Water Testing and Fixing help PLEASE!

DenpasarHouse

When I open my shower, I get a sewer-like smell for the first 10 seconds. Then the smell goes away. Does anyone know a good plumber who can solve this? I have also been looking for a place to get water testing done, but I can't find it

This is exactly what happens in my showers if we haven't used the hot water in a few days. I'm almost certain the problem is caused by a bacteria growing in the hot water heater where they release sulphur/rotten-egg gas. I can tell it's not a contamination problem with the bore because both the cold and hot water originate from there and the cold water has no smell. Here's a good explanation and a possible cure. Basically you need to disinfect your hot water system (and probably the hot water pipes too) with hydrogen peroxide. How to Fix Rotten Egg Smell in your Water

DenpasarHouse

Markit wroteI often read of people pumping out their septic tank and wonder why? (I know, get a life, right?) My septic tank(s) are about 3 meters long and about a meter wide with 2 or 3 steps in them and the last step is open to the earth. Concept is that the waste is progressively rendered biologically neutral and then on the last step allowed to soak into the earth.

The problem is that not everything breaks down in the first chamber. It will eventually fill up with solids and need to be emptied (approximately once every 5 years, but it depends). I think you can get almost complete breakdown if you constantly aerate the sewage water in the first chamber but having an air pump running 24/7 is more costly and complicated than just getting a truck to pump out the waste once every 5 years.

Markit wrote . . . can't even get at it if I wanted to as no access cover.

This drove me nuts when they were building our septic tank. Typical Indonesian short-sightedness. I had to become an expert in septic tanks within 24 hours so as not to get stuck with a basic design that would be a huge job to dig up and repair. It's not even that hard to add an access hatch.

davita

Markit wroteI often read of people pumping out their septic tank and wonder why? (I know, get a life, right?) My septic tank(s) are about 3 meters long and about a meter wide with 2 or 3 steps in them and the last step is open to the earth. Concept is that the waste is progressively rendered biologically neutral and then on the last step allowed to soak into the earth. No pumping required, can't even get at it if I wanted to as no access cover.

Septic tanks can eventually get sludged-up and require cleaning out to get better efficiency....this may take years depending on usage. Normally they have an inspection cover in which a hose can be inserted and connected to a portable tanker with a suction pump and the sludge is dumped in an environmentally safe way. In Bali that is probably anywhere unseen on the beach, or old prawn farms in Amed.....:cupcake:

YPDN

There isn't just one design for septic tanks, ergo, different on-going maintenance required. When I developed a property about 28 years ago I put in 2 septic tanks, side by side, connected near the top. The process was that the input from the house to the tanks entered tank A and stayed there, roughage and all. (poo 'n paper, etc) Each of the tanks had a concrete hanging wall in the middle and the idea was when more came into tank A, any overflow of liquids would mingle with the second side of tank A and also there was an overflow to tank B. The idea/plan was to end up with clear liquid out of tank B that didn't stink. It worked. At the time, I also looked at some Enviro-?? septic system that was supposed to do an even better job, but I treated it like those exercise machine adverts on TV, i.e., as a poor joke. BTW, you [U]can[/U] get all this right - and have a drink of 'Poo water like Bill Gates'. And, with earth tremors, etc, things underground do move and can cause cracks in non-reinforced concrete. You simply have to get a gas mask and start investigating, then get an Indon to do all the work. Best Luck to the OP and I will be interested to hear the final 'wash up'.

DenpasarHouse

<QUOTE><s>[quote]</s>I live out in the sticks (paddies) and there seems to be a lot of movement of the ground water towards (away from my place) the paddies, which are full of water some of the time. So I'm hoping that movement will suffice to clear out the tanks and as I have no near neighbors I'm not looking to see theirs come floating by anytime soon.<e>[/QUOTE]</e></QUOTE> I don't think that's how septic tanks work. The higher the ground water, the worse it is for your tank. The treated sewage water is supposed to flow out of the tank and be absorbed into the ground. If it's already waterlogged, there's no where for it to go. Also, there's no way the ground water is taking away the solids, unless your tank is broken, and if so, you've got untreated sewage leaking into the ground water. Not great if you've got a well nearby. You might be able to get away with not pumping out your septic tank for a long time, but you won't get away with it forever. See here: <URL url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWoR5oLDijQ"><s>[url]</s>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWoR5oLDijQ<e>[/url]</e></URL> Just out of interest, does your "grey water" go into your septic tank? Here in the city, only the toilet water goes to the septic tank, everything else goes to the storm drains. Pretty disgusting in my opinion, but it means our septic tank will last a lot longer before needing to be pumped . . . I think.

DenpasarHouse

Markit wroteI live in an orchard of coconut trees on a sandy soil (not sand, sandy). There is a natural movement of water towards the beach/ocean through the soil. My admitted limited understanding of the whole sewerage process is as described above. The theory is that with the waste moving through the different stages by the time it gets to the open end of my septic tank it is no longer sewerage and quite acceptable to Bill Gates or the local environment. I won't be tasting it, knowingly. Grey water is from dish washing, showers and the like? Yes, that also goes down the drain towards the septic tank. We don't have city water here so it's all a "natural" cycle I guess.

Fair enough. In western septic systems, they usually have a drain field (also called a leech field) which is where the treated water goes after it's been through the septic tank. These can be quite complicated and expensive. If you don't regularly (every 3-5 years) pump out the accumulated solids they can build up and block up the pipes in the drain field itself. Which means you have to replace the whole drain field. If your tank only has an outlet to the sandy soil and not a complicated drain field system then you're not running much of a risk if you don't pump out the solids. However, eventually the solids will fill up the whole tank and you'll have raw sewage coming out of the outlet and the inlet pipes will start to backup. One of the biggest dangers to your septic tank is the flushing of Wet Wipes, even the ones that say they're "septic tank safe" and biodegradable, these just accumulate in the tank without breaking down.

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