Effect of salt water aquariums on septic systems?

[Highside]

We are looking at building a new house in a rural area that would require a septic system. I'm thinking that 5 to 10 gallons of salt water down the drain every week wouldn't be good. Anyone have any input on this?

[DMBillies]

I don't know about the effect on the system, but if you live in a rural area, you could probably find a place to just dump it outside... which is essentially what a septic system is doing.

[918ReefCpl]

depends how much other grey/black water is going into the tank to dilute the 10 gal of salt water....you could upset the biological chemistry in the septic tank - do you get it pumped out annually or additives (bacteria etc)? If you dump it into the outside, the salt will eventually build up unless you have enough rainfall to leach the salts farther into the ground - usually causes grass to turn brown as we had a salt water pool (no chlorine) and backwashed into the backyard and where the drain from the pool hose was the grass hasnt grown back yet...

[DMBillies]

Yeah, it definitely will kills grass and other plants... I was thinking along the lines of digging a hole for the water to leech into or finding a place that already doesn't have anything growing in it.

[Mikeyjer]

Dump it on the road then sweep the salt away once it's dried. Do watch where you dump it cause it can be very damaging since it can erode stuff....

[NeveSSL]

Originally posted by 918ReefCpl
If you dump it into the outside, the salt will eventually build up unless you have enough rainfall to leach the salts farther into the ground - usually causes grass to turn brown as we had a salt water pool (no chlorine) and backwashed into the backyard and where the drain from the pool hose was the grass hasnt grown back yet...

Holy cow at the light bulbs I can see going off in peoples heads right now...

One went off in mine, anyway... only to be very quickly put out...

Brandon

[Lint_Licker]

dump it down your driveway and around the end of your driveway. Salty driveway and driveway entrance=no ice

[NeveSSL]

Thats a really good idea...

Brandon

[Pickupman66]

that is a big no no on the salt in the septic. If not greatly diluted with other fresh water you will kill all the bacteria in the tank that is used to disolve and break down the solids in the tank. IT is not that you are just doing 10 gallons per week, but 10 gallons in a very potent concentratin over about a 3 minute time span on a weekly basis that gets you in trouble. If you are rural, andhave a "thicket" of trees, I would dump in there or in the culvert.

[bluetmax]

I just stumbled across this thread when I searched for new posts. I think you should post this under the advanced topics forum. I have often wondered this same thing, and I think this could instigate a lively debate. lol

[xroads]

I have one with no ill effects. Remember your urine has a salinity of 1.30.

[bluetmax]

Yes, but a few people urinating throughout the day is not the same as doing a 30+ gallon water change at once. I always dump my waste water from the aquariums down the drain, but I still wonder if anyone has actually done any studies of it.

[Newlin]

I'm trying to figure out how you know what the salinity of urine is. Get bored one night? I'm kidding, I too have a septic but I never put saltwater down the drain. I just dump it outside on the gravel drive where I don't want grass or anything growing.

[NeveSSL]

I don't know about you all, but I urinate 10 gallons a week.



Brandon

[fallinapart]

Originally posted by NeveSSL
I don't know about you all, but I urinate 10 gallons a week.



Brandon

Information Overload!

[Fishboy42]

Originally posted by NeveSSL
I don't know about you all, but I urinate 10 gallons a week.

I hope not all at once?!

When I was growing clowns at the house, I poured about 100-200g of saltwater a week into our septic system with no problems, and I still dump a lot of saltwater down the drain for quarantine/personal tanks. But...since it was/is so regular, I figure that we have a brackish community of decomposers living in there...

I don't know if I could recommend it, but with the amount of saltwater I was putting down there, one would think that if it was bad for septic tanks, we would have had some issues. The grass over the drainfield grew really well during that time as well

Matt

We do have an extra-large tank and drainfield though; you know how much we ETRC'ers like to eat

[waynesworld]

Well I dump mine outside and never have any problem with grass growing if I had a nice yard I would put it in the driveway if it is gravel. I use to live in MN and they dump salt on the roads all the time in the winter.

[Mikeyjer]

Originally posted by waynesworld
Well I dump mine outside and never have any problem with grass growing if I had a nice yard I would put it in the driveway if it is gravel. I use to live in MN and they dump salt on the roads all the time in the winter.

Yea I remember back in South Dakota and Iowa, they did the samething....dumping a lot of salt on the roads during winter time.....

[MGM_]

Softeners discharge brine directly to septics. Typically 40-70 gallons per regen. I would limit the quantities discharged at one time but normal water changes should have minimal effect.

Researchers from NSF found that brine wastes had no negative effects on the bacterial population living in the aerobic treatment tank, even when the system was loaded with twice the normal amount of brine. The tests determined that water softener wastes actually help with treatment processes. WQA’s final report states that the wastewater has “a beneficial influence on a septic tank system by stimulating biological action in the septic tank and caused no operational problems in the typical anaerobic or the new aerobic septic tanks.” In other words, the researchers in this study found that microorganisms living and working in a home aerobic treatment system are not harmed by water softener salts.

Researchers also found that the additional amount of water discharged to a treatment tank during the regeneration process had no negative impact. The question concerned whether the volume and flow rate of the regeneration brine might overload the system and cause carry over of solids into the drainfield. The study found that the volume of water discharged was comparable to or less than that from many automatic washing machines and other household appliances. Researchers also found that the wastewater flowed into the treatment tank slowly enough so that it caused minimal disturbance.

http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/gndwater/pri...m%20Owners.htm

[poolkeeper1]

Who dug this old thread up? Haven't seen a lot of those people lately!
Bill

[Jennifier615]

I think you are confused in this right.....Your urine has a SPECIFIC GRAVITY of 1.010-1.30+ depending on the amount of dissolved solids (sodium only being a small percentage of these analytes).

Originally Posted by xroads

I have one with no ill effects. Remember your urine has a salinity of 1.30.

[poolkeeper1]

Don't that depend on how much Beer you drink?
Bill

[NeedBiggerTank]

LOL Bill

[jeremyblu]

you can add salt water to a septic but the best thing to do is back it up with some ridx or other type of bactira i dump about 15 gallons a week down mine and i have my tank pumped ever 3 or 4 years

[ZachB]

Originally Posted by NeveSSL

I don't know about you all, but I urinate 10 gallons a week.



Brandon

It scares me to wonder how you would measure or know such a thing

Originally Posted by poolkeeper1

Don't that depend on how much Beer you drink?
Bill

lol