Livewell aerator head underwater?

I grew up with bass boats where the livewell pump/spray head was the only method of circulation, with an overflow/drain valve tube, and the time simply sprayed water in for a set amount of time, allowing new water to replace old. No recirculation. My current boat (yeah I know fish-n-ski, sue me) is this method as well, with the gasket-bottomed removable pvc drain tube. Like this but without screen/filter:

http://www.bbcboards.net/attachment....d=338609&stc=1

My memories always were that the spray head was above the surface of the livewell water even when full, so every time the auto-timer kicked on, new water was kicked in via spray down into the livewell to also add some aeration. My current boat, however, it appears the PVC drain tube is tall such that when the livewell is full, the spray head is under the surface and not producing any aeration effect. (I have confirmed is seated as deeply into drain as is possible) I normally would not mind, as this "extra" water for the bass, but after losing a kicker fish at a local club tournament a month back, I have had to start running portable hush-bubbles mounted outside of the livewell with the tube running under a partially closed lid.

My co-angler is back in the boat this next weekend, meaning that livewell lid can no longer stay partially cracked (though we do open periodically through the day to remove stale air and make use of livewell treatment). Should I be taking a hacksaw to take 1/2 inch off the top of the PVC drain tube to allow the spray head to be just over the surface of the water, or leave as is? Or install a separate aerator/pump with separate air intake?

Any help or information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Simplest solution is to run livewell pumps constantly instead of on a timer, but this only gets you so far. It also presents the possibility of a dead battery, particularly if you have an older or inadequate battery or run an older motor with a stator instead of an alternator. These issues are exacerbated if you don't move around with the big motor a lot.

Any chance you extend the spray head to get it above the surface of the water? I'm guessing the spray head is threaded onto a sort of "through-hull" type fitting that connects the pump and hoses outside the livewell to the sprayhead inside the livewell. If you removed the spray head at the fitting and spliced in a piece of same diameter pipe or even removed the sprayhead and replaced the pipe between it and the fitting, you could possibly achieve your classic aerating effect that way.

Otherwise, do you have access to the "wall" of the livewell from inside the bilge or even from another compartment? The bilge would be ideal as it'd offer easiest access to wiring and a "so what" situation if the following setup leaked a little. You could drill a hole to run the bubbler hose through and silicone/4200 it in place, then just splice the wiring for it with those of your pumps so it kicks on whenever your pumps do. A buddy with an older alumnium boat uses a setup like this and it works extremely well.

Last idea is to add some VT-2 vents to help with gas exchange. I personally think the fresh water coming in should give the fish the oxygen they need if combined with a situation that allows "bad" gases to escape. I'm thinking the cracked livewell lid may be helping your cause more than the bubbler, though I'm certain the bubbler can't hurt. Added advantages of the VT-2 vents are dry livewells by the time you trailer home, and being able to easily hear your pumps kick on when you're running them on a timer.

The last point about pumps kicking on seems silly until you have a pump quit on you. I usually try to use one of my livewells for fish that are likely to be culled out and reserve the other for fish that won't, at least in situations where I'm lucky enough to catch some big ones. A few tourneys back I had two nice fish on one side and three fish I hoped to cull on the other. As I was fishing, I noticed that it sounded like only one of my pumps kicked on. Sure enough, the pump for my livewell with my cull fish had stopped working and they were struggling. It wasn't ideal to have all 5 in one livewell, but I was able to cull out 2 of the 3 smaller fish throughout the day. If I hadn't checked on my own volition soon (absent hearing the pumps sound funny), there's a good chance those fish would've died and I would've been stuck with not only the penalty but also with not being able to upgrade those two times.

VT-2 vents :thumb up2: But you could still cut the pipe a bit shorter if needed.

Thanks much for info! I think I will try to extend the spray head up an inch or so with a 45 degree elbow. Pretty sure I have a threaded 3/4 elbow laying around I may give it a try. Those vents are news to me I will check them out! All else fails from there I will cut drain 1/8 at a time until some bubbles are coming. Just to make me feel better!

(BTW you called it on older motor with 20 amp stator though I did move to a group 31 AGM for primary starting/electronics battery after a dead start end of tournament, two new group 29’s for trolling motor).