[MIKE TUNA]

If I put a tee off the valve {the pet**** in the bilge } that feeds my salt water wash down , Then plumb it to the bottom of a livewell on the deck with an additional valve at the livewell to open and close . Then put a 2" drain at the top of the well thats plumbed over the side of the boat . Will this let water flow into the baitwell when I open the valve fill up and overflow out of the drain and work as a live baitwell without a pump ? Just a thought . Hope I explained this correctly . Could be a winter project if it would work . Sounds better then running a pump all day to feed a livewell . If this would work do you think it will keep bait alive and kicking ?

 

[MakoMatt]

Mike, it will not work. Water will seek its own level, the water in the line that you tapped into by putting a tee on your sea****, will only rise as high as the sea outside your boat. If the deck is above sea level, and your supply to the livewell is on the deck, it won't work. Even if your deck is below sea level, it will only fill the live well to the elevation of the sea level, which is probably not too much. Most boats decks are above sea level. If you have self bailing ****pit, it will not work, the deck is above sea level.

MakoMatt

 

[MakoMike]

Mike,
FWIW, what I do when I need livies is put a garbage can in the ****pit, tied to a tower leg and then just put the salt water washdown hose all the way down in the can. You can use a couple of 16 ounce sinkers to hold it there.

 

[togmaster]

Mike trythis?

Mike when I had to keep my catch alive we used a 55 gal. Pickle barrel like the ones on the party boats. This is a great method and you could use a smaller container also. You cut 2 holes in the barrel 1 a few inches from the bottom and the other a foot from the top.
Get 1 to 1.5 inches nipples in plastic and silicone them in with a locking nut. Now you get the right hose for the nipple and put the bottom end to your wash down pump and the top over the side of the boat. What I did was have a adapter and a quick disconnect to take the nozzle off the hose and connect it to the bottom connection on the barrel. This way I only need 1 pump and never had a problem. Also get a 2nd or even 3rd battery with an isolator. Attach the pump to the extra battery only and the isolator will stop the discharge of the main batteries. Hope this help good luck

 

[paulh]

On my boat I use a pro baitmaster pump which serves as both the washdown and livewell. what i do is put a tee in the line, one side of the tee connects directly to the washdown hose, which has a regular nozzle on the end. the other side of the tee has a valve in line with the live well (plastic ball valve from home depot). if you run both at once the pressure is poor but the need to do this is very rare. running the livewell all day but need to wash down ? turn the off the valve and wash away. when done with the washdown, turn off the nozzle and flip the livewell valve, works like a charm.

 

[leakyrivot]

livewell - my system

I built a custom livewell w/ epoxy & plywood into the floor of my starcraft cheiftan. It's oval, 4 X 1.5 X 1.5 ft & runs widthwise across the boat in the center; it's built right into the floor w/ a trap door & removable hinges. I think it's about 60 gallons.. Anyway, my original plan was just to fill it w/ a washdown pump (3800 GPH rule) and run an aerator to keep the fish alive.

This worked great, for anything besides baitfish.. so, to make it flow-through, I added a float switch at the top of the livewell and a pump to pump out, inside of the well. A flush fill fitting was also added to the top, so that the washdown hose could be neatly run inside.

Now, I just plop the filling hose inside the fitting, kick on the pump-out & washdown and when the well get's full, the pump kicks on and let's out a few gallons.. it fills up again, when it gets full the pump kicks on.. A system like this can be used for any livewell. Only thing to keep in mind is that the "pump-out" must be faster than the "pump-in". I've got about 15 ft of hose on the washdown pump, which slows the flow down so that a 1000 GPH works fine for the "pump-out".

The only downside to this sytem is it requires at least two pumps; which can draw some juice, as opposed to the more simple system of a drain near the top. The upside is that your livewell can be below the water-line, much safer for smaller craft - mine actually doubles as ballast.

Jon