Cooler livewell

[krisopp]

Need your guys opinion on this. I made a homemade livewell in a cooler and I'm not sure if I'm getting enough pressure to adequately aerate the livewell. I have 6 holes that are putting off a steady stream of water into the livewell. Here's a pic and let me know what you think.

 

[wingsnhammers]

I honestly can't even begin to answer the question. I am interested to know the verdict though. If it is satisfactory, I may "borrow" your idea and make one for myself.

 

[krisopp]

I feel like it needs at least a 500gph, and I think this old bilge I have is not enough....

 

[acwd]

I used a 360 gph pump in one I built years ago and it was good enough. I thought that it was too much. I figure too much current would put stress on the fish. But thats just my opinion on it.

Steve

 

[JMichael]

I've read where one person using a similar setup said that by having the pump in the water, it caused the water temp to warm up a bit. I don't know if that would affect fish but it affects bait fish like minnows. I've never worried about keeping fish alive because it's either catch and release or catch and cook but I've done quite a bit with keeping minnows alive. For minnows I'd want more air bubbles. So slits might work better than holes in your sprayer and like you mentioned, a higher gpm might help.

 

[earl60446]

I think you are ok on aeration but the pump will heat up the water and that is bad for fish, especially minnows. Best to run fresh water into the cooler from the lake and let the excess drain overboard thru a overfill drain to keep fish alive.
Tim

 

[johnnybassboat]

Instead of an internal pump you can use a livewell pump, the kind that goes through the transom. Thats what I did on my cooler, but mine is permanently mounted, so it doesnt need to be so compact or self contained. I also used another pump of same style to fill.

 

[chrispbrown27]

I read somewhere that 700 gph is the recommended minimum for a livewell set up. I would put smaller holes in the pipe. Yes, having the pump in there will warm up the water slightly, but I would say unless you are fishing for a heat sensitive fish, such as trout, then I won't be that big of a deal. Toss a bottle of frozen water in there and it will make the heat pump not matter at all. Something you might consider that I read recently, take your bilge and toss it over the side of the boat with a hose running back to your cooler. Lots of fresh oxygenated water, of course for this set up you would have to set up an over flow of some sort which wouldn't be too hard.
Since I am in the planning stage of my livewells, I have been reading a lot lately on the subject. I am going to attempt to find some sort of ceramic air stone for mine because this seems to be the best set up for bait and gamefish.
Chris

 

[krisopp]

Thanks for all the good input! I did not think of the water warming up, so I think I'll throw a frozen bottle of water in there and try that. I will be using this for bass tourneys, and I'd like to keep it as nonpermanent as possible. I think I'll also take an old plastic pitcher and change out water every now and then.

 

[sdavis]

I see this all the time but it is not correct. 'Aerate' with this setup all you want, but you cannot add more oxygen to the water then there already is in the cooler. Once the oxygen in the cooler is used up by the fish, it will suffocate. Analogy: put yourself in an airtight box, you will use up the available oxygen at the same rate as if you had a fan circulating the air inside the same box.

You either need to have a way to change the water (fresh water will have fresh oxygen dissolved in it), or bring in outside air either by (a) keep the lid open or opening it often (counterproductive?) or (b) drill a few air holes through the lid or side of your cooler (counterproductive?) or (c) change the water on a regular basis while fish are in there or (d) use an aerator used in 'minnow buckets', which actually take outside air and pump in inside your container.

 

[sdavis]

Thanks for all the good input! I did not think of the water warming up, so I think I'll throw a frozen bottle of water in there and try that. I will be using this for bass tourneys, and I'd like to keep it as nonpermanent as possible. I think I'll also take an old plastic pitcher and change out water every now and then.

frozen water bottle works great to keep the water cool and fish healthy. If you will be changing the water frequently, that will work to bring fresh oxygenated water to the fish. But your 'aerator' re-circulating pump is not needed. Just like a fan inside a sealed room would not give you anymore oxygen, your recirculating pump simply moves the existing water around, nothing more.

 

[chrispbrown27]

Thanks for all the good input! I did not think of the water warming up, so I think I'll throw a frozen bottle of water in there and try that. I will be using this for bass tourneys, and I'd like to keep it as nonpermanent as possible. I think I'll also take an old plastic pitcher and change out water every now and then.

frozen water bottle works great to keep the water cool and fish healthy. If you will be changing the water frequently, that will work to bring fresh oxygenated water to the fish. But your 'aerator' re-circulating pump is not needed. Just like a fan inside a sealed room would not give you anymore oxygen, your recirculating pump simply moves the existing water around, nothing more.

