The ultimate challenge doesn’t only come in purchasing your own property. It also comes in maintaining it so that you could live in a sanitized and orderly environment. It is true that not everything you may hope for in your new home will always be there but surely you will manage in the long run. One of the unexpected things that you may get is a raised mound system. If you really love the property you spotted, you will do everything to make sure it functions to its fullest even if it can be an eyesore to your landscaping. There is a few things you should know about your septic. Such as, how salt can clog a raised mound system, or how if not maintained, the weather could cause major problems too. With that in mind, a raised mound system is “raised’ above the ground because the soil in your property needs to have additional filtration to help it treat the wastewater that your household produces. Your property may have a type of soil that filters slowly. The raising of this septic system will help accommodate the filters. It is true that the raised mound is a specialized septic system that needs more care and attention. It needs to be constantly protected by a layer of construction fabric. The fabric helps keep the heat inside the system so that the metabolism of the resident bacteria will always be at high levels. High bacterial activity then results to a much more efficient breakdown of solid waste particles. You have to make sure that you change the construction fabric if it is damaged especially before the cold season. If the construction fabric is damaged, snow and ice will enter the system. The entire raised mound could freeze over. Clogging is a common problem in raised mound systems. This may be brought about by so many factors and one of them is salt. Salt is a compound found in water softeners. Many households have hard water problems. To correct the hard water situation, water softeners should be used. Using hard water is difficult and impractical. It makes you use too much water, soap, effort, and time. Using too much water increases the raised mound’s water load. This stirs up the solid waste particles in the tank, delaying their breakdown. The particles just float around the tank and eventually enter the filters. The normal flow of the raised mound is interrupted because of the clogging. Hard water use also consumes a lot of your time and effort because you have to repeat the washings you perform. Your budget on soap is also altered because you have to buy more soap. Hard water only turns your soap into slimy, sticky soap scum that clogs everything. Water softeners really need to be used so that your frustration may end. Salt is present in water softeners. That is why many are apprehensive to use them. You should know how salt can clog a raised mound system so that you could be aware of what to do when you start using water softeners. Hard water has calcium and magnesium ions that have higher ion strength than salt ions. Because of this, their ions stick to the beads in the water softeners. They are then flushed out of the water supply system. Sodium ions are then left in the water. The sodium ions soften the water and allow it to become useful. It is this salt that threatens the resident bacteria in the raised mound. Bacteria in your raised mound system live in freshwater. Using water softeners adds salt in their freshwater environment, resulting to an imbalance or a hypertonic condition. Since the surrounding water is salty, the fluids inside the bacteria are sucked out, shrinking and dehydrating the organisms. When they lose the fluids, they die off. You should speak with your septic expert if you have hard water problems. Septic experts apply additives that help your raised mound to function optimally even if you do add salt into it. With their help, you could definitely have a long lasting, reliable raised mound system.