Personal bait tanks, anyone?

I’ve been thinking of building my own concept with a drain at the bottom feeding into a successive set of tighter filters, starting with chunk filter you can get at PetCo (looks almost like captain crunch) to grab the big chunks, then a stage or two ending in a layer of sand and finally a canister of activated charcoal packed between open-cell foam for chemical filtration.

Although I’ve also been thinking of using a household sediment trap instead of the rest of the first stages and then activated charcoal after that. And I’ve been considering using big rubbermaid tubs for the tanks.

I’m not going for “fancy” so much as “cheap and easy to build”, and having the series filters means they can be changed or cleaned separately. Using the sediment filter means just changing the filter cartridge. Problem is baitfish put out so much pollution I don’t know how long a folded paper filter would last.

Then again I suppose it could be washed…

So does anyone have their own bait tanks? If so, how did you acquire or build them?

Here is an article on bait tanks. Cat Tip of the Day

Hey that’s cool, although not something I have room for… I was planning on putting this in the basement of my house, probably in the same room we have the cages set up for our snakes (yes, we keep 6 snakes, 3 ball pythons, a corn snake, a black rat snake and a boa). And no, snakes aren’t muskie bait (at least not mine heh).

Anyway, that’s a good start…

Some what the same as Steve’s just alittle different.
Link

I keep mine in the corner of the garage and it works pretty well. Good luck.

Mine’s nothing fancy. I just looked for someone wanting to get rid of a chest freezer. They do come in assorted sizes.

Put a pond pump in it connected to pvc with some holes…then a milk house style drain at the bottom.

Pretty simple and straight forward. I do keep it in a shed under lock and key. Never know when a little kid comes around and wants to snoop falling in.

That and I just can’t trust those walleye guys.

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I do keep it in a shed under lock and key. Never know when a little kid comes around and wants to snoop falling in.

That and I just can’t trust those walleye guys.

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That will nickel and dime you as much as buying something more conventional. I’d buy some of this foam http://www.swisstropicals.com/PoretFilterFoam.html and stick a powerhead or bubbler in it. Done.

If you have a sump tank underneath, you need valves and a pump with enough head to get the water back up there. $$$

I still like Larry’s the best…

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Never know when a little kid comes around and wants to snoop falling in.

That and I just can’t trust those walleye guys.

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I’m not little!

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Never know when a little kid comes around and wants to snoop falling in.

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Dito to what BK said. With an elementry school in my backyard and a bunch of curious neighbor kids ranging from 2-10, I feel more comfortable with my tank locked in the dog kennel.

If you look close you will also notice the flood/drain system with tasty peppers and lettuce begining to emerge, all fed via bullhead turds. This photo was from a few weeks ago. This setup is mediocre at growing but great at filtering – the main purpose is to house my bait, therefore any additional eddible growth is a bonus.

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I’m not going for “fancy” so much as “cheap and easy to build”,

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If you frequent the Mississippi, just find an old 50gal poly barrel – they are literally everywhere in the woods. The majority of my system is made of stuff I stumbled upon – like barrels.

Keep in mind: more water = more stability = healthier bait. I think its been said before, but if you live in town your water is likely chlorinated; therefore you MUST add a chlorine buffer and/or let it circulate for >24hrs to get rid of the chlorine. If this is not done, the majority of fish will die before you even have a chance to use ‘em.

Well aware of the chlorine issue. For what it’s worth, a reverse osmosis filter system actually does remove the chlorine so fish survive quite nicely in the water it produces.

Also, it’s easy to have your downspouts feed into barrels to capture rainwater. I’m thinking of putting a rainwater tank behind my garage and gutters on each side to capture the rainwater for the bait system.

Fish can get ph shock and it works just like temperature shock. Tapwater is probably going to be the closest thing to your local water if it’s not some artesian well.

I’m playing with a new ugly filter. The executions have become less and less. LINK