Blank tank open or closed

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analemma77

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Aug 13, 2016
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Hello, just wondering what the advice would be on leaving both black and gray water fully open when attached to the hookups at an RV park.  Heard that it's better to leave it closed until it's 3/4 full and then pull it open so it all drains out properly.  Then re-close until it's 3/4 full again.  Thanks
 
Yes, thanks, I knew to pull the black before the gray.  The advice was to not leave the black open all the time, but to let it fill up even though you are hooked up to the sewer at the site, then when it's 3/4 full, open it to drain, then close it back up until 3/4 full again.  I used to just connect the sewer and pull both and leave them both open all the time until it's time to leave, and then close them up.  But this person was saying even though you are hooked up to a sewer connection, keep the black closed until almost full then pull it, then close it back up, repeat, etc.  Thanks
 
Leaving the black tank valve open for any period of time will result in the dreaded poop pyramid. Search the forum for poop pyramid and see what others have gone through to get rid of it. It is not fun.
 
Just to be more specific, if you leave it open all the time, the liquids run out and the solids stay in the tank usually right under the pipe from the toilet. Then you end up with a POOP pyramid like Tom eluded to.
 
And to be more specific the solids build up and the heat inside the tank bakes the poop to concrete like hardness and getting rid of it is a bummer. It requires a lot of physical pressure. Chemicals will not do the trick. Back to you Rene. :D
 
SeilerBird said:
And to be more specific the solids build up and the heat inside the tank bakes the poop to concrete like hardness and getting rid of it is a bummer. It requires a lot of physical pressure. Chemicals will not do the trick. Back to you Rene. :D
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I'm done Tom.
 
My criteria which has always worked great for the two of us.
If we are staying for any length of time:
Black tank closed until it is close to full ( I use a flash light looking down the toilet with the water turned off, since as we all know, the gauges are useless). In my case it is every seven days.
Gray tank always open until the night before I am going to dump the black. Then I close it so there is a build up of gray to flush out the hose after I dump the black.

If we are only camping for a three or four days days; Black tank closed and just before dumping I add about nine or ten gallons of fresh water to the black tank so I have a good liquid supply and I do the same as above with the gray

Jack L
 
In addition to the above advice, after I empty the black tank and close the valve, I always fill the toilet bowl about 4 times and dump the water into the empty tank.  I feel like that keeps things in the tank "lubricated". 
 
SeilerBird said:
I always add about 4 gallons of water to the black tank after I dump it. And I always flush with a lot of water.
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Yeah, I guesstimate that each toilet full is about a gallon, so same as you. 
 
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