first bait tank build

[Ravo Himself]

well. after another 24 hour soak i got nothing. i had put it in a slightly different spot hoping to possibly get more than 4. didnt work. i rebaited and put it back where i got these. i really need to get a few more traps to increase my yield. what kind of traps do you guys use. i have the gee style round one with the cones on either end. i would at least like a couple dozen before we get ice


also. how do you go about keeping the bottom of the tank clean. if they poop near the pump it sucks it right up like its supposed to. but everywhere else it just kind of settles. when i get more fish will they stir the water up and keep it floating more?

[P Meyette]

nice build it will work ok

[Kevin23]

also. how do you go about keeping the bottom of the tank clean. if they poop near the pump it sucks it right up like its supposed to. but everywhere else it just kind of settles. when i get more fish will they stir the water up and keep it floating more?

Yes

[Ravo Himself]

well. initial spot was a dud. rebaited with all bread and moved it down the shore about 50 ft. 5 hours later my dad walked out and checked it. 7 fish. there was still bread so he threw it back out. hopefully this spot keeps producing. there was one even bigger than the one in the previous picture. 2 were like a normal size med shiner and the rest were large.

is there a way i can target more of the mediums? the large ones are nice for pike and bass but i would like to try and get some more smaller ones for everything else my trap has probably a 1 1/2 or 2" opening on each end. so its kinda big. would cutting down on the hole size work?

[Ravo Himself]

once more bacteria starts to grow will that help keep the water more clear?

i have about 3 dozen in there now and its starting to cloud up a little. i'll do as many water changes as i need to. but less is preferable

[Kevin23]

once more bacteria starts to grow will that help keep the water more clear?

i have about 3 dozen in there now and its starting to cloud up a little. i'll do as many water changes as i need to. but less is preferable

Yes. Make sure you leave that filter media alone now and it will clear up in about a week or so. Make sure you always have fish in there to feed the bacteria. If you don't have fish in there you can take a leak in there every day to keep the ammonia level up.

[Ravo Himself]

cool. good to know. i'll keep an eye on it just in case

[FRESHBAIT]

Initial start up requires about 4-6wks for the tank to "cycle"  Amonia levels spike causing cloudiness, foul smell, then with some partial water changes to try and keep it down will help.  then the Bacteria start to grow eating the amonia,  then creating nitrates, then into nitrites which are pretty much harmless and disperse out of the water into the air if I remember correctly. 

[Kevin23]

Initial start up requires about 4-6wks for the tank to "cycle"  Amonia levels spike causing cloudiness, foul smell, then with some partial water changes to try and keep it down will help.  then the Bacteria start to grow eating the amonia,  then creating nitrates, then into nitrites which are pretty much harmless and disperse out of the water into the air if I remember correctly.

Bingo!

[d4ng3r3ux]

check out my aquarium
http://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=230393.msg2328064#msg2328064

add aquarium stones to the bottom and it wont stir up as much
for cleaning do like my set up, that way you dont fool around with the filter and you remove the poop and uneaten foods

[Kevin23]

check out my aquarium
http://www.iceshanty.com/ice_fishing/index.php?topic=230393.msg2328064#msg2328064

add aquarium stones to the bottom and it wont stir up as much
for cleaning do like my set up, that way you dont fool around with the filter and you remove the poop and uneaten foods

DO NOT do that! Rocks are your absolute worst enemy for a bait tank. All the poo and crap will settle in there instead of going up in your filter and cause enormous ammonia spikes. If you do what he does, you will need to vac it out and do a 50% water change EVERY SINGLE DAY. You want as slick of a bottom as possible so the fish stir up their crap and it goes in your filter. Your media and bio balls will catch it, and it will be broken down in your filter (feeding the good bacteria). The only reason his set-up works is because he has a dozen fish in there. If he packed it full like my tanks his fish would be dead in a couple days.

You WANT it to stir up and keep stirring up. The more stirring the cleaner your bio filter will keep it.

There should not be any uneaten foods, as you should not be feeding them regularly. If you hold for more than a week you should give them a small pinch of food once a week. The less you feed the less they will poop and the cleaner your tank will be. They will go weeks without eating, but I suggest feeding every week so you keep them nice and juicy.

