Thinking about a minner vat, any advice?

Me and a buddy on here are wanting to get some plastic tanks these farmers use and set up a place here and one at the lake.

These square plastic containers are about 3 foot by 3 foot and a little over 3 foot deep just guessing, I haven't seen one up close yet.

We will only use the minnows for a couple months, so with it not being real hot we won't need an aerator will we?

We know we will need an over flow, and a way to keep leaves and trash and birds out of it.

What else will we need? How do we get the chlorine out of the tap water? What do we feed them?

Thanks for any help. Jeff

I'll dump a lb of minnows in a plastic 55 gallon drum and run one of those walmart airators on them. They do fine until the water starts getting warm.

Wal-Mart sells a declorination liquid back in the fish tank supplies area. Also, I'd pick up a couple of 110V aerators and bubblers, lines and stones. You can get a filter there as well.

I set up an 18 gallon Wal-Mart Tote in Oct with the smallest of the above I could, chunked a pound of minnows in it with no food and I basically lost a dozen in 4 months. Since it's warmed up, I seem to be loosing about 1 a day, still not very many though.

Wannabe...

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Originally Posted by Wannabe...

Wal-Mart sells a declorination liquid back in the fish tank supplies area. Also, I'd pick up a couple of 110V aerators and bubblers, lines and stones. You can get a filter there as well.

I set up an 18 gallon Wal-Mart Tote in Oct with the smallest of the above I could, chunked a pound of minnows in it with no food and I basically lost a dozen in 4 months. Since it's warmed up, I seem to be loosing about 1 a day, still not very many though.

Wannabe...

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Do you ever use any of those minners? How does a pound last 4 months?

You gonna start in on me this early Creek? I basically kept a pound in there during that time. Sometimes less, but I restocked it as I went.

Wannabe...

He and the lil' be's named them all. Adopted them as pets, Creek! ;)

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Originally Posted by Wannabe...

You gonna start in on me this early Creek? I basically kept a pound in there during that time. Sometimes less, but I restocked it as I went.

Wannabe...

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Just in bad mood today, earth quake woke me up last night.

Back to the minner vat. This is what I use.
Stock Tank 110 ga - 2229862 | Tractor Supply Company

A nudder question....I am thinking bout doing the same thing. But my question is the pump, do you all think a pump like most of the bait shops use that aireates and agitates from the top would tend to keep water a lil bit cooler? Im thinking of putting bout a 30 gallon plastic drum under the carport, in corner to keep it in the shade too....

Jus wonderin???

We had one of the big bait shop model aerators in a 40 gal container, seemed like it killed more than the small bubbler. Keeping them out of direct sunlight will help keep it cooler in the hot months as well

Prolly won't make a spits worth of difference actually. When it 102 degrees outside, it ain't gonna matter. Shade and plenty of O2 is prolly your best option. Next would be good filtration and refreshing the water regularly. I imagine the electricity to run an agitator would be much higher than a bubbler too.

I have heard of folks running copper tubing into and out of freezers to cool the water too. But that's an awful bunch of trouble for a stewpit minner.

Wannabe...

When it gets hot forget the minner and start pulling cranks.

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Originally Posted by creekslick

When it gets hot forget the minner and start pulling cranks.

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x1

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Originally Posted by Wannabe...

Prolly won't make a spits worth of difference actually. When it 102 degrees outside, it ain't gonna matter. Shade and plenty of O2 is prolly your best option. Next would be good filtration and refreshing the water regularly. I imagine the electricity to run an agitator would be much higher than a bubbler too.

I have heard of folks running copper tubing into and out of freezers to cool the water too. But that's an awful bunch of trouble for a stewpit minner.

Wannabe...

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Actually what you can do when it starts getting hot outside move your container close to a window and put the aerater inside the house , if the a/c is running . you will be pumping 70 deg. air in your tank. I keep minnows alive in 100deg weather.

Why not just keep em in an aquarium inside? Great conversation piece

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Originally Posted by EmptyStringer

Why not just keep em in an aquarium inside? Great conversation piece

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Tried that but my pet 20ft great white keeps eaten em all up.

Just buy 3 dozen at a time and toss the rest.

To get the chlorine out. Just fill the tank up and let it set a couple days. It'll be good to go

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Originally Posted by crappiholic

Just buy 3 dozen at a time and toss the rest.

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Sounds pretty logical too haha

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Originally Posted by creekslick

Do you ever use any of those minners? How does a pound last 4 months?

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creek, at one fish per trip, a pound of minners will go a long, long way.

i use a large ice chest, and use an electric aquarium aerator, a 2-outlet, with both hooked up. i also add some ice as needed, an keep the lid closed all the time. it has worked very well for me.

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Originally Posted by crappiholic

Just buy 3 dozen at a time and toss the rest.

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It's about 8 miles from our place to the store, I'm trying to cut the drive down there out every morning. LOL

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Originally Posted by creekslick

When it gets hot forget the minner and start pulling cranks.

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10-4 on that slick, and that is our plan, keep minners for the next couple months and then break out the bandits.

Gonna put our brand new 220 gal fish pond on the classified, but pm me if you want it first. $100 You get the old one that I cracked which can be used to put the new one in and make it real solid. Maybe a good minner pond?

I have two or three top aereaters I use in my stock tank . They do keep the water cooler but unless you can recycle new water from a well or something similar mid summer months will take a toll on the minnows because of ambient heat.