Livewells (I need your help!!)

[Javelin_Venom]

I have a few questions involving livewells.  I have 2, each seperate from the other, with switches for both individually.  One has a plug and I believe the other has a mess screen type deal.  I have a switch I can open that lets the livewells drain when it's open and out of the water, or fill when it's open and in the water, but it only fills a little bit, because the boat sits pretty high in the water.  I have had some problems keeping fish really healthy in the livewells.  It seems like they are hardly alive when I get them out.  What way is the right way to fill your livewells?  Is it by pumping the water in using the aerator switch?  Then once you have water in it, what do you do?  Do you open the valve that lets water out/in and leave the aerator running?  Do you just let the water sit there and bring in fresh water every now and then?  Basically I need a crash course on livewells.  What is the proper way to use your livewells and keep fish healthy?  Thanks in advance.

[preach4bass]

You have a good problem, you need your livewell

Here is what I do, but I'm sure a lot of other guys could give you better advice:

1.  Fill the livewell completely using the pump.

2.  If your boat has a timer on the areater pump use that, but if not manually turn it on for about 30 seconds every once in a while (more often in the hot Summer months).

3.  In extreme heat carry a couple of bags of ice with you and dump some in every once in a while to keep the fish cool.

4.  I use a chemical called "Please Release Me" that helps the fish stay alive.  I know there are similar products, but I've had luck with this one.  Others will probably give more advice on this.

**If your livewell is like most I wouldn't worry about overfilling it.  Most livewells have an overflow pipe that allows you to pump in fresh water and circulate out the old.

Good luck, and I'm glad you need the livewell!

[ernel]

The way that I normally fill my livewells, is to start off with the drain closed before putting the boat in the water. Reason being is that I don't like to put the water from the ramp into the livewell due to the oil in the water from where the motors are warming up. After I have reached my first spot I will normally flip the aereator switch to begin filling the livewell.  It will fill up for 30 seconds then shut off. I will not fill the livewell any more untill I have a fish to put in. No need in carrying extra weight around.  I do not open the drain untill I am taking the fish out of the livewell at weigh in. Most livewells have an overfill drain that will allow water to flow out as new is pumped in. I have a timer that will run my main fresh water intakes. I use these whenever I am fishing. I also have a recirculator pump that I will run whenever I am making long runs on the lake with fish in the livewell. All this pump does is re use the water that is in the livewell. Hope this helps.

[preach4bass]

ernel,

I've never thought about leaving my drain closed at the ramp due to the oily water.  That's smart.

[jb_from_texas]

mine is the recycle type, no air.  Once the well is full and the fish are in how often do you need to run the pump to generate fresh water?  I have kept mine on for hours and totally forgot about the battery usage.  Would i be better off installing an areater or a timer to automatically recycle the water?

[Smib]

8-) I usually let the water in my live wells drain out to about 25% capacity once or twice during tournaments, then pump in fresh water until full.  I've always done this and have never lost a fish and it gets plenty hot here in Texas.  I pretty much have the auto timer switch to about 30 seconds like most of the other guys.

[5bass]

8-) I usually let the water in my live wells drain out to about 25% capacity once or twice during tournaments, then pump in fresh water until full. .

If I've got a decent limit and a little time to spare,I do that too.

[ernel]

A timer is not a must, but it is easy to forget to turn it off or on. When the timer went bad on my old boat, I bought this one from BPS.

http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog.TextId?hvarTextId=896&hvarDept=200&hvarEvent=&hvarClassCode=3&hvarSubCode=5&hvarTarget=browse

[Javelin_Venom]

Thanks for the tips.  ernel - How much trouble was it to put in the timer you got from Bass Pro when yours went out?  The whole idea of cutting and drilling in my boat is kinda scary to me, I'd hate to mess something up.  Is there a lot of wiring that has to be done?  I'm guessing since your boat already had a timer, you might not have had to rewire everything or cut a hole.  Sounds like a great idea and affordable, I just don't know how easy it would be.

[ernel]

I didn't drill holes in my boat. I just placed the timer in the battery compartment and attatach it with a few zip ties. All you have to do is hook up a positive in from the battery or from the original areator sitch, and a negative to complete the circut for the timer portion. Then hook up the positive and negative feeds to the pumps. I used the exsisting ground that was already on the pump. That left me only running 3 wires that were less than 3-4 feet long. I used the main power feed from the original areator pump now that I think about it. I have the timer running both of the fresh water intake pumps. Do not use a fuse larger than the combined draw of the two pumps. It can cause you areators to melt if they have a short. Most pumps have a draw of 2-3 amps, just depending on the size of  the pump. You can do it in less than 1/2 hour.

[Javelin_Venom]

ernel - would the timer work for both livewells or just one?   i'm guessing that if you could hook it up for both, they would have to be run at the same time as oppossed to individually.  1 would still be better than none but i am hoping to find one that could run both livewells individually, for those days that i am the only one on the boat.  i am heading to bass pro shops on monday, next best place to the water ;D  

[ernel]

In order for them to run seperate of one another, then you would need to hook them to seperate timers, or be creatinve in your wiring. I have two freshwater pumps, but only one livewell in the back of the boat. So both pumps running at the same time is ideal for me. There is another option if you want to run one at a time. When I bought my boat, there was a problem with the wiring that ran the freshwater intakes. So I had to run new wire to the pumps because the old had shorted out and melted. I put in a small fuse block in the back of the boat that protects both freshwater pumps, both areator pumps, and the bilge pumps. I split the positive feed before the fuse block so that each pump would have its own fuse. If you split your power feed and put in a fuse block then you could just pull a fuse on days that you are fishing alone. Then only one pump would operated. Just put the fuse back in when you want both to run.

[texasbass1]

Something I did to help keep my fish alive was to install an oxygen pump system. It was real easy I bought a Big Bubbles aerator pump wired it to an accessory switch and then  ran the air tubes into the livewell through the overflow hoses, seal the holes with aquarium silcone. Added the air stones and it was ready to go. The amp draw is real low so once I have fish in the livewell I just turn it on and leave it. I have a pump that will work on 2 livewells so I put in a shutoff for the passenger livewell when I'm not using it.

Total cost was about $ 25.

[Bass_junky]

I completely re-vamped my livewells last year.  I was limited with what I could do but here it is.  I replaced my pump from a 750gpm to a 1100gpm.  I have seperate livewells so I spliced in the fill tubes and the drain tubes into the same line & pump.  I purchased a system from Rite-Flow or flow-rite? to give me the ability to recirculate while motoring and pump fresh water while fishing.  I use an automatic timer.  I also installed a valving system so, all I have to do is switch from recirc to fill or vice versa and or drain.  I also installed an aerating system directly onto my pump, this reduced the amount of tubing req'd.  The air flow is adjustable.  I needed to have the ability to fill both livewells symetrically due to there location in my boat to maintain balance.

I would strongly suggest to anyone modifying or retrofitting there livewells to check out FLow-Rite, there hose connections and valving connections made this a simple modification.