Home made minnow tanks.

I know many of you have difficulty with procuring bait on an as needed basis. I am no different. Last year I read several post about building minnow tanks for personal use. I thought about if for a while and came up with the following design. Here is what you will need to build it.

1. 50 gal blue plastic drum. ( minnow people tell me this is the best color for them)

2. 110 volt air pump (any good bait shop will have these)

3. Aquarium filter (small one from Wall Mart)

4. Roll around platform (optional)

5. Drain spicket (optional)

Cut the drum off with a skill saw just above the first stiffening ring.
Attach a 90 degree pice of aluminum or other suitable material to the top. This is a platform for the air pump. Attach the pump with a wire tie. Add the filter right beside the pump. Add water and a little bait saver and you are ready to go.

This tank will keep up to 2 pounds of minnows for many weeks. Attachment 115828Attachment 115829Attachment 115830

good idea

I have thought of doing this in my garage... Where do you store them?(temp, etc) It would be great for me to be able to do this, have a cousin that married into a bait wholesaler... So I could get some minnows at a reasonable price $20 for 500 medium ones

At'll work right there. You need to keep it out of any sunlight or algae will grow and turn the water green

I keep my tank in my basement. As long as you keep it out of direct sunlight you will be OK. Remember this in only supposed to be a temporary tank. It is not designed to hold your bait over several months. If you need that length of time you can clean and refill it when needed.

I have almost the same set up except that I use a 39 gallon trash can from Lowes with a plastic faucet at the bottom to drain 1/3 of the water daily because I don't have a filter system at all. I refill it with RV filtered water directly from my home faucet and feed them jokers daily or they will start to eat each other. So far I have maintained @3 pounds for 6 to 8 weeks without any problem. I may loose one minnow every other day on average.

Yikees....explain about the RV filtered water

RV filter from Wally world. Take out chlorine and a bunch of other chemicals and minerals.

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Hey Gary....I heard that you could fill a barrel or a open container up with tap water and that in 24 hours the chlorine would disapate into the air and be removed....is this true?

Go to get me one of them RV Filters, need to change the filters in my pump too. Still got a pound or so of minners we had left over from the Chotard tourney