Its amazing my wife lets me do this stuff. Minnow aquarium

[lugoismad]

My dad works at a used appliance shop and they had a chest freezer with a bad compressor.

Its now for my minnows.

 

[user 20022]

Smart idea!

 

[Keystone]

Awesome!

 

[bobberboy]

Nice

 

[lovedr79]

ingenious!

 

[jethro]

Nice! I'll share some pics of my 100 gallon bait tank I use in the winter. Trap my own baits. Made my own 1000gph filter. Let me know if you have any questions, I've been doing this a while.

The filter is a 13gal trash can:

I keep anywhere from 500 to 1500 baits in there, sometimes it's got some 8-12" suckers in there as well.

 

[richg99]

Great idea.....what do you use for "filter media"?

richg99

 

[jethro]

I use about 30-40 of those cheap plastic pot scrubbies on the bottom as "bio balls", then about 6" or so solid of polyfill- the stuff you find in sleeping bags. Then on top I cut a piece of flat filter material that is like 1" thick. So all the scuzz falls on the flat filter material and I can rinse that easily so as not to disturb the "bio balls". You can usually buy the pot scubbies at a dollar store for cheap and are very common to use as such in aquariums. The polyfill you can usually find for cheap at a craft store. One bag will last a long time.

The pump is a 1000gph magnetic pond pump for those goldfish ponds and such. The magnetic ones are great because they don't add much heat into the water.

 

[richg99]

Very creative. Thank you.

richg99

 

[user 20022]

Nice! I'll share some pics of my 100 gallon bait tank I use in the winter. Trap my own baits. Made my own 1000gph filter. Let me know if you have any questions, I've been doing this a while.

The filter is a 13gal trash can:

I keep anywhere from 500 to 1500 baits in there, sometimes it's got some 8-12" suckers in there as well.

Hey so what do you do when you need to add more water?

 

[jethro]

I have a spigot in the garage for 10% water changes which I do every 3-5 weeks. This picture doesn't actually show a valve that has been installed in the front of the tank that I can hook up to a hose and drain water out. Then fill with the tap water.

 

[user 20022]

Oh ok i figured the tap water would kill the fish. Cool deal

 

[JMichael]

Oh ok i figured the tap water would kill the fish. Cool deal

Pure tap water from most city water supplies will kill fish because of the chlorine alone. Depending on your water source, other things may be harmful for them. If you're only doing a partial change (ie 10% every few weeks) you might be able to use city water depending on how much chlorine they use. You'd be much better off if you could fill a bucket or other container and let it sit a few days for the chlorine to evaporate before adding it to your bait tank. Another reason to do small water changes like this is because of the water temperatures. If you cool or heat up the bait tank water too fast, it will cause your minnows to go into shock and probably kill them. I use a filter on the tap to draw my fresh water. It filters out 100% of the chlorine and most small particles. I also use a thermometer to adjust the temp of the fresh water to match the temp of the tank water before I add it.

If your bait tank is square, you might want to try to round the corners of your bait tank some how(inserts in the corners maybe). It will help your minnows live longer and be healthier. Minnows are pretty stupid, and when they get spooked by something, will dart ahead suddenly and bash their head into the walls on 90° corners.

 

[lugoismad]

Oh ok i figured the tap water would kill the fish. Cool deal

Pure tap water from most city water supplies will kill fish because of the chlorine alone. Depending on your water source, other things may be harmful for them. If you're only doing a partial change (ie 10% every few weeks) you might be able to use city water depending on how much chlorine they use. You'd be much better off if you could fill a bucket or other container and let it sit a few days for the chlorine to evaporate before adding it to your bait tank. Another reason to do small water changes like this is because of the water temperatures. If you cool or heat up the bait tank water too fast, it will cause your minnows to go into shock and probably kill them. I use a filter on the tap to draw my fresh water. It filters out 100% of the chlorine and most small particles.

If your bait tank is square, you might want to try to round the corners of your bait tank some how(inserts in the corners maybe). It will help your minnows live longer and be healthier. Minnows are pretty stupid, and when they get spooked by something, will dart ahead suddenly and bash their head into the walls on 90° corners.

The type of chlorine they use in tap water doesn't evaporate like that now.

I use decholorinator from walmart pet section. $4 for enough to dechlorinate 100 gallons.

 

[JMichael]

Not sure what "type" that would be but in this middle of nowhere little town I'm in, they still do it the same way and everyone that doesn't have a chlorine filter on their line still leaves their next mornings coffee water sitting out on the counter all night so the chlorine can evaporate.

 

[user 20022]

My tap is full of chlorine. So I'll have to get a filter of some sort.

 

[jethro]

My tap is full of chlorine. So I'll have to get a filter of some sort.

With chlorinated water all you have to do is put it in a container and let it sit for 24 hours. Preferably in the sun. It will off gas itself.

Edit: should have read the last posts before responding. I have never had city or public water once in my life. But I still hear the way to deal with it is by letting it sit for 24 hours.

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

Jetrho.....you should do a full on thread about your set up. That is the first time I've seen someone use the dish scrubber things. Great idea.

 

[jethro]

Jetrho.....you should do a full on thread about your set up. That is the first time I've seen someone use the dish scrubber things. Great idea.

It's just about getting time for me to set it up for hardwater season, so maybe while doing so I will take better pics for a thread. Specifically of the way the filter works. I will start trapping as soon as the ponds start to skim some ice which may be around Thanksgiving, but I like the tank to be up and running for a good 5 weeks before hand.

 

[richg99]

Just a little joke on me....and a word of caution for bait/aquarium users.

Many, many years ago, we had a small aquarium. I wanted to thoroughly clean the interior. I took the (expensive) fish out and placed them into a bucket. I moved the heater along with the fish, as I didn't want the water to get too cold.

When I finished thoroughly cleaning the aquarium, I found that I had boiled all of my fish alive! it seems that the volume of water in the bucket was nowhere near the volume of water in the aquarium. The heater didn't know that and just kept on getting the water hotter and hotter.

Whoops, lesson learned. Kids hated me for a while. My wife hated me for a while. I hated me for a while (mostly because I wasn't making enough money to quickly replace the d#$% fish!)

regards, richg99