live bait well

[saulgonzalez]

There must be a way to turn that useless icechest looking thing under the rear seat of my bayliner into a aireated bait tank.Have any of you guy's done one of these,Want to be able to fill and drain thru some sort of hose that i can put in the water to fill,then in the tank to drain.I know this can be done but idea's will save me trail and error.thank's in advance.

 

[2MADAKAT]

Re: live bait well

Hi Saul,<br /> Working on one of these things myself right now in a 19.5' Bayliner bowrider. I put the livewell up front between the bow seats. To fill, I have a transom mount pump, pumping the water through pvc tubing to the livewell. I also mounted another pump, on the outside of the livewell to pump the water directly out the side of the boat. This way, I only have a fill opening and a filter covered exit in the livewell.<br />Biggest problem was draining well completely, so I cut a drain hole in the bottom of livewell that in turn allows the water to flow to the bilge. I have to spray out when done if fish were in to keep the smell out. the drain hole is plugged with the same plug used in back of boat. Now I am working on a float switch to control the amount of water pumped in so I don't have to watch it everytime I use it. I hope this gives you some ideas for your icebox.

 

[kcole683]

Re: live bait well

I think the standard method would be a transom mounted pump to fill the unit. You install a drain in the lowest point in the live well with a stand pipe in it so the water pumps in until it reaches the upper level and runs down the pipe to drain. To drain you pull the pipe out and let the water drain. No float switch,automatic over flow pretty simple.<br /><br />good luck

 

[saulgonzalez]

Re: live bait well

thank's guy's any pic's?

 

[2MADAKAT]

Re: live bait well

Good idea spark-chaser except that where my livewell is situated, I cannot use a stand pipe because I have no where to drain it to.<br />Sorry Saul, I have no pictures yet.

 

[DJ]

Re: live bait well

Just route the standpipe back to the drain line.<br /><br />If you do not have a standpipe, it will overflow.

 

[Grits]

Re: live bait well

The pump form my live well in my jon boat has a timed switch. You can set it to run all the time or come on periodically. I adjust if for the amount of fish in it. It has a stand pipe and a drain through the side of the boat.

My Key West has a similar system; however, it is on or off. I just got the boat and I plan on adding the same type of switch.

I did add a bilge pump to the bottom of the live well to drain all the water out. Removing the stand pipe always left some in. At times, the drain is below the water line which also makes it a little difficult to drain.

Does your boat have a wash down system? That pump can double as a live well pump.

Grits

 

[Silvertip]

Re: live bait well

My live well has a port near the top that route excess water overboard through a through-hull fitting. No standpipe needed.

 

[Texasmark]

Re: live bait well

I have had 2 types.

First boat had a top-side fill, top-side overflow, and bottom-side drain. Only used a fill pump. Drain was through the side of the hull since the tank was mounted against it on one side; overflow was via a transom hole.

Problem was that it was a very large tank running fore and aft for a boat that wasn't all that big and when you let it fill up, it tilted the boat to that side and if you put power to the boat, water came out all over the deck where you were sitting.

A standpipe of suitable length (about half the tank height) worked just fine. Similar to DJ's comments, I put a rt angle at the bottom of the pipe and stuck it in the drain hole......sorry, but I don't remember what I used to stick in the drain hole which used the same type tube/plug as the bilge does on most small boats. When it was time to drain the tank, I just pulled it out and it drained normally. If I didn't want to use it, I just left it out and installed the drain plug. Never had a problem with overfilling with this.
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Current boat had a factory installed system where there was a similar situation (tank was centered and cross mounted in the boat) with the same problem.....overflow was too high....but at least the tank was crosswise, not longitudional to the boat.

I rigged up a second pump on this one plumbed to the overflow with a float switch at my desired height....this tank was much larger than the hatch and it wasn't easy to get to the holes like on the previous boat.

Problem with this is that there is a race situation between the two pumps so you have to keep your eye on what's happening. The drain really needs to be a higher capacity than the fill. Other thing is that the pump is a centrifugal pump (like the pump that cools your auto engine, if you ever saw one). Since it is of open construction, water, through siphon action, will come out the overflow from (through) the pump and drain your tank.......even if your overflow pump happens to be off. So I had to put a shutoff valve in the line so that when I was ready to bring live fish home I could shut off the overflow line and retain the lake water in the tank..... 1" pvc ball valve.....couple of bucks.

Seems to work pretty good now.

HTH

Mark