Back in the 50's it was hardly polite to mention drains. Drains were installed to flow sewage and effluent efficiently and mysteriously away from our homes, but all too often and to everyone's embarrassment, they failed and blocked.

 

With today's public awareness of bacteria and increased cleanliness, it is hard to believe that the introduction of breed bacteria added to human sewage can help our environment.

 

The 50's was a great decade for inventive progress, Elvis, Rock and Roll, Morris Minor's, Super Glue, even Barbie. Two guys in Connecticut decided to produce a natural solution to the above natural problem.

 

Certain naturally occurring bacteria feed by producing enzymes, which breakdown specific waste products. The bacteria then carry on rapid breeding and producing more enzymes, to break down more waste and so on.

 

The American company ROEBIC laboratories Inc was formed and harnessed this natural activity into safe and simple packaged products for home owners and farmers. These natural solutions have been keeping drains flowing across the world for over 50 years.

 

Over these years, Roebic Labs Inc, which is still owned and managed by descendants of the founders, has developed and refined the formulations and has also grown into a prime producer of specialised bulk bacteria used in waste water treatment, with a number of American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) registered and patented to their credit.

 

The Bacteria and Enzymes

 

The process of adding enzyme producing bacteria to enhance natural biological degradation of wastes is called bio-augmentation. Enzymes on their own without the reproducing bacteria have a very limited working life, but are added to some ROEBIC products to speed initial activity.

 

Technically, each Roebic drain treatment is a combination of carefully selected bacteria producing multiple types of enzymes aimed at the conditions and multiple types of waste products found in a selection of common circumstances, such as septic tanks, drains, grease traps and cesspools.

 

Different strains of bacteria need various conditions to survive and thrive, such as temperature, pH (acidity or alkalinity), the presence or absence of oxygen or high nitrate environments. These bacteria are mixed and matched in each product, to suit the application conditions. Some have spores which re-activate even if the bacteria are killed by temperature extremes.

 

Most drain, trap and plumbing systems have aerated conditions, good for aerobic bacteria, while residential septic tank systems are largely de-aerated and need a combination of aerobic and anaerobic bacteria to be effective. Secondly, each strain of bacteria produces characteristic enzymes such as Proteases which degrade proteins, Lipases for degrading fats and greases, Amylase for degrading starch and sugars and Cellulase which breaks down the cellulosic structure in plant and paper tissue. ROEBIC drain treatments include up to 12 bacterial strains per product, including ROEBIC patented bacteria.

 

Septic Tanks and Cesspools

 

ROEBIC have three main products for the owners of septic tanks and cesspools. However it is important to note that while septic systems are very largely sealed and de-aerated (anaerobic), with a low oxygen layer at the top and fully aerated inlet pipes, cesspools are normally aerated (aerobic).

 

For many years we have been asked by a number customers if there was an additive they could add to their sewerage systems, in order to make them work more efficiently and to mainly alleviate odours. We had always stated that there was but we could not recommend them, which was mainly due to our ignorance in their ability to produce the desired effect.

 

During 2001 we decided to try different available tank treatment products on a few problem systems within our client base, two of which had had serious problems for a long time, and one which had high flows due too the commercial nature of the buildings.

We tested each product over many months and were very surprised at the result.

Obviously we are not chemists and have no results in writing, but we felt that as we had looked after these problem tanks for a while, between the customers and ourselves if improvements were made it would be noted between us.

 

Of the four different manufactured products we tried, all failed to sort the problem at the commercial premises, which we put down to the high flow not allowing the additive to settle, but the results on the systems which we added  ROEBIC K37 had a vast improvement, reducing odours tremendously. This product was by far the better of the four brands, and in-fact the cheaper to purchase.

These customers have continued to use K37 and are pleased with the results.

 

In our view ROEBIC K37 proved the most effective and with the direct, hands on results we achieved we can promote this product knowing it works.

 

TO ORDER K37 SEPTIC TANK TREATMENT - Please call 01306 886125

 

Even though ROEBIC have three products aimed at Septic tanks and Cesspools

I.E.

 

K-37 Septic Tank Treatment

K-47 Cesspool Treatment

K-57 Concentrated short term remedial Product

 

We will not sell K-47 or K-57 until we have proved to ourselves that they are effective.

We plan to experiment with these products soon and will post the results on this site.