A functional home has all of the elements it needs to go through each day. There has to be balance in everything so that the routines will not be interrupted. Part of the home is wastewater treatment. If you have a cesspit when you bought your property, then you have an old-fashioned wastewater treatment system. It has an inflow pipe and a tank surrounded by perforations. The perforations or holes take the place of the outflow pipe in the modern septic system. They allow the pre-treated effluent to flow into the surrounding soil absorption system. Since the cesspit works 24/7, you need to make sure that it is very efficient so that you won’t have to deal with cesspit problems. The most common cesspit issue that you have to deal with is clogging. Clogging in a cesspit stops the entire flow of the wastewater treatment process. If you have a hard water crisis, you have to know how salt can cause clogging in a cesspit.
Hard water has calcium and magnesium that make it hard for detergents or soaps to lather up. Because of this, the cleaning tasks take very long to accomplish. You spend too much time, effort, and money. You buy more soap and pay bigger water bills. You repeat each task so you exert more effort and time in washing anything. You also end up with slimy soap scum that clogs the drains and showers. The worst part is that you increase the water load in the cesspit. When this happens, the solid waste materials are stirred up. Their degradation is delayed because they cannot be accessed by the bacteria that easily. The particles just float around in the cesspit until they are pushed through the perforations. The surrounding soil absorption system is then clogged.
To counter the hard water’s effects, homeowners use water softeners. Water softeners have beads that attract the calcium and magnesium ions and flush them out of the water supply system. Then, the sodium carbonate in the water softener is left in the water to soften it. By this time, the water is turned into softened water. With softened water, you can save on soap, time, effort, and money. However, when you use water softeners all the time, you introduce salt into your cesspit. As you increase the salt content in the cesspit, you slowly kill off the resident bacteria that treat your wastewater. As you know, salt is a preservative. It works by making the surrounding water around the bacteria hypertonic. This means that the salty environment will suck out the fluids inside the bacteria. Once this happens, the bacteria can die off. With this goes the fact that freshwater organisms cannot survive in saltwater environment. You have to make sure that you work with your septic expert when you have hard water issues so that additives can be added to help the cesspit function ideally as you use water softeners.
You should also see to it that you use eco-friendly soaps and not harsh cleaners. Harsh cleaners kill off the bacteria because of the high amounts of strong acids and strong bases in them. Eco-friendly detergents are not as harmful to the bacteria, allowing them to proliferate as you use softened water. Adhering to the pump out schedules is also needed so that the salt residue in the cesspit is removed completely. This will clean out and refresh your cesspit, making it ready for the next batch of softened water the wastewater. You must also use your drains, sinks, and toilets properly by not dumping non-biodegradable materials in them.
Hard water is a definite problem for every household but don’t let water softeners aggravate the situation further. Always communicate with your septic experts so that you could be guided efficiently as you deal with your hard water crisis. With the helpful additives they provide, your cesspit will surely last for decades, making your household more healthy and sanitized.