With the septic tank playing an integral role in making sure that your home or business stays clean, it only makes sense that you keep it maintained. If it were to fail at the worst time, you could have sewage flowing through your living room floor or the dining area where your customers are. Either way, it can be a disaster that can be avoided with good septic tank maintenance.

How You Can Properly Maintain a Septic Tank

Proper maintenance is something that needs to be prioritized for something as important as a septic tank. So you’re going to need to know everything you’re going to need to know to keep it in top condition. To help you out, we’ve put together a list of things you can do to make sure that your septic tank is always at peak performance.

Use The Right Tools For The Job

Regardless of what you’re doing, you’re always going to want to have the right tools for the job. In the case of septic tank maintenance you’re going to different tools based on what you want to do. However, you’re always going to want mouth and eye protection. The fumes and contents of the septic tank can be filled with bacteria. These bacteria are good for the tank itself but not for you, so make sure you’re well protected.

Avoid Flushing Harmful Chemicals

One of the best ways to maintain a septic tank is through preventive measures. One of these is to avoid flushing harmful chemicals into it. Aggressive chemicals like bleach and acids will harm the useful bacteria in your tank. This makes it harder for solid wastes to be broken down and passed into the sewage system attached to the tank. If you do flush these types of chemicals into your tank, then be prepared to do more frequent manual maintenance sessions. 

Hire Someone To Do It For You

One thing to remember when it comes to cleaning and maintaining a septic tank is the fact that it isn’t an easy job nor is it a comfortable one. You’ll have to open the tank yourself and be exposed to whatever atrocities and horrible smells are in there. Not everyone will have the stomach or nose to do this tough job so a great alternative is to have someone else do the job for you.

Call a local septic tank maintenance service to do the dirty work for you. Of course, it’s going to cost you money, but it makes sure that you don’t have to be exposed to the waste and fumes coming out of the tank itself. It also ensures that the job is done properly by professionals who have been in the business for years.

Use Bacterial Treatments

A great way to make sure that your septic tank is maintained is by using a bacterial treatment like MicrobiaLogic’s RTB700. These types of bacterial treatments make sure that your tank is filled with good bacteria that will break down the wastes in the tanks without a problem while also minimizing the amount of offensive smells coming out of it.

Maintaining your RV toilet can be a daunting task as it can be quite unpleasant to clean it out. However, it’s a dirty job that someone has to do, and that someone could be you. So what better way to be ready for the job than to read up on RV toilet maintenance.

Continue reading “The Best Ways To Do RV Toilet Maintenance” →

Your septic tank is an important part of a good home. Without one you’d have to shovel out waste yourself. However, you should remember that septic tank odor can become a problem if you’re not taking the necessary precautions. But how exactly do you prevent or minimize it?

Continue reading “Great Septic Tank Odor Prevention Tips” →

Your septic tank is an integral part of your home and without it you’d have to manually clean your own toilets. Many home and business owners will neglect their ttank and over time it will slowly degrade. This will make it easier for it to break and ruin your home. 

Continue reading “Signs You Need a New Septic Tank” →

When we were children we were taught that bacteria were all bad. This is why it can be confusing when a company like us shows up and tell you why bacteria is something you need in your life. 

Continue reading “The Benefits of Septic Tank Bacteria” →

For many food service business owners, the grease trap is an important part of business. It helps make sure that fats, oils and grease that come from friers, grills and other cooking implements are disposed of. You’re going to expect a lot of problems cropping up when you experience a grease trap failure in the middle of service.

Continue reading “4 Signs of A Grease Trap Failure” →

Your septic tank is an important fixture in any home and business. However, this essential part of home cleanliness can end up becoming a ticking time bomb that can ruin your day and your business. Overflowing, and awful smells are the least of your worries if you leave your septic tank alone. The best way to keep this from happening is to make sure that you know what causes these disgusting septic tank problems. 

Continue reading “The Main Causes of Septic Tank Problems” →

A composting toilet is a great alternative to your usual septic tank toilets when there aren’t any stable places to have a septic tank or if the area is secluded. But keeping one maintained can be an arduous task and if not properly maintained can lead to your toilet being unusable for months. The best way to make sure that doesn’t happen is to know exactly what needs to be done to keep one maintained and in top condition.

How Does a Composting Toilet Work?

Before we get into the nitty gritty of how you can keep your composting toilet in top condition, we first need to know how it works. You can’t fix something if you don’t know how it works.

Aerating Waste with Mulch

Your usual composting toilet will have a deep pit where you’d normally find mulch like sawdust or shavings. There is also usually a container near the composting toilet with more mulch that you need to toss in after you’re done answering the call of nature. The reason why sawdust and other similar materials are used instead of sand is that they create small pockets of air. These air pockets let air circulate better in the pit and making it easier for bacterial cultures to decompose the waste.

