Deep Water pump rig

[mwardncsu]

Nothing really unique here, but I thought I'd share the rig I put together this past week to pump water into my bait tank from deeper depths.

I had been using a 500 or 800 gph or so bilge pump attached to a garden hose that was about 25' for my pumping most of the year, and a couple of years ago I rigged up a 1100 Rule pump on a 50' 5/8" garden hose. It worked but it was SLOOOOOOOWWWW! I managed to screw up the 1100 gph pump a while back when I used it to pump water out of a hole when we had a pipe break and it sucked some gravel into the impeller. So, I finally broke down and purchased a 2000 gph Rule pump with a 1-1/8" output, and then got some 1-1/4" pool vacuum hose from Wally World, reused the wire from the previous rig and off I went.

Two boxes of 1-1/4", 26' long vacuum hose from Wal-Mart - about $22/ea
www.walmart.com/ip/Pool-Essentials-Vacuum-Hose/19795884



1-1/4" hose barb to hose-barb fittings from Lowes to join two sections - I had a few screw clamps that I was going to use, but for now they fit tight enough the clamps are not needed.





I used about a 4" or 5" section of 1-1/4" OD / 1" ID PVC tubing - slid it on the pump (would stretch just enough to go on the 1-1/8" fitting on the pump) and then slid the pool hose over the PVC tubing - screw-clams on both sides to secure it. I should have taken a few more "in-process" pics, but here is what it looks like with the hose on the pump




For now, I used alligator type clamps to attach to the battery, and spliced an in-line blade fuse holder for the 15 amp fuse. I may end up changing this over to something more robust like trolling motor plug and put a socket for it on the boat.


For my splices, I used heat-shrink crimp fittings, covered the ends of those fittings with some liquid electrical tape and then covered all that with more heat shrink tubing, and then further coated the ends of that with some more liquid electrical tape.


I cut part of one of the hose off so that with both pieces I have about 40'. On the pump end I think I have somewhere around 15', and then I have the left-over side which is 10'-11' now. I'm going to get some of these water-proof connectors to splice into my wire so that I can swap the different lengths in and out at different times of year when I don't need to pump from as deep - it will give me the ability to set this up with hose lengths anywhere from 15', 26', 40' or 52'. Have to keep in mind that you need some amount of hose to get from the tank, over the gunnel to the water - somewhere in the 5-6' range in my case, so with the 40' hose I'm pumping from 30-35' deep. I could have used the full sections, but I just don't want to have to keep all the bulk of the hose on the boat when I don't need it.




These are Delphi connectors - I like the Deutsch connectors, but I don't have the crimp tools needed and I can get the Dephi connectors already crimped on 14 ga wire harness from the link below. They are supposed to be waterproof - not sure they are really mean for full submersion, but I'll doctor them up with a liberal application of liquid electrical tape as well, and they won't be submerged for all that long.

theelectricaldepot.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=7_54&products_id=271

That's it - with 40' of the hose, I can fill my 40 gal Vest in under 4 minutes now!

[mwardncsu]

A few things I forgot to mention...

The pool hose "floats" but the pump is heavy enough that it holds the hose down, and also due to the weight of the 2000 gph pump, I don't need any extra weights attached to get it down - unlike when I used the 800 or 1100 Rule bilge pumps.....

[CorneliaGale]

Interesting, should be cooler water down there. I think I can pull from about 15 to 20 feet with pump I have now and then aerate it so the fish can live in it. Let us know how it works in the hot summer, Just wondering how long the tank will stay cool without adding ice. guess you could keep changing it all day, as long as you can keep the oxygen level up the bait should live.

[mwardncsu]

Here's the temp curve from late Aug last year.



I was aiming for mid-60's water temp at the hottest part of the year, which meant I needed to get to a max depth of around 30'. Add the distance from water, over the gunnel and to/in the tank and I wanted 36'-40'. This past weekend I pumped in water mid-lake just under 70 based on the new $3 pool thermometer I bought at Lowes - I need to validate how accurate it is..... Expected to get temps a little lower than that at 30ish feet this time of year.

