Post by coheasion on Nov 30, 2017 12:51:02 GMT -5
I have made a few posts and comments evaluating my Xtreme bait tank I purchased about a year ago. I have been a bit frustrated with the tank as it was not a great performer they way it was delivered but I have done some tweaks and through some trial.....and mostly error....I have got it to where it is working really well right now and I wanted to share what changes I made in case anyone else is experiencing the same thing.
The first thing I noticed and was un-happy with was the flow of the water in the tank. I just could not get a decent circular flow in the tank and my shad would swin all different directions and bump into the sidewalls etc. The first thing I did was up the pump from a 350 GPH pump to a 800 GPH pump. This helped a little but still wasn't giving me the flow I wanted and I knew that a pump this size should be plenty for this size tank so I then went and looked in detail at the plumbing between the pump and the output on the bait side.
After looking at all of the plumbing and testing different things, I determined that the large black 90 degree plastic piece that came with the tank was very restrictive, even though the overall piece of plastic was very large and gave the illusion that water should flow fine through it. When you looked down inside this black piece you could see how small the tube was for the water to flow. So I removed this piece and changed it to a more traditional PVC type elbow. Pic of my new setup will follow shortly, but I don't have a picture of the way it was set up as it came. Once I changed this my flow was now working very well.
The next thing I worked on was oxygen flow and out-gassing and I was able to get this the way I wanted by changing one slight thing and then adjusting how I used the tank. The slight change was to add an air-control valve to the plastic tubing coming off of my Dannco venturi. I am of the same opinion as Yam that by restricting this a bit your venturi produces finer bubbles that stay in the tank longer. However, I also think comes at the expense of out-gassing a bit.
Which leads me to my next change that I have made and is not a change to the tank, but rather a change to how I use it. I believe I had been filling the tank with too much water as to my way of thinking the more water I had the more bait I could hold. With the sideways filter system in the Xtreme tanks I had so much water in the tank that the water flowed through the filter box, but then did not "drop" into the pump section below. By reducing the overall amount of water in the tank the water that flows out of the filter box now falls and creates a waterfall/aeration effect that helps to outgas and adds a bit more oxygen as well.
I have also added a sack with carbon and another sack with ammonia remover to the filter box as well.
It is hard to quantify how much each of these individual changes made by themselves but as a whole I am very happy with the increased performance.
Now the only thing I am still a bit un-satisfied with is the drain from the bait side to the filter side is still a couple inches up the sidewall so all the larger pieces of crap fall to the bottom of the tank and sit there until manually removed by a pump or siphon of some type.
I kept a large number of 6-8" shad (4 or 5 dozen) this past weekend in the tank over a couple days with very minimal water changes and zero red noses or dead baits.
The next post has a few pics and a video of the "waterfall" action now in my filter.
The first thing I noticed and was un-happy with was the flow of the water in the tank. I just could not get a decent circular flow in the tank and my shad would swin all different directions and bump into the sidewalls etc. The first thing I did was up the pump from a 350 GPH pump to a 800 GPH pump. This helped a little but still wasn't giving me the flow I wanted and I knew that a pump this size should be plenty for this size tank so I then went and looked in detail at the plumbing between the pump and the output on the bait side.
After looking at all of the plumbing and testing different things, I determined that the large black 90 degree plastic piece that came with the tank was very restrictive, even though the overall piece of plastic was very large and gave the illusion that water should flow fine through it. When you looked down inside this black piece you could see how small the tube was for the water to flow. So I removed this piece and changed it to a more traditional PVC type elbow. Pic of my new setup will follow shortly, but I don't have a picture of the way it was set up as it came. Once I changed this my flow was now working very well.
The next thing I worked on was oxygen flow and out-gassing and I was able to get this the way I wanted by changing one slight thing and then adjusting how I used the tank. The slight change was to add an air-control valve to the plastic tubing coming off of my Dannco venturi. I am of the same opinion as Yam that by restricting this a bit your venturi produces finer bubbles that stay in the tank longer. However, I also think comes at the expense of out-gassing a bit.
Which leads me to my next change that I have made and is not a change to the tank, but rather a change to how I use it. I believe I had been filling the tank with too much water as to my way of thinking the more water I had the more bait I could hold. With the sideways filter system in the Xtreme tanks I had so much water in the tank that the water flowed through the filter box, but then did not "drop" into the pump section below. By reducing the overall amount of water in the tank the water that flows out of the filter box now falls and creates a waterfall/aeration effect that helps to outgas and adds a bit more oxygen as well.
I have also added a sack with carbon and another sack with ammonia remover to the filter box as well.
It is hard to quantify how much each of these individual changes made by themselves but as a whole I am very happy with the increased performance.
Now the only thing I am still a bit un-satisfied with is the drain from the bait side to the filter side is still a couple inches up the sidewall so all the larger pieces of crap fall to the bottom of the tank and sit there until manually removed by a pump or siphon of some type.
I kept a large number of 6-8" shad (4 or 5 dozen) this past weekend in the tank over a couple days with very minimal water changes and zero red noses or dead baits.
The next post has a few pics and a video of the "waterfall" action now in my filter.
