New Septic Tank Needed. Advice please.

[thequietman]

Been using the concrete rings that were installed when wifey was first building her house. She was on a premium, and so was only able to install it 4 rings deep. This means that we have to call out the 'turd sucker' more often than I would like. At 400 baht every time, it mounts up.

 

Anyway, there are only the 2 of us now, 2 sons off to Uni (hurrah) and so am considering the Vavo 8oo litre or the 1000 litre. See here https://www.globalhouse.co.th/catalog/catagory/700/1

 

Garden at back of house is about 30 ft X 40 ft - I know nothing about septic tanks, but should I get additional pipes installed that take liquids away from the tank, to allow it to spread through the yard. ( Apologies if this makes no sense. I just read something like this somewhere)

 

Anyway, any advice, help, criticism is very much appreciated. ????

[lopburi3]

What do you do with gray water from shower and sinks?  If have drainage system tank can feed into that.  If using rings there should be two tanks - one for toilets and second for overflow liquids from below top of first tank and then drainage from second ring tank.  If working right you should not have to pump out more than maybe once a decade.  We pumped two plastic tanks today at 500 each here in Bangkok (government price) but they have been is use 22 and 20 years (the 22 year one needed pump out.  Also have a double ring system made when house build in 1975 which was only pumped to allow new drain system about 20 years ago.  Am sure others will help you and suspect youtube will have video.  Remember plastic tanks float and it getting into rainy season so be sure to fill with water.

[sirineou]

 As you noticed the septic tank you are thinking of buying, has two pipes, an entrance pipe and an exit pipe. 

So it needs to be first in line. The waste will exit the house, enter the "VAVO" sink yo the bottom , liquid will float on the top. and exit from the other pipe . where it would go to leach field  to evaporate or be absorbed by the ground if you had the room. I dont know what your 30x40ft yard looks like but it is probably of inadequate size, soil condition and sun penetration . So your other option would be a secondary set of rings , perforated and open to the bottom, with some gravel and sand  under it and around the sides where the exited liquid will be deposited to be absorbed my the ground

If The rings you have now are far enough from the house, you might be able to install the "VAVO" first and then connect to your existing "Ring" tanks. But if it is only the two of you and and they fill up often then you might have a problem of them being inadequately constructed ans get filed up with either rain or ground water. or dont have holes, and the bottom is so saturated that it doesn't allow the liquid to be absorbed by the ground. 

Also consider having, shower, laundry, and kitchen sink water redirected to  a separate ring system , that in it's self might fix the problem.  

[Kwasaki]

5 hours ago, thequietman said:

Anyway, any advice, help,

Them cess tanks will be fine you just have to make sure it's installed correctly.

In 18 years no tanks like today in our area so our properly purpose built cess pit has never needed a "A turd sucker" I was glad at the time to be here when it was built, for obvious reasons.

 

[canopy]

11 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Them cess tanks will be fine you just have to make sure it's installed correctly.

No they are not fine, cesspits are illegal in the countries we come from for good reasons. In the 21st century man can do better than dig a hole in the ground and dump their waste in it. A true septic system with subterranean drain field and plantings is far superior and environmentally sound. Polluting the ground water with turds and relying on turd trucks trolling the villages honking their horns looking for their next victim is such a ridiculous system. God this world has a long way to go.

 

[Kwasaki]

7 hours ago, canopy said:

No they are not fine, cesspits are illegal in the countries we come from for good reasons. In the 21st century man can do better than dig a hole in the ground and dump their waste in it. A true septic system with subterranean drain field and plantings is far superior and environmentally sound. Polluting the ground water with turds and relying on turd trucks trolling the villages honking their horns looking for their next victim is such a ridiculous system. God this world has a long way to go.

 

Your way too serious for me, until a nationwide system is built cesspit pits are the only way. 

If you wanna go and do your business in the woods go ahead. 

[MikeN]

3 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

Your way too serious for me, until a nationwide system is built cesspit pits are the only way. 

If you wanna go and do your business in the woods go ahead. 

No, proper septic tanks are the way to go, not concrete ring cesspits. All your concrete rings do is save you the trouble of digging a hole for "your business".

[Kwasaki]

10 minutes ago, MikeN said:

No, proper septic tanks are the way to go, not concrete ring cesspits. All your concrete rings do is save you the trouble of digging a hole for "your business".

Haven't a clue what your on about, in my village there is rainwater runaways only, what do you want me to do when I built my house construct a properly designed cess pit at the time, or just send my house <deleted> to the rain runaways.

Are you a builder. ?

[MikeN]

2 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

Haven't a clue what your on about, in my village there is rainwater runaways only, what do you want me to do when I built my house construct a properly designed cess pit at the time, or just send my house <deleted> to the rain runaways.

Are you a builder. ?

You do know what a septic tank is, don't you ? What do they have to do with rainwater runaways ? Septic tanks are connected to a leach field, for the treated overflow, not the village drainage system. Cesspits are just a hole full of you-know-what polluting the groundwater.

[Kwasaki]

1 minute ago, MikeN said:

not the village drainage system.

What village drainage system is that.?

[canopy]

11 hours ago, Kwasaki said:

What village drainage system is that.?

