Septic system during and post power outage. What needs to be done?

I am 99% sure it uses a drain field. The only power I believe that goes to any part of it is the aerator.

Been in my house with septic tank for 19 years and never had an aerator…put some rid-x down the toilet every 6 months or when I remember and never had issues or had it pumped out, FWIW

I never hooked my up. It has been working fine since 2003. Every time you flush the toilet it adds oxygen (I think).

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Been in my house with septic tank for 19 years and never had an aerator…put some rid-x down the toilet every 6 months or when I remember and never had issues or had it pumped out, FWIW

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Septic systems don’t have aerators. Septic is a term in wastewater treatment used to describe a bacterial environment where there is no dissolved oxygen and the metabolic pathways used to destroy organics and produce energy are of the fermentative nature. What you have is a treatment system that relies on aerobic degradation if organic and nitrogen containing material.

Treatment systems are generally smaller than septic because the aeration acts to stir/mix the wastewater allowing for better contact of the bacteria to the material, while septic is unmixed and you need things to settle out to be degraded.

Most bacteria in sewage treatment units can operate in either aerobic or septic conditions, it just takes some time to switch metabolic pathways.

Your system should be fine if it’s a couple of days/a week, but get the aerator on as soon as possible as the smaller residence time will result in less complete treatment.

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but get the aerator on as soon as possible as the smaller residence time will result in less complete treatment.

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Thanks man, so with this said, I obviously have no control over when it comes back on, so is there anything I need to do to ‘jumpstart’ it back to normalcy when I do get power back? It could be another week.