Aeration

[bronck83]

I'm trying to figure out a way to keep bait alive longer in my livewells in my boat and I've found some systems that are basically aeration systems that add a bunch of microbubbles to add in oxygen/CO2 exchange. The flow in a livewell is obviously much less than our tank systems. I could have sworn remembering that microbubbles were bad all around, or was it just for aesthetic reasons?

Basically, will adding an aeration system actually improve conditions for bait, make it worse, or no change? Ideally, I'd throw a big pump in there & make a bigger drain to increase the flow a lot, but the 12volt pump choices are limited and I think the bait would tire themselves out trying to swim against the current in such a small environment and no structure to rest behind like there is in a regular tank.

[NeptunesGhost]

Salt or fresh?

[Bill S]

The best way to keep them fresh is water replacement, rather than aeration. If your bait is in saltwater and you are fishing saltwater, that's fairly easy.

As for aerating without circulating outside water, it's a more difficult process. Aerating with airstones and pumps is really your only solution. Microbubbles are more a problem of esthetics.

As for 12v pumps, go to West Marine. Bigger boats need bigger pumps, and they sell them for very large boats (yachts). We have a spare one of these on the boat - to replace a washdown pump if/when it fails:

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/producte/10001/-1/10001/250105/377%20710/0/shurflow/Primary%20Search/mode%20matchallpartial/0/0?N=377%20710&Ne=0&Ntt=shurflow&Ntk=Primary%20Search&Ntx=mode%20matchallpartial&Nao=0&Ns=0&keyword=shurflow&isLTokenURL=true&storeNum=19&subdeptNum=14169&classNum=14177

4 gallons per minute in a pressure pump.

[bronck83]

It's saltwater. There is circulating water but its pretty slow due to a small pump & small drains. I think this "aeration system" is a venturi type of system instead of airstones.

[brewercm]

The other thing that I've found as an issue with keeping bait alive (especially saltwater) is the water temp that is being pumped in is normally quite a bit higher then they are used to. I've had shrimp die getting plenty of aeration just do to the water temp where I was fishing.

[bronck83]

I've heard of using frozen 20oz bottles of water, but in the Texas summer heat, it seems like you'd have to carry 20 frozen bottles around in the cooler because they'd melt so fast.

[Troutmasters02]

Microbubbles are bad all around in reef keeping IMO because everytime a bubble pops it releases salt onto any near by surfaces. After time without cleaning a large clump of salt can build up and be knocked into the tank, bad news. Course this doesn't really apply to your situation, just thought I'd throw it out there...

Of course, microbubbles can collect on coral as well...