Thread: Shad

Catfish don't mind if they are dead as long as they are fresh

Originally Posted by CrappiePappy

Most important things about a Shad tank is : it should be round, and it should NOT have a spray bar.

Round tanks are so the Shad don't congregate into a corner & beat themselves to death.
A bubbler system is a good idea, but a "spray bar" is not, because the spray can create foam.

Just some FYI tips from my experiences.

Whatever I do, I'll try to use one of those aerators that pipe in oxygen to the pump outlet which will be underwater.

Originally Posted by CrappiePappy

Most important things about a Shad tank is : it should be round, and it should NOT have a spray bar.

Round tanks are so the Shad don't congregate into a corner & beat themselves to death.
A bubbler system is a good idea, but a "spray bar" is not, because the spray can create foam.

Just some FYI tips from my experiences.

Whatever I do, I'll try to use one of those aerators that pipe in oxygen to the pump outlet which will be underwater.

It certainly does make a nasty foamy mess. I believe there is an additive made to reduce the foam in a bait tank.

There are some additives you can add. I usually do a water change in aquarium if I have any foam and it helps. I would think the same would apply to bait tank.

Bumping this as I'm finally in the process of building a portable filtration/aeration system for this. Found a good youtube tutorial on one and am using it as a guide with a few minor modifications. I'll get some pics up and a parts list this weekend.

I keep Foam Off in stock at all times. Just a few drops and my shiner tank is foam free. I use a Water Drop to help release excess ammonia which can create a bit of foam. Sure Life makes the Foam Off and I buy most of my Sure Life supplies from Memphis Net & Twine. Good service every time from them too.

Ok, here is what I ended up building which is based off of a build I found on Youtube (which I will try to link).

This is a portable/standalone filter+venturi aerator that can basically be dropped into any tank that will fit it given that it has the ability to fill high enough with water to submerge the bilge pump. This setup uses a 2" floor drain for the base/coarse filter housing. That is, it mates to a 2" pipe and then has more like a 6-7" drain grate. I bought the same one I saw in the video, which is called a Sioux quad drain, for about $10 but any ones in a similar style would probably work fine. It connects to a piece of 2" pvc which can really be as long or as short as desired.

The pump is a new 360 gph Rule bilge. For some reason Rule changed the strainer base to be an oval design which is where I had to differ from the build in the video. In the video, they use a 2" coupler and epoxy the bilge base right into it and then press fit it onto the 2" pipe which would be ideal. I considered trying heating up a coupler and forming it to accept the Rule pump but I had one of the flexible rubber couplers on hand and gave it a try. It works totally fine, the only drawback is that it is about $10 vs a coupler that is probably a couple bucks at most. I also thought about buying a cheaper Amazon bilge with a true round base....but I already had bought the Rule and they are about the best on the market so I stuck with it. I do need to seal up some of the exposed intakes up the side but I will probably just cover the side with a thin piece of rubber and let the coupler hold it in place and then the suction from the pump will pull it tight to seal it off good enough. I'll also need to drill out some more holes in the bottom bilge screen so it isnt restricted with the sides now covered up.

For now I used a piece of scrap 3/4" vinyl hose and connected the bilge outlet to a THMarine venturi like in the video. I opted for it because it was a little cheaper than a Dannco ($30 vs $45) but this one feels pretty cheap and I could see the air hose part breaking off pretty easily. I think there are other on the market, and there are free 3D printer plans on the web if anyone has the ability to go that route. Without hose clamps, I can turn the venturi to angle up/down to speed up or lower the current speed which is nice.

Built as is to this point, it functions perfectly but the angled/offset venturi plus the height of the outlet was making it tip over and spin. In the video he added weights to the bottom as well as nuts to elevate it off the tank bottom to allow for water inflow. I bought a pack of $10 heavy duty suction cups with threaded studs and nuts off of Amazon. They hold amazing....in fact with 4 of them on the bottom it was a real pain to get it off the bottom of my tank. I think I will go to just 3 and even then I may need to keep and old putty knife on hand if my fingernails are on the short side. The suction cups also raised the intake to about 1/4-3/8" off the bottom which is about perfect.

I have yet to get any filter material but how it works is that the floor drain section houses the coarse material and then the 2" pipe section holds a fine filter material. The floor drain is probably deep enough you could step it from a coarse to a medium too. The video uses rolled up air vent filters for the fine filter which I'll try first. The whole thing is press fit so the 2" filter is easily accessible and then the coarse material in the drain is accessible by a single screw on the grate.

I went ahead and bought a 26 gallon oval Moeller bait tank which wasnt exactly cheap but wasn't too bad either. This would work well in a cut off 30 or 55 gallon plastic barrel or even a large cooler if it was deep enough. I plan to hunt down a large 1/2" thick hdpe cutting board to make a better lid out of since the Moeller one is only 1/4". I bought a tiny blue led from THMarine too to mount on the pump somewhere for using it at night.

Not sure how I want to wire it yet. I think I will route the power wires and the air hose together in a mesh wire loom and run them to a switch. If I want it to be able to be portable and used in various tanks I will need something to terminate them in. Maybe a small junction box with a switch for the pump and light (when added), fuses, and then a port on the bottom for the air hose. It could then have a few inches of wire with a quick connect to hook it up to a 12v power supply. The box could maybe utilize a hook or suction cups to mount it to various tanks. For now I'll probably just splice on a fused quick disconnect and some alligator clips and let the air hose dangle over the side.

Excluding the tank, the pump assembly cost me about $100. The Rule and the venturi make up most of that, plus I had to buy a stick of 2" pvc as I didnt have any that size on hand and I used that higher priced flexible coupling. You could reduce the cost a lot by getting a cheaper bilge pump, finding a diy venturi solution, and having pvc and the coupler on hand. Could probably get into the $30 range with some ingenuity.







Video of the build I used as a guide:



Video for a diy venturi: