I know what you're thinking. I can't use them to chlorinate a pool consistently, and you would be correct. This thread is actually for an aerobic septic tank. The septic tank installer said to simply use the standard pool pucks in the septic tank. I have read online that the tabs should only be cal-hypo as when the water is discharged onto the "lawn" (in this case lawn means field of weeds far from the house) the stabilized chlorine will not be broken down by the sun and remain there killing the "grass" (weeds). Cannot seem to find a local place that sells cal-hypo tabs and they seem relatively expensive, would it be that big of a deal to use the tri-chlor is I don't care about the area the water is being sprayed onto?
Cal-Hypo Tabs...
- Thread starter benm2010
- Start date
I discharge my backwash water onto the lawn and the grass ain't dead yet and it has CYA in it.
I didn't think you wanted to chlorinate your septic tank. The idea is for beneficial bacteria to grow and eat ****...
In standard septic tanks you are correct. Aerobic systems have different chambers that do different things. The final chamber is a sanitation chamber that sanitizes (but does not make it potable) the water before it is sprayed via a sprinkler head onto the lawn (or other things.) The chlorine is delivered directly to this last chamber so it doesn't kill the bacteria in the previous chambers.
Don't worry, the chlorine will still breakdown. The CYA will provide a little protection from the sunlight (slowing the breakdown), but the water should still have plenty of stuff for the chlorine to oxidize which causes the chlorine to breakdown.
cfherrman
TFP Guide
Cal hypo has some sort of binding agent in it that builds up in people's pumps that use it in their skimmer that I have read, might not be the best thing.
Cya is toxic but for pool needs it us not, many people including myself backwash onto the lawn and it's fine. It might be a issue for continuing use since some people have a off season.
Bleach no good for this?
How much you need, lithium hypo ($$$)?
Cya is toxic but for pool needs it us not, many people including myself backwash onto the lawn and it's fine. It might be a issue for continuing use since some people have a off season.
Bleach no good for this?
How much you need, lithium hypo ($$$)?
It has to be tabs, there is a tube with the mouth sitting at ground level. The county inspects the system periodically and fails it if there is not chlorine in the tube, thus eliminating bleach or even powder shocks. Probably just going to throw trichlor in there and see if it messes anything up.
My only concern is that cal-hypo is very basic, while trichlor is very acidic. I would strongly discourage the idea if you were piping in to a water source, such as my mother does with her system, but since you are dumping on to dry land you will be able to see if that is a problem for the vegetation. The tube I am a bit more concerned about, whether the low pH high FC water will eventually cause damage. It's the reason we don't tell people to put tablets in the skimmer. So hopefully the installer is aware of this and knows it will hold up.
Fun story about my mother's system, one day she looks out her back window and there are flames shooting out of one of the tubes. There was an electrical fault in the UV chamber. Made the paper, "Fire dept called to septic system fire" with a picture and paragraph, not just the blotter.
Fun story about my mother's system, one day she looks out her back window and there are flames shooting out of one of the tubes. There was an electrical fault in the UV chamber. Made the paper, "Fire dept called to septic system fire" with a picture and paragraph, not just the blotter.
soil has so much life in it that chlorine gets deactivated quite quickly. A buddy of mine tried to use bleach to kill the grass growing up through his chain link fence.
Fail.
I'd be more worried about salt accumulation. Rain water is what would remove salt.
Fail.
I'd be more worried about salt accumulation. Rain water is what would remove salt.