Which black tank chemicals break down waste?
When we are in camping mode our trailer gets the, use plenty of water each flush - make sure black tank is full - dump (or pump with macerator) - flush - add 2 gallons - repeat as necessary routine. I...
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Wishbone51 wrote:RCMAN46 wrote:
But regardless I do not recommend leaving anything in a RV holding tank for more than a week. The pyramid may become a problem if you do.
If you have plenty of water, the pyramid won't be an issue.
That depends.
On how long you let the tank "sit" and just how much actual "water content" there is vs "solids.
The danger is with letting a holding tank sit for any amount of time with "solids" in it is the fact that water in the tank EVAPORATES through the open vent on the roof.
Couple that with say hot weather in the summer while it "sits" a month or two and you will have something even worse than the dreaded "pyramid".
You typically do not have evaporation issues with home septic systems since most are non vented and buried into the earth which keeps the tank temps rather cool even in the summer heat. Any water evaporation would be extremely slow if any.
Holding tanks however are a horse of a different color since they are 1 Open to the air
2 get extremely hot in the summer which speeds up evaporation
3 Winter time presents freezing temps which if the tank is near full can present a real messy disaster when it thaws out :E
Personally it doesn't take all that much time to flush out the solids and doing so allows you to come back to a empty tank with no "surprises" to worry about.
Couple of "options" to think about if trailer is in a place with no "legal" dump site...
If you have a truck get a 55 gallon plastic drum a maceration/sewage pump. Pump the holding tank into the drum then take the drum to a legal sewage dump site and empty the drum.
Use a blue tote instead of drum but you might want to use the maceration pump so you can have the blue tote in your truck bed (lifting more than 20 gallons would be a "challenge")..
I would however not suggest just strait dumping raw sewage on the ground, doing so can and does spread unwanted diseases (think about some of the major E coli issues over the last few years which are a direct result of using human waste for fertilizers in other countries)... Not to mention may result in unwanted "guests" serving you some expensive fines...