Bacterial Assistance

Most if not all composting toilets make use of bacteria to help decompose waste. There are two kinds of bacteria that you’ll find in a composting toilet pit. The bad bacteria that can cause disease and commercial bacterial cultures that you’ll introduce yourself. The bacterial cultures will eliminate bad bacteria while also decomposing the waste faster and more efficiently. It also makes sure to eliminate the smell that comes with human waste.

Maintaining Your Composting Toilet

Now that you know how your composting toilet works, you might think that all you need to do is toss in mulch and bacterial cultures in there to keep it working. That isn’t the case as it needs other maintenance steps to keep it from smelling like an open septic tank. 

Daily Cleaning

Composting toilets are known to require more cleaning than your standard flush toilets because of how a composting toilet is built. It’s literally a toilet on top of a pit. In order to trim down the pyramid of filth in the pit, make sure to have it scooped out every day.

Proper Usage of Mulch

There should be a spare bucket filled with mulch near your composting toilet. This makes it easier for a person who just recently used the toilet to reach it and throw a fresh coat of mulch on their waste. It dries out the waste and makes it much harder for bad bacteria and flies to breed and grow in the pit.

Avoid Pouring Water in the Toilet

Water might seem like a good idea to throw into your pit, but it does more harm than good. Water will turn the inside of the pit into a sloppy mess and make it much harder and more disgusting to clean it out. Not only that, the sloppy mess in your toilet’s pit is the perfect breeding ground for bad bacteria and flies to breed and grow.

Keep Other Waste Out

Human waste is the only thing that should be going down your toilet. Solid objects like glass, chunks of wood, and cloth will sit in your pit for extended periods of time and will not easily turn into compost like the human waste. This also makes it exceptionally more dangerous to clean a pit out, especially if there are any sharp objects in there. A single cut can lead to a septic infection and put your life in danger, so make sure to put foreign objects into a bin instead of the pit. 

The grease trap is an important part of any restaurant. It helps keep your sewage line free of fat, oil and grease, collectively known as FOGs, and prevent any flooding incidents in your establishment and making it smell like the grease trap itself. If you’re unsure of how you should go about maintaining your grease trap then keep reading.

Why Grease Trap Maintenance Is Important 

Maintaining your grease trap should be at the top of your priority list to make sure that your grease trap doesn’t fail and ruin dinner service.These tips will help you make the right decisions whenever you need to maintain your grease trap.

Conduct Regular Maintenance and Inspections

Regularly checking your grease trap for any issues is the first step to proper maintenance. Inspecting and cleaning your grease trap should be done once every 2 to 3 months to make sure that it stays in top condition and doesn’t have any underlying issues that could end up breaking your grease trap or even your sewage line. Missing these can mean you have to spend a large amount of money on repairs that could have been avoided. 

Be Prepared with The Right Tools

“Avoid using a sledgehammer when trying to open a nut”

Sure, you can use that sledgehammer, but you’ll end up with a broken nut. The same applies to grease trap maintenance as using the wrong tool for the job can end up breaking your grease trap. Having the right tools on hand can definitely make a difference when it comes to making it easier to maintain. Some tools you can use to make grease trap maintenance easier include:

• Rubber Gloves and Coveralls. These can help you stay clean while maintaining your grease trap as grease is difficult to wash off.
• Shop Vacuum. This helps you vacuum up the sludge in your grease trap.
• Wrenches, Crowbars, and Screwdrivers. These tools help you properly remove parts from your grease trap for replacing or cleaning. 
• Scraper. Use this to scrape off grease sticking to the sides and bottom of your grease trap.
• Gas Mask. This is optional but remember that the smell that can come from your grease trap can be awful. If you’re conducting maintenance without one, then you’re either a professional, have an iron gut, or unprepared. 

Check The Installation of Your Grease Trap

Proper maintenance can start as soon as a grease trap is installed. During installation, check if your grease trap is properly installed as improper installation could mean that FOGs will still be getting  in your sewage line. A good sign that your grease trap isn’t properly installed is if there is little to no grease in your grease trap after several months of installation. 

Get Professional Help

If you aren’t sure of how to go about maintaining your grease trap, then calling a professional in to help with it can be a good idea. They come equipped with the knowledge and tools to be able to fix and clean your grease trap without risking it being damaged. They can even help you properly reinstall a grease trap that was mishandled and  improperly installed. 

Use Specially Formulated Bacterial Cultures

Certain bacterial cultures sold by companies like MicrobiaLogic’s GTB 800 Grease Trap Treatment breakdown FOGs blocking your grease trap. With the FOGs broken down and unable to clog the drain, wastewater can safely move to your sewage line without risking it blocking it.