Thread: Home made minnow tanks.

Originally Posted by crappiehooker

One of my buddies has one he's raising MINNOWS in year round. He has a 200g plastic pond. He took a 5g bucket drilled a bunch of holes in it and put a large waterfall pump in it. Covered it with gravel. This is a great filter. The outlet hose he ran around the upper edge of the pond and drill a bunch of holes in it so that it would aerate the pond. He has a tent set up over it to keep in in the shade. And he but a heat trace tape in it to keep it from freezing. Works great. I'm going over there today after work. I'll try to get some pics.

Sounds like Gators setup.


Big River Marine
Bill Burnett
870-635-0202

We sell XPRESS, EXCEL, and ALWELD Boats. Yamaha, Suzuki, Evinrude, Mud Buddy, and Tohatsu/Nissan Engines.
Pro Staff, Southern Pro Tackle and Ozark Rods.
Member, Tri-State Crappie Anglers

Looks like a good set up.
With cutting the top off of a plastic barrel, after a while it can fold in. I would cut the top out instead of off. Leave the heavy rim at the top.
There has been talk before about how to keep the water cool during the summer months. Since I'll be starting a new tank this year, have it on my covered deck. I have a frig. sitting there now. If I cool the air to be pumped into the tank. I'll put a coil of plastic tubing in the freezer. If I cool the water, I'll put the coil in the frig.. (If you cool the water, don't use copper tubing for the coil.) Just got an idea. Fill a straight wall plastic drink bottle with water. Wrap the plastic tubing loosely around the bottle, use tape to hold tubing in place. The door gasket can be notched under the magnet, caulked or taped when finished. Tubing connectors can be found in pet supplies.

Originally Posted by BigRiverMarine

Sounds like Gators setup.


Big River Marine
Bill Burnett
870-635-0202

We sell XPRESS, EXCEL, and ALWELD Boats. Yamaha, Suzuki, Evinrude, Mud Buddy, and Tohatsu/Nissan Engines.
Pro Staff, Southern Pro Tackle and Ozark Rods.
Member, Tri-State Crappie Anglers

Yes it is.

I have always had to sit my water out for 24 hours to get the chlorine out so the monniws would not die. After reading this post, I purchased one of the rv water filters. I have not tried it yet, but wanted to make sure that I read this right. If I use this rv water filter, I can put minnows in the tank directly after putting the watyer inn the tank. Is that right?

I collect rain water off the drip of the house mostly for watering flowers and some garden plants in 5 gallon buckets and barrels. I'll clean out one bucket, lay an old tee shirt over it and filter the water from the other buckets for the minnow tank. Since they collect leaves and twigs from the trees around the house. The minnows seem to like it. When I swap some of the water from the tank, it's used to do the watering.

Y'all don't have to rest the water. This stuff, available at any Wal Mart, Petsmart, Petco, or anywhere that sells aquarium fish, will work. Aquarium water conditioner. The minnows themselves are called Golden Shiners and shouldn't be that negatively affected by heat as long as you have adequate surface agitation to aerate the water. You can also cool the water by a few degrees with a simple clamp-on fan across the surface. It aids in evaporation, which aids in cooling. If you're keeping a pile of minnows, you'll want to change a good portion of the water once or twice a week. Drain, fill, add water conditioner, and you're good to go. You may need a pretty stout air pump to keep the water's surface moving enough to keep up with the fish mass.

Originally Posted by dhdr24

I have always had to sit my water out for 24 hours to get the chlorine out so the monniws would not die. After reading this post, I purchased one of the rv water filters. I have not tried it yet, but wanted to make sure that I read this right. If I use this rv water filter, I can put minnows in the tank directly after putting the watyer inn the tank. Is that right?

Yes, you can go straight from your hose to your minnow tank if you use an RV filter. It strains 15 different chemicals.

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Thanks Yikess, luck to you