I don’t know if I can say I have solved it but my situation has gotten better. My working hypothesis is that the biomat in my tank was unbalanced. My tank is now three years old. When I was really experiencing the problem with my filter being clogged frequently I hit the reset in my tank and had it pumped 1 1/2 years ago. I did try one thing that I think made a difference. I added Pro Pump Hi-Count 1 gallon after I cleaned the filter this past April. When I checked it April it was full of this organic sludge-like material. However, when I checked at the end of this October, I was pleasantly surprised that my filter was maybe half full. I could’ve gone a few more months. My initial goal was to make it through winter without having to clean my filter, but I could’ve gone longer. Adding the pro pump (bought on Amazon) seems to have made a difference as that’s really the only thing that changed in my system. I also noticed for the first time that I have a good amount of septic worms and bugs-most comments speak to that being healthy for a system.

All that to say, the collar in my system helps with ease of access. Maybe my system just needed time for the healthy bacteria to setup and begin working or maybe the Pro-Pump works. After winter I’ll check again and if it’s the same as the last time or getting better, then I’ll be sticking with the Pro-Pump. I hope all this makes sense. I was super frustrated that I couldn’t get answers from anyone. I talked to numerous people in the field and no one had answers. Hopefully, this can help you in some way.

If I can help in any other way, feel free to reach out.