Uncle Gordy's Bait Tank

[Catfishnut]

You ask for pictures, here is my thread of pictures for my set-up. I know this is not a garden pond, but give me time and I will have a really nice one.

I am starting out with a bait tank for catfish fishing, and later I will eloborate on it and someday (when I learn all the ropes of Koi or other fish) I will build an actual pond and stock it with pets (not bait).

I think it is much easier to learn the ropes with bait fish because if I make a mistake, I won't lose my little friendly pets, just my stock of bait. And bait is much more forgiving so I can experiement without so much worry. It will be a good training tool for me.

This first post shows pictures of the actual 1,000 gallon polyethylene tank with the cover that I designed to keep raccoons out.

I actually designed the PVC hinge system on the back of the tank myself, through experiementation and trial and error. 1" fittings and 3/4" fittings for PVC tubing and piping work really well together, if you desire to produce anything similar (even a garden gate) They slip inside eachother just perfectly!

Gordy

 

[Catfishnut]

With such a large bait tank, I needed to ensure that I filtered the water in order to keep it reasonably clean. I am not quite as concerned with aesthetics as you guys are with your garden ponds. I just need to keep the bait fish alive and be able to see enough of them in the tank to net them when I go out fishing.

I used to just replace the water with fresh water when needed, but with this large of a tank, that would prove costly. I felt it was best to filter the water and continually recirculate it.

These are the 55 gallon polyethylene (HDPE) barrels that I am using for my filtration and water conditioning system.

Since I plan to operate this system year round, I started devising an enclosure that would insulate the tanks from the freezing air temperatures over the winter months. I started out with a PVC pipe framework. I set the framing up so that I could slip or slide panels of 4" x 4' x 8' sheets of high density styrofoam panels into the outer segments and hold them in place. This worked very well in design, but I found that the PVC tubing actually took up a great deal of space all by itself.
So, I changed my design and I am planning to fabricate a framework from extruded aluminum and slide the styrofoam panels into that. This will be a very expensive alteration, but I figure it will last forever and be more user accesible when I need to get into the housing to do work on the tanks (cleaning and otherwise). My end product will look much different from these pix, but it will be the same thing in the long run. My wallet will just be smaller.

Gordy

 

[Catfishnut]

Here are some views from inside a few of the tanks. They don't show up very well, but I think you can identify what is there.

Gordy

 

[Catfishnut]

This section deals with my personally devised aerator. I have multiple designs for this, but this one is one of my fav's.

The first pix is the aerator pump that I got from work. They toss them when they fail. I collect enough junk ones that I can rebuild one good pump out of about three trashed ones. These are Gast brand pumps that sell new for about $600. I get them for scrap price at $2 each and most work just fine for my purposes.

These are Gast brand, rotary vane pumps. They are much different than a simple aquarium air pump and would totally boil the entire contents of a 10 gallon aquarium out in seconds! They produce a high volume of air at a low (10 psi max) pressure. For $2 each, I have to use them for my setup.

These pumps also generate a LOT of heat. Being a rotary vane type of pump, there are four finellic or carbon-like swipers that rub against a metal housing. Centrifugal force throws these wipers out against a metal, milled out housing where, when they are turning, they "scoop" up air and force it out the outlet port.

The friction between these "wipers" and the housing generates heat and they do get VERY HOT. The air hose from the pump is quite warm to the touch for a couple of feet. Therefore, the air that the pump is driving is also HOT, or at least very warm. I was worried that during summer when the outside air temperature was hot, that this would be bad news for my bait tank (pump hot air into a tank that you want to be cool???) . Well, I found that it doesn't really hurt anything. A long enough supply hose and the action of the aerator negates most all of the heat in the supplied air from this pump. It probably adds some heat, but it is truly negligable in summer and somewhat helpful in winter.

These pumps can be rebuilt fairly easily and inexpensively.

Watch E-Bay for one and try one out. You will be fairly happy. They are noisy, but you can set up a housing around them and a rubber grommet pad for a mounting base to cut that down. The intake port must have some sort of filter on it anyway, so you can adopt a filter that has a sound barrier as well. You can make them very quiet if you do the right things.

Gordy

 

[Catfishnut]

I menat to include these pix in the previous post with the pump, but I erred. So I will post them here in this one.

