Livewell

[Petey742]

I have a '96 Pro Craft V150B. The livewell has the drain hole at the bottom which I put the plug in to hold water. It has the hole at the top which water flows out of to fill up the livewell when I turn it on. It has another larger hole which, I'm guessing is the overflow and the water drains out when the level reaches it. I've never had water come out the top of the livewell. My question is, is there suppose to be a screen or filter of some sort in there and how do I actually work the livewell? I don't have a switch for recirc or anything like that. It's only on or off. I've looked for a manual of some sort for the boat but have come to find out those are like unicorns and nobody ever sees them, you just hear about them. Any help of any kind would be greatly appreciated.

 

[cr2k]

Re: Livewell

Your probably just fills and flows out the over flow.

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: Livewell

if you are using it for bait then you will have to install a screen or the bait will block up the overflow pipe. i used a old screen off a livewell pump i had and glued it over the hole. This design is not the best so you have to run the pump for a min ever 10 mins to freshen the water up. there should be a spray nozzle on the inlet that you adjust so you dont pump in more than the over flow can handle. best upgrade you can make is to install another pump that just circulates in the live well. It has suckers on the bottom of the pump and a pipe with nozzles so you can just put it in the live well and leave it running. Then change the livewell fill switch to a spdp toggle switch so up is fill and down is airator and middle is off

 

[Petey742]

Re: Livewell

Thanks for the responses. They helped out.

 

[gm280]

Re: Livewell

A lot of live well function is based on the design of it and how it is situated in the boat. If the entire live well is above the lake water level, then you can basically use most any type fill/drain setup. And then a fill pump will do just that with an overflow outlet to take care of any overflow. However, if your live well is located below the lake water level or even part of the live well below the water level, then you have to be a little creative in the design. Some use a standing tube/pipe overflow system. But the top of the stand tube/pipe has to be above the water level, or else it would never overflow and start filling up your boat instead. I personally like to use a fill pump that is also a refresh pump as well. Just recirculating live well water doesn’t bring in fresh cooler lake water for the fish. And I like to spray fresh water to keep them alive with cooler oxygenated lake water. So your design and location depicts how you would design your setup. There really is no reason for two pumps if you use the fill pump as your refresh pump also with an aeration spray bar at the top and a simple overflow and bottom drain with a plug. That bottom drain can easily be the standing tube/pipe that is both the overflow and drain system and removable as well. Then you have a DPDT switch to fill the live well initially and then switch it to refresh with an aeration timer unit and forget about it...problem solved...

 

[100333624]

Re: Livewell

I agree with GM in that one pump can do a lot of work both filling and draining and recirc etc.. I used a cooler and built it into a livewell for my old 12' aluminum boat when I built the deck on it.. I used one pump that had one intake port and one outake port. I converted the intake into 2 port by using a 3way plumbing connection that I can select which water to bring INTO the pump (either lake water or cooler water) then I put another 3way on the outake port to select where I want the water to go (either outside or to cooler) and just ran my hoses and connections. I had to do some cutting and welding of the plastic joints with JB Weld to make my own connections but it worked just perfectly! In the end I had a KILLER livewell that got a lot of compliments when I pulled the old tin boat out at the launch.. With this setup I was able to fill/recirc/refill/drain... The refill option let me simultaneously fill and empty at the same time by having both 3way connections open at mid, though it was not strong enough because air always got in the line somehow.. I then made some modifications to it and removed the 90 degree fittings and changed the spray bar, and also made it adjustable and removable (made filling faster) and added 2 oxygen stones with extendable hoses which really made the fish very energetic (I've had some jump out of the livewell!!) lolll enjoy...

Here is a video of it being tested to make sure everything will work properly before installing it in the boat:
Livewell testing - YouTube


And here are some pictures of my setup:

 

[100333624]

Re: Livewell

some more pics of my build

 

[glenn property of pam]

Re: Livewell

A lot of live well function is based on the design of it and how it is situated in the boat. If the entire live well is above the lake water level, then you can basically use most any type fill/drain setup. And then a fill pump will do just that with an overflow outlet to take care of any overflow. However, if your live well is located below the lake water level or even part of the live well below the water level, then you have to be a little creative in the design. Some use a standing tube/pipe overflow system. But the top of the stand tube/pipe has to be above the water level, or else it would never overflow and start filling up your boat instead. I personally like to use a fill pump that is also a refresh pump as well. Just recirculating live well water doesn’t bring in fresh cooler lake water for the fish. And I like to spray fresh water to keep them alive with cooler oxygenated lake water. So your design and location depicts how you would design your setup. There really is no reason for two pumps if you use the fill pump as your refresh pump also with an aeration spray bar at the top and a simple overflow and bottom drain with a plug. That bottom drain can easily be the standing tube/pipe that is both the overflow and drain system and removable as well. Then you have a DPDT switch to fill the live well initially and then switch it to refresh with an aeration timer unit and forget about it...problem solved...

good post and thats the way i keep big fish alive in one of my live wells but i have had no luck with the bait fish. Now i keep the bait fish in the second live well and fill up with the water from the bait store. I turn on the airator while the boat is still on the trailer and i have not lost any bait since. I think the rapid change in water between the bait store and the lake was my problem. Biggest problem i had when i first started was dead bait fish plugged up the drain lines and suddenly you get a wet butt when it overflows so i glued on screens to stop the bait going into the drain then stopped killing the bait which seemed a better idea

 

[NYBo]

Re: Livewell

That's an impressive piece of engineering!