First post! How to rig my livewell?

Ok, a little about me. I live in New Bern NC and on the trent river. I have two boats, a 19 classic mako and a 1448 cajun jon boat. I am getting aluminum decks put in after the holidays and they are going to do a coffin in the middle for the livewell. How would i rig it to drain, aerate, and fill?? I will post a conversion when I begin deconstructing the current deck and floors.

Any pictures and diagrams would greatly appreciated.

Welcome! I deleted my live well diagram yesterday #-o . I'll try it and get one drawn up later.

Thanks man thatll be awesome! I cant wait until the machine shop opens again! How much do yall think thatll cost in materials just a rough estimate +- 100 bucks? A front deck probably 36" and one floor probably 6 by 4 feet and a coffin box 36 inches long 24 inches wide.

We cut some of the top off a seat, cut out the floatation, and put in a pump n' let the overflow drain out into the boat. Pumped that out with the Bilge pump.
Simple n' cheap. Cost a Piano hinge and a Pump which is portable.

Flow rite.com.

thudpucker said:

We cut some of the top off a seat, cut out the floatation, and put in a pump n' let the overflow drain out into the boat. Pumped that out with the Bilge pump.
Simple n' cheap. Cost a Piano hinge and a Pump which is portable.
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Thanks how did u get the water in and out?

I had a nice CLEAN plastic bucket and put the Lake Water in the live well.
I just kept adding Lake Water till it ran over and pumped the bilges the normal way.

You could put a Hose from below the water line, into the bottom of the Live well.
If you keep the lid down tight the Lake water wont overflow.
Using that method, every time you lifted the lid, fresh lake water would flow into the Bottom of the live well.
Nothing's wrong with that method if you have a bilge pump.

What I found was the Air/Water Pump heated the water in the Live well if I let it run too long. All the fish would die en masse~
That was the reason for adding lake water.
Eventually I found out those Minnows would last a day or two with just adding lake water. I'd turn the water pump on for awhile, then off for a couple hours.
Still had plenty of Minnows for tomorrow morning's fishing!

Also too much fish Pet Food will kill all the minnows.

Almost anything Kills those Minnows. Use Only the water from the Professional guy's tanks, or the Lake water.

thudpucker said:

Eventually I found out those Minnows would last a day or two with just adding lake water. I'd turn the water pump on for awhile, then off for a couple hours.
Still had plenty of Minnows for tomorrow morning's fishing!

Also too much fish Pet Food will kill all the minnows.

Almost anything Kills those Minnows. Use Only the water from the Professional guy's tanks, or the Lake water.

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Minnows are extremely sensitive. Never add water unless you're sure it doesn't contain chlorine. Regular tap water that we drink has chlorine in it and will kill minnows. There are water filters on the market that will remove the chlorine but they are too expensive to buy just for minnow water. LoL Don't bother to feed them. Chances are you'll do more harm than good and they'll live up to 2 weeks without food. Keep the water cool and very well aerated. (2 weeks is my record for keeping them alive because they're usually all gone before then)

P.S. There are some chemical additives that will remove the chlorine also.

My longest time with live Minnows was three days.
Also, Lake water is dirtier in some places than it is in others. Because you can only access the surface water.
Watch for Minnows coming to the surface and get a bucket of water from that area.

Thanks that was really helpful! I think I'm going to just do it the way you do it thudpucker it's a waste of money to try and do a thru hull mount and go through that trouble. I'll probably do an overflow to outside the boat. I really wanna figure out how to drain it with out draining it into the boat but that probably won't matter it'll be on a lift or a trailer when I'm done using it. Thanks this site is very helpful.

Mine has a drain plug I can pull out and let it drain into the bilges. My Tin boat is impervious to any nonsense like smelly water. The Pressure washer takes care of the small stuff.
However, you could put a bib down there and connect a hose to the outlet, letting the water go to the Bilge pump, or just out the normal drain hole.

Yeah this is a good site for ideas. some of these guys are well trained experts!

Is New Bern near Camp LJ? Are you running on brackish water?