Adding Livewell Aeration

[Chevync20]

I have a Lowe Roughneck with a fairly large livewell and I am looking to add an aerator to my livewell to keep fish alive, especially later in the year when I want to fish a tournament or two locally. Has anyone added to their current livewell and if so, what did you use? I am hoping to run a secondary battery and a switch to help keep fish alive longer. Thanks.

[Jamesdean]

Check out Brians Marine on the internet. He call's it the baddest livewell set up. Everything needed but the tank itself...pretty good prices too...

[vbottom]

I added an adjustable auto timer on my livewell switch. I can set it to pump for 30 seconds every couple minutes to 30 seconds every 20 minutes. I've kept pike and walleye alive overnight at the dock this way. I just adjust run time based on what's in the livewell. Battery isn't an issue this way either.

[dwightparks]

I use a 12 volt air pump with 2 outlets. One goes to livewell and the other goes to minnow bucket. A lot of different systems but this has done me well for several years. If you fish in hot weather ice is your friend

[skeetbum]

I agree with both of the last comments. A timer saves battery and does well for keeping them healthy, and temps managed is another plus. I didn’t add ice but used frozen 2liter bottles to keep the chlorine out of their water. I added an airhead to the water discharge, very simple, and that made a noticeable difference also.

[bob331]

A few generalobservations, sharing experience and knowledge with you.

I am assumingthat you are buying an aerator to oxygenate your livewell/bait tank water, mostfishermen do. Your hope is to provide a continuous safe supply of dissolvedoxygen sufficient to keep your bait and crappie alive and healthy all day thissummer and prevent as much summer livewell mortality (suffocation) as possible. Maintaining safelivewell DO is a water quality challenge every summer for most live baiters and C&Rtournament fishermen that transport live fish, always has been a problem formost fishermen and still is a high summer mortality problem. This is nothing new, noris this seasonal event strange or cryptic.

First, do youhave any idea how much oxygen your live bait and fish will actually need whentransported in livewells and bait tanks in the summer months? And how muchoxygen is required and necessary when you are transporting live bait fish ortournament crappie all day in the cooler fall, winter and spring seasons? Manyfishermen claim that more bait/fish in livewells requires more air, bigger highvolume air pumps and bigger livewell pumps are necessary to provide moreoxygen.
Actually thecheapest aerator aerators/bubblers will deliver as much oxygen as any highdollar aerator if aerator/battery price is important for you.
If providing and insuring a steady supply of enoughof that life-saving oxygen for your bait or tournament crappie in hot summer tournamentsconditions (crappie, bass, catfish) is a primary consideration as to which brand/modelaerator-bubbler to buy is important.
Keep this inmind: all mechanical aerators have serious oxygenating limits when it comes todelivering enough oxygen. And you know what’s coming when your water quality isbad, oxygen is low and your bait and crappie are suffocating from this low dissolved oxygen problem.
Mechanicalaerators have serious oxygenating limitations when fishermen exceed thestocking density by 1 bait or 1 crappie. All aerators deliver a lot of Nitrogen,79% N2. Sadly enough, aerators only deliver a little bit of oxygen, less than21% O2. It makes no difference how many tiny air bubbles aerators make in anylivewell or bait tank, air does not have much oxygen in it and never will regardlessof the volume of air bubbled in the livewell water
Bait andcrappie don’t need 79% nitrogen, they don’t need any nitrogen at all. But, theyall need oxygen, as much as they can get to keep alive and healthy in summerlivewells and bait tanks. More bait or fish always require more dissolvedoxygen especially in summer when transported all day in livewells and baittanks. Most fishermen can tell immediately when their live bait or tournament crappieare suffocating in livewells from bad water quality/low O2/suffocation.
If you are inthe market for a new mechanical aerator,bubblers and extra battery to run your aerator because you want to insure safe continuouslivewell oxygenation and you really have no idea how much oxygen you actually needto provide for all your live bait or tournament crappie in your livewell thissummer… in 1 click of your rat you can find out how much oxygen you need todeliver to keep your bait and tournamentcrappie not only just alive, buy healthy in 95 F summer weather all day orseveral days and nights.
Google this: “Howmuch oxygen live bait and fish need in livewells and bait tanks”.
Air, oxygen,nitrogen, helium, hydrogen, argon… all these different gases can be reallyconfusing to fishermen because they all have no taste, smell, color, feel andall make clear bubbles in livewell water. You can’t tell the difference betweenall these different gases. Aeration and oxygenation sound like and look thesame to most fishermen and outdoors’ writers, but they’re all very differentgases. The word air and term we call (aeration) lumps all these different gasestogether in 1 neat little package.
Mechanical aeratorswill work fine IF YOU DO NOT OVERSTOCK YOUR LIVEWELL./BAIT TANKS IN THE SUMMER.Overstock your livewell and you will suffocate your live bait and tournamentcrappie while your aerator is running perfectly. It’s easy to tell whenthose livewell water quality problems (low O2) begin in the summer, it happenswhen the environmental water temperature reaches the high 70’sF – low 80’s Fand gets worst as the temperatures increases every June – August.