No, a septic can't take care of itself, there are a large amount of undissolved solids. Handfuls of dirt and sand from produce, cat dogs, people, laundry. And in recent decades, several pounds of plastic that helps form a thick layer of scum on top, which frequently interrupts the flow to the secondary "drop" tank,. Sometime even clogging the valve between the tanks so raw sewage floods the secondary and then the field. Said field quickly becomes clogged and ruined because it is only designed to handle very liquid "effluent".Believe it or not there are bacteria that actually enjoy eating shit. You can dump them in your septic system in concentrated amounts.
Never understood "pumping out" a septic tank. A septic system, done right, doesn't need "pumping out". It's a whole biological system that takes care of itself given good stewardship.
Water softener needs cleaning for same reason. Salt is 99.5% pure, rest is non-dissolving solids, aka dirt. For every 1000 lds. of salt used you are building up 5 lbs. of dirt in the bottom of your softener salt reservoir. People in the know let their salt go low and clean the reservoir out every few years.
Add: lot of people are killing their septic bacteria because their softener drains into it when cycling. No amount of bacteria tabs fixing that salty brew.
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