Since there are only 2 of us most of the time, and most trips are 3 - 4 days, I'll explain how and why we do it as we do. Unless you have full hookups, you don't do anything but add chemicals AND WATER - ABOUT A GALLON OR TWO into the toilet and flush. The reason, as I understand it is to not only avoid "the pyramid", but to keep the seals from becoming dry and brittle. There are a zillion black and/or gray tank treatments - we use Odorlos + an enzyme, both usually available at Camping World. For dishwashing/showers/whatever, use the fresh water like it's costing you by the ounce. You can fill a 25 - 30 gallon gray tank before you even blink. You'll have gauges somewhere in your camper for the fresh, grey, black tanks. Do not believe these sensors - they are notoriously dead wrong. No chemicals are added after the initial treatment + the fresh water. So after the weekend, you'll stop at the dump station. Rubber gloves and hand sanitizer. Hook up your equipment, pull the lever for the black tank and let it run. Suggestion is to invest about $15 in a clear fitting so you can actually see when the tank is empty and nothing else is flowing. Then the grey, which will rinse your hose and fittings. That's about the size of it. Close the grey tank and put all the stuff away. Here is where I go back in and add a fresh amount of black tank treatment and a couple gallons of water from the fresh tank - gotta turn on the pump for this. So when we leave, we've dumped the black, the grey and started a fresh tank with the treatment and water in it. If it's more than just a couple of weeks or so between trips, I'll toss in another amount of the treatment when we start our next trip. You don't want to have a dry tank for any solids left to turn into concrete.
The downside of traveling with much of anything in your tanks is that water weighs about 8# per gallon. If you have 30 gallons in your fresh tank, and the black and grey tanks are fairly full, you're hauling around possibly another 240#, which = even less fuel economy. The upside is the sloshing. 99% of the time we dump after a long weekend. Others may not, but that works for us.
It sounds a lot more complicated than it is. If possible, plan your stop at the dump station when there are not a lot of other campers leaving. Waiting behind several campers dumping usually makes for a bit of irritation for the guy at the end of the line, so plan accordingly. After a time or two, you should be able to set up, dump, wash up and be out in maybe 10 - 15 minutes or less. Don't let this tank thing stress you out, it's not a biggie. There are some "extras and add-ons" that can be included in this dumping thing, but right now I think that would just add to your overload of information. Remind us later to tell you about the blue tote, the Tornado, the macerator, etc., but for now forget it.