We are trying to tell you there is nothing connected to the village. Septic systems have no outlet. They are fully contained in your yard. They make sense for any house anywhere, cesspits should never be used. A cesspit is a pile of turds where no waste treatment happens and concentrated waste leaches into the ground and pollutes ground water and trucks come to pump it when it overflows periodically and eventually gums up and a new one needs dug. A septic tank has a sealed bottom and treats the waste. When treated effluent makes its way out the tank much more treatment then occurs in the drain field. Finally plantings pull all the nitrogen and nutrients out of a widely dispersed area. Think of it as recycling rather than littering. The smart choice.

 

[Kwasaki]

1 hour ago, canopy said:

We are trying to tell you there is nothing connected to the village. Septic systems have no outlet. They are fully contained in your yard. They make sense for any house anywhere, cesspits should never be used. A cesspit is a pile of turds where no waste treatment happens and concentrated waste leaches into the ground and pollutes ground water and trucks come to pump it when it overflows periodically and eventually gums up and a new one needs dug. A septic tank has a sealed bottom and treats the waste. When treated effluent makes its way out the tank much more treatment then occurs in the drain field. Finally plantings pull all the nitrogen and nutrients out of a widely dispersed area. Think of it as recycling rather than littering. The smart choice.

 

My apologies guys, thanks for that, a misunderstanding of words on my part.

There all Cesspits to me ???? because there's no local govt sewerage system.

We had a brick built one constructed with outgoing filtering pipes.

 

In my opening I was trying to say make sure a tank or rings is installed correctly without going into detail.

In our village there many houses ( well old wooden or concrete shacks is a better description ) that just have had holes dug for toilet use.

 

Many places if people get to afford it have septic tanks as replacement I can't see how they can make suitable absorption area they haven't got the room and I guess they don't bother. 

[canopy]

24 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

There all Cesspits to me

Just remember that rings are no substitute for what goes on inside a sealed septic tank chamber.

 

25 minutes ago, Kwasaki said:

I can't see how they can make suitable absorption area

A drain field doesn't necessarily take much room. Just a shallow meter wide trench of suitable length. And then you cover it and it becomes indistinguishable from the rest of the yard, save for plantings around it being a lot greener than elsewhere.

 

[lopburi3]

16 minutes ago, canopy said:

Just remember that rings are no substitute for what goes on inside a sealed septic tank chamber.

They perform the same function in the same way if properly installed.  You have two sets of rings and drain/vent - a normal septic system.  

[Fruit Trader]

Wiki covers the varying use of the word cesspit quite well.

 

Cesspit is a term with various meanings. It is used to describe either an underground holding tank or a soak pit. It can be used for the temporary collection and storage of feces, excreta or fecal sludge as part of an on-site sanitation system and has some similarities with septic tanks or with soak pits.

Pit latrine would be best to describe a simple turd collecting hole polluting ground water.

There are many septic tank arrangements in Thailand from simple open bottom tanks through to multi tank treatment with soak away or connection to the street drainage system.

 

 

 

[canopy]

1 hour ago, lopburi3 said:

They perform the same function in the same way if properly installed.

Nope, totally different functions. Let's compare. A cesspit is a holding tank that does not treat waste. Anything that leaves a cesspit is raw sewage. A septic tank treats waste a great deal and it does this organically using bacteria. The only effluent that leaves a septic tank outlet has been primary treated and is in liquid form. It's critical how the inlet/outlet pipes are submerged into the septic chamber for this process to work as well as having a suitably large amount of water in the chamber so the job can be done thoroughly. Effluent exits the septic outlet to the drain field where more types of bacteria living in the gravel thrive and break it down much more. If there were no septic tank this gravel would get plugged up with gunk quickly. This is a very key difference. Putting waste in ring containers and dumping them from one to another doesn't go from primary to secondary to tertiary treated waste where it then becomes an asset to the landscaping and replenishing groundwater. A septic tank cannot leak because even small leak can result in it unable to perform its function and harm the environment. Cesspits leak into the ground since they have no bottom and don't care about treating waste, and what they leak is very bad for the environment as well as the pumping trunks going off dumping this sewage on the ground somewhere arbitrarily. A cesspit is not a septic tank.

 

[lopburi3]

14 minutes ago, Fruit Trader said:

There are many septic tank arrangements in Thailand from simple open bottom tanks through to multi tank treatment with soak away or connection to the street drainage system.

But connection to second tank will be below the drain level so first tank will keep floating material above entry and second tank should be mostly water.

 

[lopburi3]

25 minutes ago, canopy said:

Let's compare. A cesspit

But I am not talking cesspit.  Rings are used for tanks with cement top and bottom and they are connected together below water level and full bacteria action takes place just as in a plastic tank.  They have been used here in Bangkok in such configuration since at least 1974 when my home was built.  But yes most will not have a drain field but go into gray water drains which may or may not get further water treatment.  Here in Bangkok most land plots are often too small for drain fields and clay does not drain well in any case.  

[Fruit Trader]

2 hours ago, lopburi3 said:

But connection to second tank will be below the drain level so first tank will keep floating material above entry and second tank should be mostly water.

 

V3.11 should ease the worry.