Question:

The tank is full after only 3 years and two people using it. The smelly water (effluent?) began to come up out of the ground over the access panel to reach the baffle. I dug up the access panel for the baffle at the corner of the tank and removed it to find the tank is full of just mostly gray water and not solids. The original owner of the house said that he had to do this once and he got a guy with an electric snake to snake out the clog in the 4" pipe that goes to the leach fields after he removed the baffle at the elbow and it worked (15 years ago). Anyway when I reached down through the nastiness I felt the elbow and was happy to see it was still there. Just then it broke off (I hardly even touched it) and sunk to the bottom of the tank!!

Now I have an open hole to the leachfield pipe about 5" below the floating solids.

1) My question is should I have the tank pumped before I get the line snaked (I ask because I feel I won't be able to see the water go down the pipe when the clog is removed by the snake, so I won't really know if that was the only clog if I get the tank pumped first).

2) Is there any way to get a new baffle put on even if the 2 inches of pipe entering the tank cranked off and only shards (jagged edges of the two inch nub that the elbow for the baffle attached to) are left inside the tank.

3) I must mention that both fields are dry and don't smell at all and nothing has ever backed up into the house, YET!@!!

Thank you for any knowledge/experience anyone may have.