Black Tank Chemicals

As has been said, the black tank is a holding tank, not a septic tank. I don't care if the solids are dissolved or not. As long as you use lots of water everything will wash out when you dump. A good rinse will complete the job. I don't use any chemicals.

Or "Happy Camper Black Tank Treatment"

Google "Happy Camper"

like others, we add some HE laundry detergent, either liquid or power, some calgon water softener to the black and grey tanks. For the black tank we also add some of the enzyme/bacteria based black tank stuff. I don't use any bleach, can't see a reason to and am concerned it will counteract the enzyme/bateria based stuff.

Works well, even after a week or more of camping. If I dump at a dump station, I backflush at least 10 gallons or so of grey water into the black tank when I dump and let is slosh around on the way home. I have a dump station at home and all the sloshing around on the way home pretty much puts everything left into solution so it is easy to dump and clean the black tank at home.

jrdr653 wrote:
I have used the Thetford liquid and it does not seem to dissolve all the waste

Does the bottle say it will?

After 17 years of full-timing and plenty of boondocking we've found that water, water, water is the only thing you need. You just can't be stingy with it. We seem to fill the gray faster than the black so we even dump our dishwashing water in the black sometimes.

kalynzoo wrote:
Dissolve waste? I have been using the Thetford "blue" liquid with formaldehyde for 30 plus years. I have tried the Thetford eco-friendly, other brands, and some of the soap options (for the good of the environment). I tried the powder because it was easy. In the heat of SoCal, often getting above 100 in the MH, nothing holds down odor as well as Thetford Blue liquid. I flush the tank after every trip, but there is always a residue, so I store the MH next to the house with chemical and a couple of gallons of water in the Gray and Black.
As for dissolving waste. The product is designed to reduce bacteria growth, and control odor. It is not a solvent. Thetford does make a tissue digester liquid, I used it once, but since I dump regularly when traveling and before storage I stopped using the product.
Happy Trails.

I thought formaldehyde was banned!

Dissolve waste? I have been using the Thetford "blue" liquid with formaldehyde for 30 plus years. I have tried the Thetford eco-friendly, other brands, and some of the soap options (for the good of the environment). I tried the powder because it was easy. In the heat of SoCal, often getting above 100 in the MH, nothing holds down odor as well as Thetford Blue liquid. I flush the tank after every trip, but there is always a residue, so I store the MH next to the house with chemical and a couple of gallons of water in the Gray and Black.
As for dissolving waste. The product is designed to reduce bacteria growth, and control odor. It is not a solvent. Thetford does make a tissue digester liquid, I used it once, but since I dump regularly when traveling and before storage I stopped using the product.
Happy Trails.

The chemicals are just deodorizers and don't provide much of a function other than that. The most important thing is to keep the black tank clean by flushing with lots of water.

We use the Geo method minus the bleach, about once a month when we are going to travel at least 100 miles. I fill the tanks about 1/3 full add 1-1/2 cups of Calgon along with 1/4 cup liquid DW soap (soap for Dishwasher not washing dishes)we drive with the water sloshing around to clean the tanks, have done this for years and never had any problems with our tanks. You will be amazed at the gunk that comes out when you drain the tanks, especially from the grey tank.