Septic tank and lines clean up

My system is 30 years old. Functional but has a lot of build up....soap and otherwise.
Has anyone had any luck with special cleaning products? Most seem to be liquid which releases super duper enzymes. Some of the testimonies are good.

Amerisep out of Georgia makes the product I’m looking at presently. Have put yeast in system for years but seems to suffer from a lot of cleaning household liquids that go down the drains. We pump out the tanks every few years.

Any comments appreciated.

We also have a conventional system that is going on 40 yo. Used to use ridex years ago. Don’t use anything now. Had it pumped couple weeks ago, last time was 3 years ago. No issues, but there’s only 2 of us living here.
Is your problem too much solids? How many live there? You may need to pump more frequently.
It’s more advantageous for me to pump more often, much cheaper than having to replace the drain field. Or worse, have to install an aerobic system.

About the same here but I live alone. Neighbors with aerobic systems seem to behaving more problems.

We actually had problems recently, that ended up being the Sams-brand toilet paper (Members Mark 'Ultra Premium') that we recently bought only because of covid shortages of our regular stuff..
For 20 years we've always use Scott brand 1000 sheet, (or Walmarts 1000sheet roll), both with are very easy on septic systems, and we've never had any problems and go at least 8+ years between pumpouts.

It turns out this Sams 'Ultra Premium' stuff actually FLOATS, and takes forever to 'drop' / break down.
I actually did a test between samples of this stuff and several other types, including our usual.
After 4+ weeks, the Sams was still floating ( where Scotts1000 & WM1000 stuff sunk within 24 hours, maybe 2 days for Northern).

We have 5 people here - apparently after a 'pure diet' of Sams stuff for several weeks, all that we had at the time, we has such a large mass of it floating in the dang tank that it was blocking the input!
We normally don't put any additives into system, but we go real easy on chemicals & bleach, and I have clothes-washer water going out a separate gray-water line.

Anyhow, I put in some of that Green Gobbler powder stuff AND a gallon jug of their liquid in hoping to help speed things up.
I kept just a little aside to re-test samples, and surprisingly the gallon-jug stuff helped make the Sams 'up' stuff sink faster - much much faster!
However, with the samples, after 2 months, it didn't seem to break down any faster than the samples with no additives.
But it did quickly eliminate the 'floating' issue.
As the 'floating' was causing all my problems, I did gave-away all the Sams u.p. tp we had after finding Scotts & WM again, and haven't had a problem since.

Been in our house now for 8 years never pumped wont till i have a problem.

House i grew up in was pumped 3 times. Twice because of tree roots growing into the system and a third when it was caved in and hooked on to sewer. I think you may have an issue with your drain field or you really put a load on it pun intended if your having to pump it that often.

Thrift drain cleaner is made to dissolve soap and hair.....septic safe.
As far as tank maintenance, I use septic green gobbler saver pods every 60 days or so....they help counteract any cleaners and all the antibacterial stuff now being used.

I use RID every few months. Our system does not have tons of use and no dishwasher of clothes washer on it and only 2 in house. We also use RV toilet paper - wife doesn't complain about it ... too much ... and I hypothesize if it breaks down well for an RV, must be good for septic system.

Seldom use my dishwasher.

From years of living in the country...
Garbage disposals seem to be a tank's biggest enemy. The second is laundry detergents.

We have never used a garbage disposal and our washing machine gray water did not go into the septic tack. Neighbors on both sides and across the street had systems the same age as ours, but had garbage disposals and washing machines going to their septic. .

We had ours pumped about once, about 8 years.after we moved there. A lot of what they got was sand.

Neighbor to the north and across the road seemed to pump every 2 - 3 years.

Neighbor to the south had his yard dug up twice and seemed to have a truck out pumping at least once a year. No idea what they were doing to their system...he was not a very neighborly neighbor.

I use my garbage disposable but not often.

We very seldom use the disposal, but the gray water does empty into the septic tank.

Flush a can of dog food down there

we have both a garbage disposal and washing machine going into ours. County regulations when we built didn't allow a separate grey water line. We have the aerobic style systems since we built on solid limestone. We have to have our main chamber pumped about every 4-7 years ... been here 20 years and it's been pumped 3 times total. Roots are our main issue that grow into the lines between the different tanks, so we have to flush a root killer 1-2 times a year, which in turn seems to impact our grass following putting that in the system.

Been there.

If it's not going to the septic, where do y'all have your gray water discharging to?

Mine runs to a sloped field about 100ft away from house, on opposite side of where the septic is.
I have deep sandy soil here, and gradual slope, so it never accumulates, just a lot of nice thick grass growing there.

Grew up with a septic system. Mom and Dad lived there decades after I left home. Dad flushed yeast regularly. NOTHING went into septic tank but sanitary waste. Kitchen and washer drained into different leach field. We also were on well water. No added chemicals in water.

Was on a quail lease where the kitchen drained on to a slope on the east side. Didn't have a washer.

When we had the house built, I had two septic tanks put in. One for black water use and one for gray water use. We have limited field line areas, so we get the tanks pumped more than most folks would, which is about once a year or so.

They are called Honey Suckers in my area.

FIFY

Thank you, sir.

we call it the poop truck.

Yesterdays meals on wheels!

Your poop is our bread and butter!

The honey wagon

I once saw "Smells Like Money" stenciled on the rear-end of one of those trucks.

This outfit cracks me up. They are in New Mexico.

My guys truck has a hand of cards that reads, "in our business a straight flush beats a full house".

To check toilet paper for use in septic or aerobic systems - take a couple sheets and drop in a glass of water, shake it a few seconds, if it dissolves into fine fragments that is the paper to use. When we lived out in Gregg county and on septic we used Scotts. But we also had a separate drain for the washer and dishwasher that ran out to a nearby dry ditch.

Years ago I saw a septic pump truck on I-45 that was very well painted and looked good. Along both sides of the tank it said “We carry political promises”.

That's BS.

I saw a truck matching that description in Fort Worth.

They are honey wagons.