Septic Systems and Waste Water from Growing

[aintdedyet]

Greetings Fellow Growers!

Hope y'all are staying healthy and sane during these troubled times.

So we recently purchased a house in the country, on a well and septic system (this hobby is getting expensive!).

I may have to make some adjustments to account for the quality of the well water ( not sure of its composition at this point). I'm thinking about investing in an RO system at some point when finances permit.

My bigger concern is the septic system. I do not want to poison it or in any way interfere with its proper operation, specifically by introducing something which I shouldn't.

So a couple of questions in this context:

1. What should I be looking for in terms of well water quality? I can measure pH and TDS, and perhaps do a few other simple tests with a home test kit. I already know I may have a sulfur issue, since the rotten egg smell is pretty intense.

2. More importantly, I'm concerned about pouring runoff and other aqueous waste into the septic system. Most liquid is of course in the pH range of 5.5-6.5, so that's not likely an issue, but I'm more worried about interfering with microbial activity, either increasing it or decreasing it in the tank. The quantity of waste water is not insignificant, even with only a handful of plants.

Any fellow growers out there routinely pouring their waste water into their septic system?

thanks in advance for any constructive input.

[RetiredGuy]

I have a septic system and was also afraid of issues. I grow in the basement using a 30 gallon reservoir. I empty it with a small submersible pump and pipe the waste to one of the downspouts of my rain gutters to keep it out of the septic system. Better safe than sorry.

[Ckbrew]

If you have a vegetable garden, water it with your wastewater. Biggest vegetables you ever seen.

[9fingerleafs]

You are looking for 50-300 ppm as a base water, higher and you'll need that RO, i use tap water, comes out at 700, so i dilute 1to1 with RO.
Better to discard nutrients outdoors where plants can use it

[Rwise]

Get the well water tested if you plan to shower in it or drink it (dont drink the sulfur water, it will make you stink)! You already know it has an issue with sulfur, I have a sulfur well many ways to clean it. If you have fracking (or other high pressure injection wells) near you test every 6 months.
If you have a veggie garden, put the runoff there, if not what about a flower bed, or just the yard. I too would not put it in the septic system, it likely has enuf work to do.

[aintdedyet]

Thanks all. Out of an abundance of caution I'll mule my waste to the back forty during the winter months, to the flowers and veggies in warmer seasons.

Plan on having the water tested asap. I don't think we'll be drinking it, but showers are a must.

Thanks again ... stay safe everyone.

[Smoklahoma]

I agree , not down the drain. I pump mine through a hose on the yard. My well water is pretty good except for being hard, runs at 280 ppm out of the faucet. Haven't had to use any cal-mag. I wanted to do RO water but the well doesn't have a high enough pressure.

[Rwise]

Can the pressure be turned up? I know some are ran low pressure to not over work the well (low volume/recovery) so it dont run out of water.

[9fingerleafs]

You’d have to use a big tank, ideally rised to provide pressure thru gravity and weight. I have well water. There is a pump I ran manually every week to fill a 4 thousand gallon tank underneath the house and inside there’s an automatic pump keeping a 500 gallon tank full in the roof top. The house get the pressure thru gravity

[9fingerleafs]

There is a septic tank with filtration layers designed to drain water back Underground. So all the water goes back into the ground eventually

[Smoklahoma]

Water pressure to the house has never been a problem. I just read that average well pressure is about 40 psi. All the RO filters I looked at said they needed a min. of 60 to 70 psi to work properly. I didn't go much farther than that, figured I would just remove the cal-mag from the mix and see what happens on this first grow. Might have to do something different if I kill this first batch.

[Rwise]

Check with the pump MFG to see if it can go up to 75 psi without harming the pump, my bet is it will go to that if not a bit above safely. Now it may use a bit more electricity to get to that pressure, one of my wells was ran at 25 psi, it was very low yield.