New Wastewater plant installed at last

After a lousy year of hassling the service agent of our old wastewater treatment system, we have bitten the bullet and replaced it altogether. I have lost count of the number of times I have contacted the service desk asking for the unit to be fixed, and we have stared at the red alarm light which has been on continuously since the day after Christmas 2006.

We and our neighbors have endured the smelliest of times together!

We started looking around mid-year, and looked at other similar systems (anerobic + aerobic + settling + disinfection) as well as the Biolitix worm system. In the end, one system stood out, because of it's final water quality, and that is the one we installed. It was not that cheap, but we don't pay sewage rates and we get to use the processed effluent on the garden, so what is a good price for that anyway? Of course, we want the water to be safe for re-use too.

The system we installed is the Econova NovaClear

http://photohiker.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p569256025-2.jpg

It's an aerobic system with a hightech membrane filter as the last stage, followed by UV disinfection. It's a low pressure membrane, not high pressure like those found on the desalination plants. The system treats all the water from the house including black (toilet) and grey water.

Most of it is below the ground, but this is the bit you can see:

http://photohiker.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p596828662-3.jpg

This system is approved for above ground dispersal of it's effluent water, which makes it's odor-free guarantee a bit stronger than most of the other systems which require subsoil dispersal. We've installed about 500m of Netafim dripline to take care of that, and in the future we may extend the irrigation to cater for other garden areas.

http://photohiker.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p746137148-3.jpg


http://photohiker.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p1047954497-4.jpg

It's early days yet, but so far the system is operating as it should. I sure hope we are onto a good one this time, I have no interest in repeating the disaster of our old system. I will be monitoring the output water for TDS in an effort to keep track of the effectiveness of the filter over time. Wish us luck :)

woodbe.

Interesting. Did you look at the Biocycle ? If so, how did that compare? My brother had one (Biocycle) , it seems ok, used to get smelly sometimes, though I put that down to his missues being a cleaning freak and using something bad.

woodbe, looks like an interesting system and it will be interesting to see how it stands the test of time.

We have a Septech system and apart from replacing the aeration pump twice ( once after 12 months!) it has been working fine for 7 years so far (touch wood)

I notice your dripper pipes laying on the ground like that, that would not be allowed here in Victoria, has to be under (nominally) 250mm of mulch eg pea straw.


Our Septech treats all our sewage, grey and black, and the water quality is excellent when it finally gets to our dripper lines

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Uncle Bob

Interesting. Did you look at the Biocycle ? If so, how did that compare? My brother had one (Biocycle) , it seems ok, used to get smelly sometimes, though I put that down to his missues being a cleaning freak and using something bad.

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Hi Uncle Bob,

Yes. The Biocycle is a similar unit to the one we replaced. (ours had a completely separate anaerobic chamber, but the process is the same). In tip-top conditions, this type of unit can be relatively odor free, but after having one, I wouldn't do it again in a suburban area.

woodbe.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Big Shed

woodbe, looks like an interesting system and it will be interesting to see how it stands the test of time.

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Amen to that.

Mulch is going in shortly, not sure of the requirements for it in SA, but it would be silly not to mulch the area anyway.

The Econova is approved in some states for installation without any disinfection. In SA, UV is part of the approval, and I'm happy with that. I've always been a bit sus on the chlorine tablets our old system used - you could smell it when they were fresh, but not after a week or so, and they were only topped up every three months...

Wastewater plants are two things joined together at the hip: Design and service/support. A breakage in either part renders the system useless. Our old system was broken in both parts.

woodbe.

Also, please note that we could have opted for spray irrigation of the effluent if we had wanted to waste the water to evaporation. If you do that with just about any other unit, you void both the odor guarantee and the Health Department Approval.

woodbe.

We have had the the Biolytix system in for 5 months and so far this is working fine with no smell what so ever. We have to dispose of the water with sub-surface irrigation as it does not treat it to the same level as the Nova Clear and that suits us fine as this is set up under the lawn.

We chose this as it seemed to be the simplest as it is a one stage system with no filters and no UV or chlorine system. The only mechanical parts are a small air pump and water pump so not too much to go wrong.

One advantage I can see from the Nova Clear is the ability to use recycled water in the toilet. I am still uncomfortable seeing my very limited rain water used to flush the loo (we are on tank water).

I used to work for Biocycle back in '89/'90. Back then, there was no need for any output filtration & the system had all the approvals from Australian Government labs. Unless the laws have changed, there would be no need for any final filtration.

The only problems that I encountered was with European families, whereby they used large quantities of oil in their normal cooking (Italians for example). The oil would eventually "stall" the system. Also, if a whole family had the "flue" & was taking antibiotics, the system would also "stall".

The remedy for this was to use a product similar to Actizyme on a regular basis. The use of such a product will virtually guarantee nil odour & therefore system "stall".

BTW, I have no connections whatsoever with Southern Cross Laboratories (Actizyme). As a Facilities Manager, I have frequently used their products in the past, to save money.

Reuse of the treated effluent in the toilet is something that may or may not get approval by the health departments, so we don't count on it. If it happens, it will be a bonus as we are about 50% rainwater.

We liked the idea of the Biolytix, and if the Econova had not turned up, I think that is what we would have installed. Although it would have been a bit of a problem getting a phone line to the unit, the back-to-base communications and once-yearly service used by those plants is a great idea.

elkangorito, any unit you want to install must have state Dept of Health approval and be approved for installation in your situation. Compared with the market when we installed the first unit about 12 years ago, there is more choice and I think the regulations have tightened up somewhat but you are correct, I am unaware of any actual requirement for final filtration. For approval, each manufacturer must submit a unit for independant testing, and there are minimum standards to be met.

The dripline manufacturers specify 120 mesh filtration so that the lines don't clog up, so most installations will probably have some sort of final filtration in any case.

I think any of the mainstream brands would have turned out better than the one we had, and even then, ours would probably have worked out ok with a good service agent. Here in SA, most of these systems have only one agent, and if they change direction after you buy (as ours did) you land up with an orphan installation. Not something you can predict when there were just one or two brands on the market back then. Couldn't find anyone else approved and willing to take over servicing.

For example, I lost count of the number of 'cheap' chinese pumps our old unit consumed. They don't work out cheap if they don't last long though. With the new unit, we've gone from 3 submersible pumps to just one, and it's a decent pump. The other pumps are out of the water and they have light duty work. No way I could convince the old service agent to replace with better quality gear...

woodbe.