If you have one of these then you may be wondering why and how it works.

Why do I have a sand filter?  That one isn’t so easy for me to answer. It could be that you have a small lot and you need a septic pre-treatment before releasing into your drainfield.  It could also mean that the ground you live on is absorbing water to quickly and not performing septic treatment before being released into ground water. Remember, this is where our drinking water comes from. Another reason is you could have high strength waste that needs further treatment to bring it down to residential waste strength.

It is really hard to see this sand filter but it is located in the lush growth of the grass and the open green hole is where the septic pump is housed. Geographically, the wastewater gets to the sand filter via a pump following the septic tank. There are five distribution lines on this sand filter that extends the entire surface of the sand filter. The lines are located just beneath the soil and at the end of the sand filter there are flush-ports. It is not necessary to have these installed but it is a really good idea.

If the flush ports are installed, I can flush the sand filter lines every year at inspection time extending the sand filter and septic pump life.  Remember, the pump’s job is not to just move water from one place to another, but charge all the lines in the sand filter and clean the lines with water volume and pressure.

You may wonder if the pump is cleaning the lines all year then where does the gunk go that it is cleaning?  It goes to the end of the sand filter lines, plugging it up in slow motion. If not flushed regularly, then usually 10 years after the sandfilter is installed the lines will need jetted. Jetting is expensive and could easily be avoided if the septic sand filter was flushed out yearly.

Here is the septic sand filter’s flushing point, and if you look closely a little frog is in the pipe. He came and surprised me as I was working. I worked around him and left him to his home.

Anyhow, I uncap the pipe and turn the pump in the pump tank, not the sand filter. It ejects any build up in the pipe out and keeps it clean. The build up is usually not a septic tank going too long between pumping, instead it is normally bacteria growth forming in the lines. This is what gets cleaned out everytime the pump comes on and builds up at this point. If allowed to go too long, it will plug up and cause a pump to burn up in the pump tank.