Player To Be Named Later said:
I just have admittedly never familiarized myself with septic systems, as this is my first.
I don't have an issue doing it, if it is safe.
An aerobic system has essentially 4 major parts:
1. Sludge holding tank. This is where all of your waste enters into the system. Your installer seeds it with bugs that basically eat the waste. It's the nasty part of the system. What cannot be organically decomposed becomes sludge that you may have to periodically have vacuumed out. This is the part that your Rid-X helps on a monthly basis. The little aerator is a part of this tank - it injects air into the sludge to give the bugs more viability and to keep it from packing down at the bottom. More surface area means a faster breakdown of solids.
2. Clarifier. This is a gravity settling system that decants clear water from the sludge tank off and lets solids settle. Solids go back into the sludge tank for recycling, clear water goes through the launder trough into your finish water tank.
3. Chlorinator. This injects chlorine (bleach) into your discharge line to aid in disinfection of the water that goes to your sprinkler heads. Most chlorinators are eductor systems that work on a vacuum when the pump comes on. You are injecting Cl2 into the line that goes to your sprinkers, not into the large tank.
4. Finish water tank. Basically clear water. Not potable by any stretch, but cleaned water. Your pump pumps from this tank when the level gets to a preset point and continues pumping until the level drops to a preset low point. This is what you see when your sprinkler heads pop up and spray. Nothing wrong with it being used to irrigate crops because any waste has gone through the aerobic breakdown process prior to getting to this tank.
Many municipalities are taking the water from their large capacity treatment plants and recycling it for use as irrigation water in city parks, along highways, etc. Some are actually re-treating it into potable water. We call it "reuse water" in the industry. Not potable grade, but cleaner than most natural sources of water you'll find.
