Large waterchanges, septic systems, and winter

[MooseTheWizard]

I live on a septic system and have about ~500 gallons of aquariums. This becomes about 2-300 gallons of water changes a week. In the summer time I open the door/garage and just drain it out into the gardens, and bottle some up for house plants. In the winter I dump this into my septic. So far it's not caused a problem, and if I maintain my current aquariums I doubt it ever would. The leeching field is massive and we have well draining soil and live in a highly wooded area.

My problem is that I am looking to grow my water volume considerably. I am looking to add two 96"x48"x30" aquariums into my garage, and at ~600g each I end up with over 1500g of water, changing about 7-800g a week. In the summer this is still fine, as I will be using this water for gardens.

Does anyone have an idea of what I could do with this water in the winter? I am not opposed to installing something or spending money on this problem. Simply dumping the water out onto the driveway is not an option, it is below freezing here for about half the year and I would turn my entire property into an ice rink.

 

[Midwater]

Simply dumping the water out onto the driveway is not an option, it is below freezing here for about half the year and I would turn my entire property into an ice rink.

Move somewhere a lot warmer.

 

[MooseTheWizard]

Move somewhere a lot warmer.

Haha, emigrating isn't something I plan to do.

 

[fishdance]

I don't live in cold climates but since your leach field has capacity, I suggest you add a small 1000L holding container that gravity drains into the leach field system. Just bypass the septic tank essentially. Your tank water will be warm and shouldn't freeze up your pipes until it's safely spread out. You only have 6000 ish litres of waste.

The holding tank isn't meant to contain water, just temporarily fills until gravity forces distribute out to the leach field.

 

[TwoHedWlf]

Find a nice open area, put up a big pole and run a hose to the top of it them pipe all your water out of that pipe. Then it will make a big badass ice tower.

 

[jjohnwm]

As another Canuck, and one who lives in a rural setting where I am responsible for disposing of all waste water produced by my household...this question certainly hits home for me.

I dispose of 500-600 gallons weekly by simply pumping it up out of my basement using a small utility pump. In summer it normally goes through my foundation wall and into a buried line which also carries away water pumped up by my basement sump pump. This line runs into a nearby fallow field, roughly 80 feet from my house.

In winter, valves re-direct the outflow of the utility pump to an external faucet, to which I attach a length of garden hose which then takes the water to the same location in the field, but this time above ground. The hose needs to be unrolled immediately before and then re-coiled immediately after the water change; leaving it too long outdoors without warm water flowing though it can easily cause it to shatter when bent. It is the work of only a couple minutes to lay out or roll up that hose once a week for a water change on all my tanks.

I absolutely do not put any waste water into my septic system. Even though I am on an ejector system, which is essentially maintenance-free and has an unlimited useful lifespan, I don't want the pump that operates it to experience excess wear from dealing with all that additional aquarium water. If I had an actual septic field with a weeping system and a very finite life, I would be even more cautious about overtaxing it. I have had to install a new weeping bed on such a system in the past and do not want to repeat that exercise.

F fishdance , I had to chuckle at your solution. Your suggestions normally border on genius and display a wealth of experience that few can match combined with creative problem-solving ...but the comment on warm water not freezing up the pipes before the storage tank drains down made me laugh out loud. Not gonna work up here!

 

[aussieman57]

Find food grade plastic 55 gallon drums. Cut the top off with a circular saw. You can then flip over the cut off top and it becomes a lid. I use a submersible pump to get water into the drums and then use pump to water plants outside. I also do not put any excess water into my septic system. I used to design and inspect septic systems. One thing that can cause a septic field to fail is hydraulic overload (putting too much fluid into the field). I also use these drums for rain barrels outside as my wife has converted our yard to all native plants and created butterfly gardens.

 

[RD.]

LOL jjohnwm Yep, with a slight breeze, -40C here this morning. And for our American friends, that's -40F.

 

[aussieman57]

Well here in SW FL it is currently 67 F & Sunny. The high today will be in mid 80's.

 

[Yoimbrian]

I actually have a similar problem. I only have ~250 gallons worth of aquariums, however my septic system is 60 years old and there is literally absolutely zero legal options to replace it (there are no places in my yard that are far enough away from pond / street / neighbor / well / house to be a legal distance by current law, and by a very wide margin it's not even close). So I'm paranoid about my septic on multiple levels (and no I don't know what will happen when it eventually fails, no I didn't know about this when I bought the house, yes my realtor was beyond incompetent).

Anyhow, I originally tried pumping the water into the yard with a heated pipe, but still managed to have it freeze somewhere. So I installed a 1" self-draining pipe through the wall (I had an old hole in the wall that I just covered up with plywood and insulation). Basically from the inside of the house it initially points up to hang from the bottom of the deck, and then there is a short area pointing down. So when I am done pumping water out any of the water in the line either drains out the end or drains back inside into a bucket when I disconnect the pump. I have used it down to -15F temperatures here and it hasn't frozen yet!