Roots in the septic tank

[woody]

Thursday I dug up a hickory tree that was growing with in six feet of my tank, I should of removed it years ago the roots were everywhere.

 

[gghb]

spent the last 40 years installing and repairing septic systems. I would dig around the areas with root growth and spread copper sulfate crystels [root remover at hardware store]. get the roots out of the seams pack seam with oakum and cover with jet set morter mix or equal carefully smooth it when done. cutting off the ground water from entering the tank should over time dry out the system. if not wait till ground drys out and proceed with with repair

 

[MacLawn]

If I ever buy land again, I want pasture with NO trees! Limbs, roots, leaves, whew, plain grass looks mighty good to me now!

 

[oosik]

If your drain field is in a low area and water is coming back into the septic tank from the drain field - you have problems beyond roots. You do need to seek professional help to alleviate this situation.

 

[Travelover]

I just had a new septic field installed and on the one end, near a large tree, they installed a 4" perforated pipe barrier with an elbow and cap above ground to periodically pour in copper sulfate to keep the roots at bay.

 

[handirifle]

I just had a new septic field installed and on the one end, near a large tree, they installed a 4" perforated pipe barrier with an elbow and cap above ground to periodically pour in copper sulfate to keep the roots at bay.

I assume this was OUTSIDE the tank?

oosik

Not sure how a psychiatrist would help my septic :laughing: but I guess a few hours on a couch would feel pretty good, especially after digging all day. Seriously, the septic guy did say there COULD be a collapsed line, of even something wrong with the diverter tank. All of whick I plan on checking out Tuesday. I will try to rent an excavator and open it all up, at least to the diverter.

As for the drain area, I am HOPING the drain back is from the diverter tank being full and draining because of pumping the tank. I will check tomorrow to see if it still is draining.

gghb

What is oakum? Around here, they seal the lines to the tank with spray foam. They claim mortar does not do it, too porous. What I am concerned with was the roots on the side of the tank. Those are possibly coming in where the top meets the tank sides. That was supposed to be sealed at the factory with a mastic gasket, which they ALSO claim kept roots out. They claim that if the water does not leak out, the roots do not try to go in.

Hydraulic pressure around here shows up all over the place. We went from a 5yr drought, to the most rain in one month over a 20yr period. One local lake that is 7 miles long, was at 13% capacity in Oct, but is not at 72%. Local ponds were flat out dry, and are now full. I am talking 1.5 acre ponds 20-25ft deep.

Have any of you guys used Root X before? Any good? Is it harmful to anything but roots, like does it mess up the septic action?

 

[handirifle]

Second the rock salt. We used to do that when we were trying to "fix" a section of orangeburg pipe with fernco couplings. How much? I'd say about a 3"x3" swath around the joint between the lid and side walls and the same around the inlet and outlet pipes.
Depending on tank size I'd say 3-5 bags.

That sounds like a decent solution. I wonder how long it would last?

 

[handirifle]

I just had a new septic field installed and on the one end, near a large tree, they installed a 4" perforated pipe barrier with an elbow and cap above ground to periodically pour in copper sulfate to keep the roots at bay.

Does the CS get poured in full strength or diluted? How much does it take?

 

[RNeumann]

That sounds like a decent solution. I wonder how long it would last?

Years to decades! Once salty, roots will stay away. I don't know about the CS but based on the quality info from the post it prob works well- rock salt was an easy grab at the wholesaler since softeners are common in our area.

If you have the top of the tank and diverter exposed it may be worth having a plumber run a camera down the 3 lines (tank to diverter and diverter to two leach lines). Probably take an hour or so and if they found an issue they would locate it right then.

I have all my leach lines daylight like the post above stated. The plumber could locate the ends while using the camera and the rental mini ex could expose the ends.

 

[handirifle]

OK thanks It looks like I will have to wait to dig more, since I will be most likely creating another pond, right by my septic tank. The ground is saturated, and I am not sure how deep it goes, so I don't want to dig below the possible "bottom" of the surface water table, and make it now deeper.

This will take a while, especially since we have more storms coming in Wed night.

Here's a couple pics of the system when it was installed, during construction of the house. The first one shows one of the leech lines and you can see it steps down from the diverter box. The diverter box is down hill from the tank discharge as well. Once I do rent the excavator, I will open to the diverter and inspect that. Hopefully a couple more weeks.