[Ravo Himself]

I like my set up as is. So far with 3 dozen i haven't had any fire off and the water stays clear. Haven't even done one water change. Due to my ponds starting to freeze over and the low numbers i was catching i switched to the small streams in my area.hopefully i can start catching some more shiners or maybe even some small chubs or something.

[Ravo Himself]

well i think im accepting defeat. after trying a whole bunch of different spots i cant seem to find any shiners or chubs or anything. i'm at a loss. looks like i'm switching over to buying.

maybe once we get ice i'll be able to find them with the traps that way.... what a bummer

[Kevin23]

Maybe now that you have a nice holding tank you can convince one of the local shops to sell you some in bulk for a discount.

[Ravo Himself]

one localguy is a small buisiness so i like dealing with him. usually once you know him good enough he will throw in a few extra if you get 2 or 3 dozen. i figure sometime this week i'll go buy 2doz med and 2doz large because his meds are a little on the smaller size

[Ravo Himself]

got 4doz fish from the store. puts me at about 7doz and doesnt even look half full. gonna keep gradually increasing the numbers untill i think it looks good

[FRESHBAIT]

ravo that tank looks like its doing pretty good!!

[Svengalli]

Good Job and keep the updates coming please.  Me thinks a projects coming for next winter...

[Kevin23]

Lookin awesome! 

[FRESHBAIT]

Don't give up on trapping your own bait sometimes it takes a while till go get on the bait and sometimes once you get walkable ice its better b/c then you can suspend your traps just below the ice that works the best for me

[Ravo Himself]

That's what I figured. I tried a couple ponds and streams in town so I figure just wait until we have ice

[Ravo Himself]

had a bad bait loss this week   i hope i might have temporarily fixed the issue. first the tank iced over due to single digit temps for a few days straight. next the ones that died got stuck on the pump intake. more died and kept sticking. limited water flow means limited filtering. a whole bunch were just half dead. instead of picking out all the dying ones i needed a plan quick. since i currently dont have anything to use as a screen in front of the filter, i decided to put the bubbler right next to the filter. its keeping everything circulating near the pump so i'm hoping that will allow the filter to run at full potential and save what i can. i also added some ammonia chemicals. temps are supposed to come up in the next few days so that should at least elliminate the icing issue

[bait trap]

A CHEAP. Way to keep it ice free is a heat lamp, you know the metal clamp on one's,  position it a 1-2" above the water.  We had -15 the last week and it  kept mine thawed i'm using a 250watt red broader heat lamp.  No dead bait

[d4ng3r3ux]

A CHEAP. Way to keep it ice free is a heat lamp, you know the metal clamp on one's,  position it a 1-2" above the water.  We had -15 the last week and it  kept mine thawed i'm using a 250watt red broader heat lamp.  No dead bait

All cocked up ready to serve?

[bait trap]

Yup!!!! When you're on a farm you use whats available.  I had 6 of these out in the barn that I wasn't using till spring, my other stock tank heaters are in the stock tanks in the pastures for the Belgians.

[Ravo Himself]

well. things got out of hand and they all died kind of a bummer but its ok. i couldnt get a handle on the amonia levels after that initial die off and they died. i've got big plans for next year though. i'm thinking stock tank, bigger pump, rework the filter, and install a drain at the bottom. and definitely make a cage for the pump. that was the root of all evils this year

[bait trap]

That always seems to do it, the pump sucks a few to it and they die, then it's a fast spiral down hill to loosing the whole tank. Gotta get all the dead ones out as soon as you see them

[Ravo Himself]

the problem was there was like 2" of ice on top so i couldnt break through to get them. once it thawed enough there was just too many dead

[Whopper Stopper]

Great thread. Excellent info.

          WS

[Ravo Himself]

Bringing my old thread back to life. Never got around to doing the tank last year and it was such a pain having to buy bait every time I went fishing. Aside from having to deal with their hours. So I decided to get the ball rolling and get it set up now. As I said before this year I went for a stock tank. 110 gallon tank to be exact.



Plan is to put some sort of acrylic or plastic dividers to sperate big and small and separate them all from the pump. Upgraded to a 550gph pump so If I fill it 3/4 I should be able to get a turnover rate of almost 7.5x an hour.
Also stepping up the size of my filter and reworking it a bit. I have more bio balls and ceramic media coming in today. Hopefully have it up and running in a week or two