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Post by soldierprepper on Mar 14, 2021 18:17:57 GMT 10
G’day all,
My rural property has an an aerated wastewater treatment system going in for the house which is council required and approved. However out the rear of my property where it’s all bush I’m building a small off grid (and off council radar) cabin. The cabin will have solar power and its own water tank. But now what I’m trying to figure out is how to deal with wastewater and sewage from the toilet and shower. Long term it’s not going to get used much, but in the short term I’ll be there full time whilst the house is being built. Any ideas of what I can do on the downlow so as to safely dispose of it but not cost me a lot of money?
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frostbite
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Post by frostbite on Mar 14, 2021 18:26:16 GMT 10
Bury a plastic drum or small water tank with the bottom cut out. 100mm sewer pipe in , and another out, buried in a gravel drain, in case of any overflow. I've used this system for years with no problems.
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Post by soldierprepper on Mar 15, 2021 16:54:40 GMT 10
Bury a plastic drum or small water tank with the bottom cut out. 100mm sewer pipe in , and another out, buried in a gravel drain, in case of any overflow. I've used this system for years with no problems. Thanks mate, I’ve seen a few variants of this on YouTube as well |
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frostbite
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Post by frostbite on Mar 15, 2021 17:03:26 GMT 10
The first one I dug by hand, in hard ground just south of you, so it was only a 200l drum. Worked fine, but as the number of people using it increased I had an excavator dig a hole for a 1000l tank, with a diverter switch to swap between tanks if required.
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bug
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Post by bug on Mar 15, 2021 17:52:10 GMT 10
Buy plastic tank. Drill a sheetload of holes in it. Bury aggie pipe with slits in it to connect this to your water outlet and continue it into the bush on the other side.
You don't want a "suspiciously green" area in one spot if you are trying to stay off the radar.
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Post by milspec on Mar 16, 2021 19:27:48 GMT 10
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Post by spinifex on Mar 17, 2021 7:23:11 GMT 10
What sort of soil profile are you siting this on? It'll have important implications for a safe and effective design.
If I were you ... I'd split toilet sewerage from everything else. The bulk of greywater is low hazard and easy to deal with. Use it to water some fruit trees.
That leaves you with a much, much lower volume of nasty sewer water to dispose of.
If you have sand at depth in your soil profile, be aware that bacteria laden water can move for miles below the surface and contaminate streams and bores.
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feralemma
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Post by feralemma on Mar 17, 2021 13:31:21 GMT 10
Just put in aplastic septic tank for the toilet (easy to manouver yourself compared to concrete) and as spinifex said send all the grey water out onto fruit trees or lawn.
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grumble
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Post by grumble on Mar 18, 2021 9:18:06 GMT 10
What sort of soil profile are you siting this on? It'll have important implications for a safe and effective design. If I were you ... I'd split toilet sewerage from everything else. The bulk of greywater is low hazard and easy to deal with. Use it to water some fruit trees. That leaves you with a much, much lower volume of nasty sewer water to dispose of. If you have sand at depth in your soil profile, be aware that bacteria laden water can move for miles below the surface and contaminate streams and bores. I've seen that 1st hand where the septic contaminated the ground water in a shallow bore. even though the bore was sunk quite some distance from the septic it was basically "upstream" from the bore and yeah testing of the water said hell no don't drink this They sunk another bore in the other direction a bit further away and it came back ok but personally i would never trust it especially if you had a few dry years |
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norseman
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Post by norseman on Mar 18, 2021 9:46:50 GMT 10
I have the second (experimental / trial of its type) Reed Bed System installed in NSW. It was built at my place 25 years ago and was both Black / Grey Water capable. All gravity driven no moving parts and almost zero maintenance, one of the best things I ever did! ![]()  A similar system to what I have only difference is no Vertical Flow Reed Bed and No Pump Required! All run by gravity! ![]() |
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bug
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Post by bug on Mar 20, 2021 13:10:12 GMT 10
That's a good layout. Only issue is the pump which requires electricity and is a point of failure.
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