I have to disagree with you on that. As the water makes its way from the tube back into the cooler it is capturing oxygen in the air and transferring it into the water. A better choice would be an aeration system that uses a ceramic air stone, such as oxygenator, but those systems are pretty pricey. For the average person who isn't into tournaments or only occasionally fishes tournaments a cooler with a pvc and bilge pump set up should be fine. The next step for a little bit more money would be a system that draws water constantly from the lake and the overflow is sent back into the lake, which would involve multiple pumps. For basic use the cooler set up will be fine. 500 gph is actually below what is recommended, which is 750 gph, for a livewell system but that is also going to depend on the number of fish being kept in there and the size. For that size of cooler I would guess that 500 should be just fine.
Chris

 

[JMichael]

I have to disagree with you on that. As the water makes its way from the tube back into the cooler it is capturing oxygen in the air and transferring it into the water.

Chris, I don't think that's what he's saying. He's saying that once the lid is closed there is a finite amount of air inside the cooler and no mater how much water you spray, there is only so much oxygen that can be added and then there is no more. And I would agree with that assuming the cooler lid was air tight, latched, (which most cheap ones aren't and I don't foresee anyone using a Yeti for this app) and the lid was never raised. But as soon as the lid is raised (which happens with each time a fish or ice that is added to the cooler) that would reset the whole scenario with a fresh supply of oxygen in the cooler. And for those reasons I would say the reason he listed would not be an issue. Besides, it's been done this way long enough that several companies are selling kits for doing it this way so something must be working.

 

[FlyFishin'Fool89]

I'm using a small DC motor with a piston hooked up to it that pumps air in and out with a 1/4 in hose ran into hje ice chest works extremely well will post a pic of the set up

 

[FlyFishin'Fool89]

How my livewell set up looks currently

 

[astrorails]

I think you are ok on aeration but the pump will heat up the water and that is bad for fish, especially minnows. Best to run fresh water into the cooler from the lake and let the excess drain overboard thru a overfill drain to keep fish alive.
Tim

This almost sounds to easy to be true! The previous owner of my boat had started a cooler livewell. There is a pump installed to pull in water from the lake, and I think his/my plan was to wire up a bilge pump in the cooler to recirculate water, but if I could just use the pump bring water in, and have overflow drain out of the cooler, that would be a thousand times simpler!

Now I just have to wait to free the boat from the ice and I get at the cooler and finish this off.

Thanks!

Peter

 

[sdavis]

I think you are ok on aeration but the pump will heat up the water and that is bad for fish, especially minnows. Best to run fresh water into the cooler from the lake and let the excess drain overboard thru a overfill drain to keep fish alive.
Tim

Best idea for a livewell ever. When I build my next one, this is what I will do.

 

[Sal12]

Mike is right on this one.

Just so everyone is on the right page and to insure clarity on this matter, that we are all comparing apples to apples, not apples to bananas; not livewell oxygenation to livewell aeration:

Let’s begin with some scientific facts:

Livewell defined by Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livewell

Oxygen is not Air: https://oxyedge-chum.com/oxygen-is-not-air/

Oxygen defined by Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen
Air defined by Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth’s_atmosphere

Nitrogen defined by Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nitrogen

Henry’s Gas Law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry's_law

Henry's Gas Law is the chemistry law that controls and limits how much gas can dissolve into a solution (oxygen and nitrogen in livewell water).
Now you know the science that makes all this work and why air and aeration often fails to keep bait alive in the summer because of deadly low dissolved oxygen levels.

If you want to correct your summer death-well problems, improve your water quality, simple provide more dissolved oxygen, not more fresh air or more fresh water.

How much oxygen does your bait need in summer livewells? This much: https://oxyedge-chum.com/how-much-oxygen/

Now you know how to keep live bait healthy in your summer livewells and bait tanks.

This is how State and Federal fish hatcheries transport live fish, and their fish don’t die in their haul tanks either. They are the real live fish transport experts.

Healthy happy live bait works better than sick, dying live bait in the summer.