. When your sludge levels are so high that no tomatoes can come to your rescue, call on our septic pumping services to give your Tampa-area tank a fresh start.