# Our Mexican Septic Tank Maintenance Experience



## horseshoe846 (Feb 8, 2017)

Well I guess today we can close the book on our 'periodic' septic tank maintenance. We have been here four years now and the previous owner 8 years before that, and the owner before that perhaps another 8 years. I don't know that anyone has ever before serviced the system.

We went with the plumber who does all the rest of the plumbing work for us - mostly small stuff. First he quoted 350-400 pesos /day for two people. After day one he wanted 600 pesos and we agreed on 500 (not the end of the world). 

We had architectural diagrams of our lot but they bore little resemblance to reality in the end. At first we tried to trace both the black water (toilet) and clear water (shower) lines but finally just settled on the black water lines. We had to dig up close to 12 meters of pipe to encounter the registro (trap) which wasn't in that bad shape. Next we came across two 1100 liter tinaco like receptacles which were daisy chained. And finally there was an aeration chamber which was like 12 feet deep and perhaps 12 feet in diameter.

So the PVC line which ran from the master bath toilet to the register was in terrible shape. It was of the cheapest quality - had been crushed over the years - and had massive holes. When I forced the toilet to free flow the water only made it half way to the register - it just leaked out the holes. That was problem number one. Then we started digging up the PVC 'after' the register. We found that the 4" PVC tube between the two water tanks no longer connected the two tanks. So anything that might have made it to the first tank had no chance making it into the second - which explains why the aeration chamber was bone dry.

The aeration chamber - while bone dry - is supposed to be cleaned out periodically so that water 'seeps' into the ground properly. Well that would have been impossible prior to our little exercise since there would have been no way to have gotten down there. We had to cut a hole in the 2" thick concrete and rebar.

So more or less that project took us two weeks - that is versus the 3-4 day estimate we received. The big cost items were the suction truck that came to clear out the first tank (3000 pesos), the two concrete slabs I had made to cover up the holes we had to put in the aeration chamber (1600 pesos), perhaps another 1000-3000 in parts. The rest was labor over a two week period.

We love our house and we live in a decent community - but boy am I looking forward to the day I can live in a condo on the beach and leave all these opportunities behind.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

Those beachfront condos can charge monthly maintenance fees of over US$500 per apartment, so you certainly won't be saving anything maintenance-wise vs what you pay for your house. Of course the fees include other benefits, not least of which is that the sewer is someone else's problem, no matter how often it needs auguring.


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## Zorro2017 (Jan 9, 2017)

We have a system that I saw put in. There are two traps in the "apron" or sidewalk going around our house. Once when we had slow flushing I opened the first trap and saw a very large chupicabra had died in there.

Just kidding, it was hair so I scolded my wife about flushing hair down the toilet but to this day she cleans her brush and I find it floating in the toilet. At my age you choose your battles, trying to stop this lifelong habit would be akin to trying to pack a bobcat's butt with butter using a hot knife, it is easier just to clean the trap.

This trap leads to a second even more insidious trap in which amphibians dwell, I don't know how they get in there. The pipe then leads to a kind of settlement pot in which the solids fall to the bottom and slowly decompose over thousands of years. A pipe then goes to a huge pit that they dug and filled with large boulders of limestone I assume to give a large surface area for the bacteria to munch out. Back home, we Added Riddex, a miracle of powdered bacteria eggs I guess. You poured it into the toilet then flushed it once a month, This introduced space aliens into the pipe to clean the walls.

Our grey water runs under our perimeter wall and down the hill to the river, an open invitation for critters to wander up the pipe and into our shower drain I guess. I often imagine mice peeking at my wife while she showers.


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