Over the years, I have found that the absolute cheapest and best aeration device was not a stone, but a garden soaker hose.

Soaker hoses are wuite cheap and they work really slick with high volume air pumps like the one I described in the previous post.

You can leave the entire hose rolled up in a coil like you bought it from the garden shoop or Earl May, or you can cut it up into small segments and attach it to a PVC tubing array with barbed fittings sized appropriately. Here are my pix of one of my aerators using soaker hose.

The piecve of odd looking metal across the center is for ballast weight. With the tubing full of air, it wants to float, so you have to use somethig to hold it down. In a pond, I suppose a brick or rock would suffice.

Gordy

 

[Catfishnut]

Here is a couple of pix of that same aerator in action, as viewed from the top of one of my 55 gallon HDPE barrels (HDPE = HighDensity PolyEthylene).
Lots of action here, but it is too much for general aeration. Too violent of an action. You want losts of very small, gentle bubbles for aeration. However, this works excellent for my bio-conversion tank. In that tank, I want the rolling/boiling action that you can kinda see here in order to cycle the Kaldnes K3 media.

I have taken videos of that, but for some reason, I cannot get those videos from my cell phone memory to my PC. The still pix work just fine. I will eventually get something to work in order to show it in live action, just not today.

Gordy

 

[Catfishnut]

Just FYI...

If you want to make a bulk-head fitting for a tank like these (like the ones I show in my pix), all you need is two mating electrical conduit PVC threaded couplings. Less than $5 USD for both pieces and an O-ring to seal it on the water side.

O-rings are great here, but I opted to not use them. I first started out with O-riongs all in place, but I guess I didn't trust them. I removed the orings and sealed the joints with 3M's marine grade 5200 sealant and took the O-rings out of the mix entirely. Works GREAT! No leaks, no drips! Requires one week (up to seven days) for the 5200 to cure, but it will cure underwater eventually, too. If you are using HDPE plastic in any part of your system, this 3M 5200 sealant will adhere to it.

NOTHING sticks to HDPE very well. That's why HDPE is used for these barrels and such. So, it is difficult to seal the fittings. 3M 5200 Marine grade polyurethane adhesive is the best thing to use that I have found so far.

If you need some 5200 sealant, buy it On-line from Jamestown Distributors. LINK: http://www.jamestown...dhesive+Sealant They have it for the cheapest price that I have ever found. I work for 3M and I cannot get it this cheap from our company store! Go figure!

Gordy

 

[Catfishnut]

Here are some pix of the aerator tank and the Kaldnes K3 bio-converter tank in action with water. I do wish that I could use my videos (short segments that are 30 seconds long) to show the real effect of the action, but I cannot seem to find out how to get them transferred from my phone to my PC. I will have to work on that.

Gordy

 

[minnowman]

Gordy, If you put an airlift in each corner with them all pointing the same way[L or R] they will cause a circular flow which will deposit all settleable solids in the center of the tank. Otherwise sludge will tend to accumulate in the corners.

 

[addy1]

Wow nice set up, great work!

 

[Catfishnut]

Gordy, If you put an airlift in each corner with them all pointing the same way[L or R] they will cause a circular flow which will deposit all settleable solids in the center of the tank. Otherwise sludge will tend to accumulate in the corners.

I have planned to plumb two water return lines to the tank so that they enter from diagonally opposing corners, i.e. front right / rear left, and directed parallel to the long axis of the tank. With a little nozzling, I am hoping it will create a fairly nice jet of water in the tank (not anything violent though) and create a circular flow within the tank to get the sediments and sludge to settle near the center. That will be where the drain (outlet) will be located.

The drain or outlet gravity feeds down to the bottom of the first 55 gallon filter barrel, my sediment filter. In that barrel, I tried to design the water inlet and the cleanout drain so that a swirling action would deposit the larger, heavier sediments near the drain if not right in it. Whenever necessary, I can just crack open the drain valve for a short time and flush out these sediments.

