LUIS Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 Is it better to set your areator to circulate the water thats presently in your live well or have fresh water constantly coming into your live well? If you use the powder enhancement that is used to stabilize the fish in your live well than you are require to keep the same water all the time is this the best way to keep your catch alive? i Quote
basser89 Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 Welcome to the forums LUIS! I take it you're talking about livewells in a fiberglass boat. I wish I could help you on that one, but my livewell in my jonboat constantly gets fresh water through the bottom of my boat (via the hole I drilled). The only time I even run my Aerator is when I'm running my outboard. I'm sure, you'll get plenty of responses quickly! Good luck and again, welcome! Quote
davo3901 Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 Recirculate when you are moving with the big motor. When you stop to fish and the water is clean pull in fresh. There are plenty of additives you can use also. Some guys use salt to irritate the fish's skin so that they will produce more slime. Add some ice in hot weather. Quote
Rebbasser Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 I keep mine on the timer when it is cooler weather, constant when it is hot. I also add Please Release Me to help protect them and add ice in the form of water frozen in a bottle when it is hot. I read somewhere the chlorine in commercial ice can harm the fish and the bottles do the job. Quote
bassmasta7 Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 Chlorine is bad for fish that is why you have to use distilled water with pet fish. Quote
LUIS Posted March 2, 2006 Author Posted March 2, 2006 thank you all for the quick responses, I have been getting...looks like most of you so far are recirculating the water in the live well and occasionally bringing fresh water in and adding the additive mix. Quote
bixbybasspro Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 Welcome to the forums LUIS! I take it you're talking about livewells in a fiberglass boat. I wish I could help you on that one, but my livewell in my jonboat constantly gets fresh water through the bottom of my boat (via the hole I drilled). The only time I even run my Aerator is when I'm running my outboard. I'm sure, you'll get plenty of responses quickly! Good luck and again, welcome! Well said basser... Quote
GobbleDog Posted March 2, 2006 Posted March 2, 2006 Once I put a fish in my livewell, I never turn it off. Some anglers are worried that other fish might hear it running, but it doesn't bother me in the least. It's relatively quiet and I never turn in dead fish at the weigh in, with the rare exception of a fataly gut-hooked bass. Quote
janalon Posted March 3, 2006 Posted March 3, 2006 I recirculate water, just add a bag og ice in the summer, don't break open the bag Quote
ernel Posted March 4, 2006 Posted March 4, 2006 This is from an earlier post. I just cut and pasted it as I am too lazy to type it over. 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. End of cut and paste. As far as just running you recirculator pumps only, that may not be the best thing to do. Reason being is that the fish that are in the livewell are under stress, and they will urinate, deficate, and vomit in the water. All this will cause the levels of both ammonia and nitrates to raise to an unsafe level for the fish to survive. Allowing fresh water to be pumped in will keep the water fresh and keep the Ph level close to neutral. Plus fresh water will have more O2 than water that is forced through the recirculator pumps. The additives are good to place in the livewell regardless of whether you use fresh water or recirculated water. You can always add a little more if you need to. A bottle of "Rejuvenade" will treat up to 500 gallons of water. The only draw back is that they do not say anything about maintaining the Ph levels in the livewell. Quote
Garnet Posted March 4, 2006 Posted March 4, 2006 For regular limits I leave the timer on all day. I read In Fisherman years ago that Smallies need twice as much O2 as Largies so if the limit gets big I will pump water steady into my live well and also run the pump out at the same time. And run the recir at the same time. The whole report basically said you cannot get to much O2 in your livewell The CO2 between the top of the water and your live well lid will limit the O2 gathered from your bubbles so proping your livewell lid open will help I use my maker bouy. Also when I move spots I hold the livewell lid open for a little bit. Then I frezze my water bottles. I also have Mr. Bubbles for a backup if a pump goes bad or the limit is huge. Another thing I do if making small moves is leave the pump out going when moving so at the next stop I get lots of fresh water. I've never had much trouble with Lagies in my area but big smallies can be just quitters so as the limit gets big my efforts go up. Garnet Quote
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