System Type

What are different types of systems?

Anarobic

Uses low oxygen bacteria to process the fluid entering the tank. Subsequently the processing of the fluid and suspended solids is less than it would be if the system was aerated, resulting in a poor quality of effluent leaving the system. System may smell periodically. There will be noticeable smell during the first twelve months.

• • If the system is running poorly, it will smell.

  • If the system is not serviced regularly, the high water alarm may periodically come on, the pump may block and fail, the soakage trench may block may block and fail, the inlet pipe to the tank may block causing drainage problems

  • If the tank is lower than ground-level, there should be risers on the manholes preventing rainwater entering the tank, which could inundate the system. You may find it smells. You may find your power-bill is higher than usual. You may find the water alarm goes off when it rains.

What you can do at home:

• 1. Lift the chamber lids and make sure final or pump chamber tide is low. If the level is high, this may indicate the pump has blocked or failed, the soakage trench has blocked or failed. In some cases, incorrect wiring of the pump through the high level alarm results in the pump only activating when the tank is flooded.

  2. Check that the first or primary chamber to see if there is a solid crust. A healthy tank has a thick solid crust after the first twelve months, which helps to corks the odour in the fluid. This could be caused by very low volumes from the house due to lack of use, causing the crust takes longer to build. Other causes can include rain getting into the tank and breaking up the crust and flushing it through the system, or bacteria dying.

  3. If the bacterium in your tank has died, this will be due to adverse chemicals entering the tank and will cause smelling. Add an activator sachet, which has live bacteria, to help seed or reseed the tank.

  4. To help minimize odour in a healthy tank, simply flush an approved septic tank smelly sachet down the toilet.

Aerobic

Uses high oxygen bacteria to process the suspended solids and fluid entering the tank. If the anaerobic are slow and lazy, then aerobic are fitness freaks that gobble it up. This means that the quality of the fluid leaving the system is three times more treated in the same length of time. This is achieved by pumping oxygen into the system at a rate of about 80 to 100 litres of air per minute. A healthy oxygenated tank will not smell at all.

• • If the system is running poorly, it will smell.

  • If the system is not serviced regularly, the high water alarm may periodically come on, the pump may block and fail, the drip line may block and fail

  • If the tank is lower than ground-level, there should be risers on the manholes preventing rainwater entering the tank, which could inundate the system. You may find it smells. You may find your power-bill is higher than usual. You may find the water alarm goes off when it rains.

  • If the primary filter is not serviced regularly, it may block and backup your system causing toilets to flush slowly.

  • If the aeration to the chamber or system fails, resulting with the air alarm coming on, usually indicating the diaphragms or the blower itself, have failed.

  • If the settling chamber and sludge return are not serviced, this important part of the system reticulates settled sludge before the pump chamber and more importantly aerobic bacteria and oxygen rich water back to the primary or first part of the system, pre-seeding it with aerobic bacteria, turning the chamber from anaerobic to aerobic, will fail. In this instance the tank can go belly-up. Smelling tank, lots of sludge around the pump grate, settling in the pump chamber.

What you can do at home:

• 1. Lift the chamber lids and make sure final or pump chamber tide is low. If the level is high, this may indicate the pump has blocked or failed, the dripline has blocked or failed.

  2. Check that the first or primary chamber to see if there is a solid crust. A healthy tank has a thick solid crust after the first twelve months, which helps to corks the odour in the fluid. This could be caused by very low volumes from the house due to lack of use, causing the crust takes longer to build. Other causes can include rain getting into the tank and breaking up the crust and flushing it through the system, or bacteria dying.

  3. If your tank is smelly, this indicates that the sludge return has failed or the bacterium in your tank has died due to adverse chemicals. Get the sludge return fixed and add an activator sachet, which has live bacteria, to help seed or reseed the tank.

During a Service, EWS will do all of these steps.

EWS can also undertake any Repairs, necessary to ensure the long-term health of your system.