In this sediment filter tank, I also have a rack or platform with holes drilled in it set about 5 inches above the bottom of the tank. The water upflows through this and percolates up through progressively finer rock layers. The first layer being broken marble chunks, then river pebbles, then pea gravel and then the last layer being zeolite mineral. At the very bottom of the rock and set on top of the support platform, I made an aerator array from SCH 80 PVC with fine holes drilled in it. If these layers of rock begin to clog with sediments, I will hook this aerator to my garage air compressor, open the water overflow at the top of the tank, close the outlet to the next tank and "purge" the rocks with water and air until the filter is cleaned up.

I also plumbed this PVC aerator to my main aerator for the other two tanks. This is so that I could keep a minor airflow running through this aerator array and keep all the air holes open. I have a set of valves to switch between the aerator feed and the line to my garage compressor.

I think this will work, but I may have to experiment a little to get it refined. I am experimenting and testing each part as I go, before I glue anything together, so that I hopefully have it right when it is finished.

I do wish that I had another summer month, though. I am running out of warm weather days and daylight hours! This morning the temperature got down to 30°F between 4 and 8 am. Tonight, it is supposed to get as low as 26°F. But, this weekend it is supposed to be in the mid to upper 60's for highs, so hopefully I can get a lot accomplished. I am very close to being finished with all the plumbing. What little is left should only take a couple of hours or so. Then I need to bolt the enclosure around the filter tanks together and install the insulating panels.
I also have to level the ground (I brought in some sand to kinda even things up a little) and then set everything in place and fill it!

Gordy

 

[taherrmann4]

Gordy,
How big of a piece of soaker hose would you use for a pump that pumps 5500 cu in.? Might have to look into this, even though I just bought a new air stone for winter. :sad:

 

[Catfishnut]

Here are some pix of the inside of the sediment filtration barrel (without water and nothing is completely connected). It's just for display so that you can see what is inside better.

Notice the platform at the bottom? That is 1/2" thick polyethylene sheeting that I cut to fit into the round barrel and drilled MANY 7/16" holes through. I had to add two eyebolts so that I could get the darn thing out of the tank if needed. The mouth of the barrel is an inch or two smaller diameter than the body of the barrel, so it is a chore to insert and remove the platform. I needed something to grab ahold of, hence the eyebolts. I wanted the platform to fit snugly to the inside wall of the tank, so it was a necessary evil.

Gordy

 

[Catfishnut]

Thes pix are of the lake screen filter that I am using for strainers. Got these from Menards. They also sell filter bags that slip over them, for finer filtration, but they are very expensive. I plan to just buy men's tube socks instead. Way cheaper! Probably even washable to an extent.

Gordy

 

[Catfishnut]

Gordy,
How big of a piece of soaker hose would you use for a pump that pumps 5500 cu in.? Might have to look into this, even though I just bought a new air stone for winter. :sad:

Todd,

You are talking about an air pump, right? 5500 cubic inches would be about 3.2 cubic feet. The GAST pump that I have (1/4 HP) is rated at 14 cubic feet with zero head pressure (open ended) and reduces to about 10 cubic feet at a maximum of 10 psi head pressure. With this, I am aerating roughly 134" of 5/8" soaker hose and a bit more with my PVC aerator.

Doing quick rough math, I have 3x your volume. So, divide my aeration tubing by three and it should be close. 134" / 3 = 45 inches, roughly calculated.

So, I think that you could make a nice aerator from 45" of 5/8" soaker hose that will work. You will, obviously, have to experiment a little to get it refined, but soaker hose is very inexpensive. I think I paid $7 for a 20ft roll at Walmart's garden center. You can make a lot of aerators out of 20 feet!

I don't know what your air pump has for a slope indicating head pressure vs volume output, so that may alter or skew the math here. If you put the aerator deep in the water, your pressure will be higher, that will cut your output volume down from 5500 cu in. You will just have to experiment with it. $20 or less for a few fittings and a soaker hose is a pretty reasonable price for an experiment. If it works, then you can save a lot of money by purchasing soaker hose instead of air stones. Air stones can get expensive.

EDIT: Because of the poor water quality from my well at my cabin, the air stones were clogging up with iron and calcium and other minerals. It was cheaper for me to use the soaker hose, but they also clog up eventually just the same as the stones. Using the well water, I still have to replace whatever I am using for an aerator eventually. Your water quality will determine how long these items last.

Gordy