Dear all,
I am involved with a charity which does horse riding for disabled adults and children. They have around 15 horses and ponies which generates a fair amount of dirty rugs, saddle cloths etc. Currently these are washed in a domestic washing machine which outputs to a septic tank. The septic tanks also serves a rarely used toilet, shower and sink which are all located in a small prefab building. This septic tank has never worked well, and always smells when the washing machine pumps the waste water to it or if you flush the toilet. This is despite annual desludging.
Elsewhere on the site is a new building which is served by a biodisc sewage treatment plant. This works extremely well and has done for years as it has been in place to deal with the waste water from the stable block. We are thinking of moving the washing machine so that to a feed room in the stable block so that its waste water goes to the biodisc which we hope will be able to deal with it better.
The washing machine is used irregularly, some days not at all and then four or five loads in a day if horses have been out at competitions etc. I realise that this is a bad idea for the septic tank but it is rather difficult to ensure that loads are spread out as much of the washing is done by volunteers who are only there at certain times.
I am not sure what sort of detergent is safest for the septic tank, I have read that biologial detergents upset the biomass and also that the filler in powder sludges up the tank, is non bio liquid the best option?
Is this likely to upset the biodisc in the same way it has upset the other septic tank or will it cope better as it has the benefit of greater dilution?
Is any type of filter on the washing machine waste necessary as there is often a lot of horse hair on the items being washed which could clog up the ouflow from the biodisc? The washing machine has its own filter which is cleaned every few loads.
Any comments appreciated.
James