Live bait tank

[adriancorrea]

Hi all
I know we have covered this topic before but I was just interested in which way everyone has their tanks set up, so as I can decide which way to go with mine.
What is the best way to keep livies alive for overnight periods and more?
Should I use two bilge pumps??? [smiley=help.gif]
I have a black 50ltr round garbage bin.
Any ideas would be appreciated

Tight Lines
Adrian

[jaybee]

hey adrian i use a 5 gallon bucket with a battery operated pump which can also be hooked up to my battery. If you really wanna get into it, you should have two batteries in your boat as using the bilge pumps to keep em alive drains the power pretty quick, from my observation of my brothers setup. Gets to the stage he has to start his motor and either go for a run or idle the motor for a while to continue the fishing. I've fished alongside of him and had no problems keeping the fish alive or lost my battery power, in fact its his old pump i have, so i dont know why he went the other way
cheers
joe.

[Lucky_Phill]

Mate, if worse comes to worse, you can always drop the livies into a bucket with holes in it, and plonk it over the side while you sleep. That'll save the battery.

[adriancorrea]

Yeh sorry guys and gals Ive phrased that wrong [smiley=oops.gif] what Im really after is the basic plumbing to a live bait tank and what methods work best.
Not necessarily keeping them alive overnight but for lengthy periods

Tight Lines
Adrian

[jaybee]

adrian a 5 gallon tank with an aerator that either works with a d cell and or has a connection to hook up to ya main battery, you dont need to keep it going flatout all the time, or like phil says. hope this helps
cheers
joe.

[adriancorrea]

Thanks Joe and Phil
How big an areator do I need for a 50 Ltr tank?

Tight Lines
Adrian

[jaybee]

have a talk to ya local bait shop or aquarium supplies adrian, I'd price a unit at the bait shop then sus out the aquarium supplies and see who can give you the best price, oh when you go to the aquarium supplies tell them you are collecting fish for your marine tank so they sell you the proper equipment for salt water.
cheers
joe.

[Mulloway_Mad]

The size of the air pump will be irrelevant in this kind of set-up. Contrary to popular beleif, gaseous exchange occurs at the waters surface in your bait tank and the atmosphere, not between the air bubbles from the pump and the water. The idea is to break the surface tension of the water so oxygen can dissolve into the water, and CO2 out of the water.

If you were to use the air bubbles alone to oxygenate the water you would need to turn the water into a raging frenzy of foam to get the same amount of gas to exchange between the tiny bubbles and the water, as would be exchanged between the atmosphere and waters surface by simply breaking the waters surface tension (whew - hope I didn't lose anyone there).

Aquariums rely on specific pump sizes because the air bubbles serve multiple functions. They create a current to move water through the filter media (quite often the substrate of the aquarium or a small filter box) and also break the surface tension for gaseous exchange. Since you won't be filtering the water, the only function the air pump serves is to break the surface tension and promote better gaseous exchange between the water and the atmosphere.

[Lachie1]

We have a bilge pump on the outside of the boat near where the transom meets the hull on a plate of stainless with a pipe (also stainless) going in an arc almost under the boat. This is designed so that the bilge pump will suck up water at speed and not need to use the battery. The hose comes out the top of the pump and into the motor well through the water drainage holes We have this running into a large bucket via plastic hose and hose connections so it can be removed when not needed. The water flows in about 6/8 of the way up the bucket and a exit pipe is located about an inch lower on the other side of the bucket. There is a switch on the battery to turn the pump on or off. It is a 128 gph rhule pump i think. This setup works very well and i would reccomend it. Dont have a scanner or a digital but will try and borrow one if you need some pics. We catch our livies and plonk 'em in there and run the pump every 20 mins or so for about 10 mins depending on the type and number of baits in there.

Hope that helps ya a bit mate ???, Lachie

[mackmauler]

Adrian, this is what you need

[adriancorrea]

Yeh thanks Rob
But I think that tanks just about as big as my boat lol
Maybe I could attach a motor to that thing and use it as my boat lol
To the rest of you guys thanks alot Im a lot clearer now about how it all works Now I just need to put it all together

Tight Lines
Adrian

[aquarius]

Gee Rob how the heck did you manage this setup on ya boat mate...lol...very impressive i must say.
Adrian my live bait tank just has a bilge pump installed in the bottom of the well to a tube with holes in above the water line which aerates the water from time to time...just need to install another pump so i can pump out the old water for a fresh supply.
Cheers #Brent

[nofrills]

gday adrian,ill give you some ideas ,hope they help a bit.
firsty my boat has a wet deck so if water slops out of the tank while traveling dosent matter.Also i allways troll so i wouldnt know about the battery drain.but i do have a back up .The pump i use is a 500gph rule,probably overkill but it is also my deck wash pump i just use garden fittings to swap between the two.My tank is a 60lt esky,i think eskys are the go as they help stabilize the water temp.especially in summer when everything else in your boat is cookin including you .it might also give your livies a couple more minutes of life on that day you forget to flick the switch.My inlet hose flows into the bottom of my tank,the theory is put the good stuff where the fish are and let the old stuff out the top,you need a one way valve in the inlet hose to do that cause when you turn off the pump all the water will drain out of the tank.My drain is twice as big as the inlet ,when i first built it they were the same but the tank overflowed.I built this tank about five years ago and never had a drama with dead livies.hope it helps
heres a pic. cheers nofrills.