It is important to realize that at that depth it is likely right at or under the thermocline in most places and the water under there will be less oxygenated, especially late summer, so it's a good idea to let the pump/aerator run in that water for a little while to get it re-oxygenated. Also, for those using deep water wells to fill your bait tank, you can have the same issue - always good to fill the tank and let it run a little while before putting bait in it.

As to how long it holds the temp, in my 40 Gal Vest running when the daytime temps are in the mid/upper 80's and nighttime in the 70's, I seem to gain somewhere around 3-5 degrees a day (24 hours). A 10 lb bag of ice bring a it down about this same amount. Given a fairly light bait load last weekend in the tank I just added a few bags of ice along the way on Fri and Sat AM after catching bait Thur night - didn't do a water change as in was not smelling any ammonia - if I had I would have done a 1/2 to 2/3 water change which would have also rebalanced the temps.

[fishhook]

I like it Mike. My garden hose works great, but it is sloooooowww. How long did it take for you to fill your 40 with the new set up ? Could you wash down the slime off the deck with the pressure you get out of it ?

Fishhook

[mwardncsu]

Fishhook - it takes under 4 minutes to fill the 40 gal tank with the 49' hose. As to washing the deck - with the 1-1/4" hose you get a lot of flow but not necessarily a ton of pressure - certainly not like a hose net spray nozzle, but I'd say more pressure as you get out of your garden hose. Not sure what would happen if you made an adapter to attach some type of nozzle - probably would give you plenty or pressure to hose down the deck well. You certainly have enough flow that combine with a deck brush you would be good.

Just watch where you put the hose when its running - I had 3" of water on the back deck that the scuppers could not keep up with before I noticed it when first getting things situated I may may a 90 degree pipe attachment to use to "hang" the open end in the tank so it does not slip out of the tank and flood the deck when I'm not watching.

[CorneliaGale]

I bought the 300 gal pump from Harbor Freight and have been using that, have about 20' of hose on the intake side. Didn't really pay attention to how long it took to fill the tank, not too long, I think it would have enough pressure to wash the deck will try when I get a chance. Cool water is the answer to keeping bait in the summer, spring and fall you can just run the water in and out of the tank and not worry about chemicals and filters.

[fishhook]

Thanks Mike, that sounds great. I'd say a hanger system is a must to keep that water in the tank. That is fast, I like that.

Fishhook

[BentRod]

Only way to go. No way I'd ever go back to that 10min+ fill and empty crap. Mine fills and empties in 2min. It would sink my boat in 10min.

[Shadslinger]

Ive got a 1200gpm with 2 shop vac hoses. fills my 30 gal fairly quick. I noticed last saturday on leesville that the water temps were 75 and below 3/4 of the lake and 70 and below from bout halfway all way up to SML. I guess sml dumping water from the floods and leesville dumping in the river cirulated alot of cool water through the lake and brought the temps on down. Bad thing was I searched the whole lake and couldnt find any fish....

[mwardncsu]

Ahh.... cool Leesville waters...... might just need to bum a ride in a few weeks down that way

[Shadslinger]

Jul 10, 2013 14:09:30 GMT -5 mwardncsu said:

Ahh.... cool Leesville waters...... might just need to bum a ride in a few weeks down that way

Waste of time. I never marked a school of fish, then went to cooler temp fishing patterns and still got no action. Now if you were a swamp logger you could make a fortune right now..

[mytoyzfishing]

Man that's a lot to find storage for on the boat Yea filling my 50 with a 500 rule and garden hose takes forever It was interesting to see Dan's presentation last night on the thurmocline.

[mwardncsu]

Mark - plenty of storage on that pontoon of yours - not so much on the bass boat

[Gotcha]

Jul 13, 2013 19:09:42 GMT -5 mytoyzfishing said:

It was interesting to see Dan's presentation last night on the thurmocline.

Sure wished I could have been there to see that! Maybe catch the next one!

Nice rig for pumping water mward! Right now I'm stuck filling w my bail bucket! Cooling w frozen bottles of water!