Extracting and disposing of silt

[Forkinhades]

My water drain is constantly getting blocked with a white chalky like substance that floats on the water, and at the bottom has rather a lot of silt.

So every 6 months I clean the main pit which is 600 mm Deep, and 400 mm L, and 300 mm W. The pit has 3 waste water pipes coming from the house at the top. The main drainage pipe is at 300mm from the top.

The white chalky 'stuff' will block the main drainage.

Currently I just empty with 10 or so bucket loads, which is a little time consuming, but ok.

The bottom third of the pit will have the black silt.

So after I have extracted, where can I dispose?

Is it worth investing in a pump that is sited in the pit?

Also what is causing this white chalky build up?

Thanks

[passingas]

Not real sure, but that chalky like residue could be talc, which is what bar soap is predominately made of...try switching to liquid soap if you haven't already tried that. I noticed that not using bar soap anymore, my shower stall doesn't get all caked up with that hardened, scum layer cause by talc. pg

[Brit_Doggie]

Yeah the chalky deposits could well be soap, have had similar issues with my plumbing so have resorted to using mr muscle (namely me) and educating the gf who showers with cold water not to use soap which is the cause of the deposits.

[RichCor]

What are all the contributing sources to your graywater line? Just the bathroom sink and shower, or do the drains from the kitchen sink and washing machine flow in as well?

Good idea having a graywater drain bit, though.

[Forkinhades]

Washing Machine, Kitchen sink, and 2 bathrooms. I will check the misses soap in her shower .

Would 'soda fi' clear it?

[RichCor]

Using liquid or powdered detergent, whiteners, softener, perfumes (all the additives Thais love) in the clothes washer?

So far the possible culprits are Hand Soap and maybe Facial Wash.

The residual has to originate from somewhere. Black silt?

Edited April 14, 2015 by RichCor

[bankruatsteve]

If the offending sludge is from soap - which is ph+ maybe washing with an acidic solution would help?

[Forkinhades]

The black silt seems to enter at the bottom of the pit, could be coming from another 6 inch pipe, certainly 1 side was not square, didn't feel the need to investigate further. The toilet sewer tank is right next to this pit.

Still unclear how all these pits and pipes actually work here.

[Pib]

The pit size you describe 0.6m x 0.4m x 0.3m sounds like just a typical sewage/grey water line drainage box typically around a house/lot....I have around 10 of these drainage junction boxes around my lot/house....along three of my perimeter walls...and I just have a small lot since land is so expensive here in Bangkok. A lot of people will landscape over the boxes not knowing what they are. Around half of them have some type of drainage pipe leading to them from one the sewer tanks or drainage pipes from the house...and three of them have the roof gutter downspouts going to them via underground pipes between the downspouts and the drainage line junction boxes. The reason there are so many boxes I guess it to allow a person easy access to clean out the pipe inter-connecting between the boxes using a special tool if required and to dip out some of the slit/dirt that will accumulate at the bottom of each box which helps to keep the pipe clean assuming tree roots don't grow into the pipe.

The boxes are all inter-connected around the house with an approx 6 inch pipe and at two points at the front perimeter soi wall empty into the large soi sewer line. I live in a Bangkok moobaan. Every few years I will take the top concrete covers off and dip out some black slit and dirt just to ensure the slit/dirt doesn't block any pipes leading to the boxes as some of the pipes enter the boxes not too far from the bottom.....maybe a half bucket full (approx 2 liters worth worst case) from "some" of the boxes....the remaining ones maybe have a half liter or one liter of slit/dirt at the bottom to scoop out. I also put U-traps on most the pipe outlets from the house to keep any smell from going back into the house.

Never, ever any accumulated white chalky substance and my wife washes clothes at least every other day and uses plenty of washing detergent, softener, bleach, etc....she is a clean freak.

You only got "one" such junction box (a.k.a., pit as you call it)?

Edited April 14, 2015 by Pib

[Forkinhades]

I have 3 pits in line for yhe grey water, each one getting smaller and higher as it reaches the street.

I also have a much larger sewage tank, which needs to be emptied every do often. I'm guessing this is a sealed tank. Some say that these tanks slowly let the sewage seep out. Not too sure about that.

This sewage tank has 3 inspection covers, which again I'm guessing would mean 3 tanks linked together but having different levels.

This tank is sited in between 2 of the grey water tanks.

[Pib]

I've got three septic/sewage tank sets around the house for the three bathrooms in the house which are really just the a brown matter (a.k.a. sh&t) accumulation tank connected to a grey water tank and then each set feeds into a junction box which in turn ends up going to the soi sewer line. Only the brown matter tanks have an access hole for sucking/emptying if needed.

You really shouldn't have to ever have the accumulation tanks sucked/emptied as bacteria activity is suppose to eat the brown matter assuming you have enough bacteria action going on....if you don't powder and liquid septic tank bacteria is sold at hardware and grocery stores...it's cheap. Now if the line around your house don't drain to somewhere like a soi line or you don't have enough bacteria action going on, then yea you will probably need to have your septic tanks sucked every few years. Out in the jungle where the septic tanks/pits do not drain to anywhere, those are the ones that need to be sucked periodically since they have no drainage.

I had my tanks sucked after about 5 years of use only because the neighbor had one of those sucking trucks come to his house...so I just had mine sucked also for a couple hundred baht....waste of money as there was hardly any brown stuff in the tanks due to the bacteria action doing its job. Other than that one time of a septic tank sucking truck being in my moobaan simply because the neighbor called one because he figured "why not have his tanks sucked although he was having not problem with his septic tanks" that's the only time I've seen a septic tank truck in my moobaan of several hundred houses and I've lived here for 7 years.

[RichCor]

My water drain is constantly getting blocked with a white chalky like substance that floats on the water, and at the bottom has rather a lot of silt.

So every 6 months I clean the main pit which is 600 mm Deep, and 400 mm L, and 300 mm W. The pit has 3 waste water pipes coming from the house at the top. The main drainage pipe is at 300mm from the top.

The white chalky 'stuff' will block the main drainage.

Currently I just empty with 10 or so bucket loads, which is a little time consuming, but ok.

The bottom third of the pit will have the black silt.

Where does the water go once it flows through the last graywater pit?

When the white chalky stuff blocks the pit, what happens? Does the water back up and flow out elsewhere, or does it back up in the pipe all the way to the source?

Still wondering what could be creating the bottom third of the black silt in the pit. Any other run-off entering the line, like roof gutter downspouts?

[passingas]

As far as the black silt goes...it is probably from anaerobic (without oxygen) bacterial processes in the line, hence the black color, along with fine dirt particulates that are in the air and even to some degree, in the in-coming water line to your house. I noticed the last time I flushed out my main storm drain (it only gets drainage from the gutters and the wife washing her hair outside, next to said drain) I got a load of that black, fine silt washing out from inside my drain pipe. It also had an odor with it, but it washed out without any problem. I purge this three times a year, especially before the rainy season...otherwise my front yard becomes a swamp.