Minnow tank filter

[Jim_C]

Hi,
I am new to this site and have a couple of questions for you guys and gals. I use a lot of sucker minnows in the colder months fishing and have been doing some research on setting up bait tanks and aquariums. The minnows are usually about 3 inches long and the numbers will very from week to week between fishing trips, say 20 to 60 minnows. I use a large 150 quart cooler with about 30 gallons of water. My filtration system includes a pump, a sediment filter with a blow down valve, a 20 micron cartridge filter and a modified cartridge filter with zeolite chips in it. I know from past experiences it will require weekly partial water changes.

Question #1. Does this setup sound like it will work keeping sucker minnows for an extended period of time?

Question #2. Would it help if I added some kind of biological media like porous ceramic media on top of the zeolite chips?

Thanks for any and all help.
Jim

 

[phillydog1958]

check with your local bait shops and see what they're using . . .

 

[Noto]

1. How long is an extended period of time? If you just want to keep bait alive through the season, that should be fine. Be sure to oxygenate the water thoroughly with your filter returns and/or an air pump.

2. Bait tanks are difficult because the bioload is often very high and fluctuating, which can really mess with bacteria populations. I suggest you don't worry too much about biofiltration and just perform large frequent water changes instead- say 80% per week. Ceramic media is overrated. Add a filter sponge or two if you like; this will provide some mechanical and some biological filtration.

Plants are another option. They are more stable and don't take a long time to adjust to a spike in ammonia production like bacteria do. You will need quite a lot of vegetable matter to make a difference in your tank. You might consider a hydroponic system- you can grow some tomatoes or other vegetables with the tank water as fertilizer. That's probably more trouble and expense than you want to fool with, though.

 

[Jim_C]

Noto
Thanks for the response. I just want to keep them from late fall to early spring. Have kept them in the past but was trying to make my tank a little more portable. In the past water changes and keeping water cool (frozen water in milk jugs) seamed to be the most important things but want to try the zeolite to see if it helped any. Does the zeolite help in reducing ammonia?

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

I too keep minnows through out the year as feeders and for fishing.

If you search long enough you may find 50 or so of my threads about trying to keep fathead minnows alive. I had trouble keeping them alive and disease free for years, up until recently.

I have worked in a bait shop and i still frequent most of my local bait shops on a biweekly basis.

The way bait shops keep there minnows alive and well is by lowering the PH level so that there is no ammonia only ammonium, which is not toxic. As well as keeping the temp low.

The problem with this for us is that once we bring them home and change some water with our tap water Ph around 8. When the Ph and temp starts to climb the ammonium will instantly convert back to ammonia and kill the minnows very quickly.

My set up consisted of a 75g tank with a 10g sump filter with a 800gph filter for the first few years with no success. After talking to a local bait shop for days on end i finally stumbled across the ph difference and after a lot of research i found out about the conversion of ammonia to ammonium at low ph levels.

My new set up is a 20g insulated cooler and a air pump.

I use a ph adjuster to lower my waters ph level down to around 5.8-6.0. And I change the water every 3rd day. Mostly to remove detrius and the smell.

i am able to keep a pound of minnows alive for a month before i run out and have to get more. I am sure they would last longer but I use them daily to feed so a pound of fat heads don't last any longer.


Recently I am experimenting with trying to adapt the minnows back to a higher Ph level and get them into a tank with a filter so that I can monitor there feeding and make them better food for my predator fish.

So far it has worked with the last 2 batches.
i bring them home and do a 95% water change with the low Ph adjusted tap water with some ice in it.

I then wait 1 hour to let them calm down and then i set up a drip acclimation and allow them to drip for about another hour. I just keep removing cups full of water out of the holding tank when it gets full.

After that I net them out and place them in the tank.

So far i have got maybe 3-5 dead minnows a week out of the tank once they are acclimated to it. Which is not bad for housing 3-500 minnows in 85g of tank.