Is it necessary for the water to enter at the top of the livewell? Right now mine is just set up so the hose pumps water into the bottom of the tub. Does that help create more oxygen some way when it comes in the top?

If it does have to come in through the top of the livewell, how do you keep the water from flowing out of the overflow holes? The pump has to be higher than the livewell.

Jake, I have my pumps connected at the top of my livewell pumping water down into the well, I believe it does help oxegenate the water a bit and water will pour out of the overflow holes, but that's by design. When I want to circulate some fresh water I just pump water in and let water run out of the holes.Also you might consider using two pumps, it fills the well twice as fast. A single pump might take 5 minutes to fill the well (depending on the well size) two pumps cuts that time down in half, plus it's good to have two pumps in case theres a problem with one of them.

Besides the pumps I also use a bubler pump(aireator)sp? I bought mine at Wallmart for $18.

So what I do is catch a fish, fill the well with the pumps, then turn OFF the pumps and turn ON the bubler leaving it on till weigh-in. I'll turn on a pump to circulate some fresh water every so often. This system has worked great for me, I haven't lost a fish yet. Good luck.

DM

I do not know if this would work with the syphon type pumps but could you hook one up to a spray bar at the top of the livewell? More air is always better for the fish. In my old boat that is what I did for my livewell and never had a problum, but then my pump was probably more powerful than the syphon pumps.

Lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what have-yous

The syphon pumps don't have enough force to supply a strong spray, and that's another reason not to try and pump water in through the bottom part of the live well, to much water resistance for the pump to deal with.

DM

My livewell has a bilge pump pumping water in from the top but I also connect the hose to a piece of PVC that's capped at one end. I drilled a bunch of tiny holes along the length of the PVC pipe for the water to spray out of. I think it helps a lot with aeraerating the incoming water and cooling it off a bit.
Speaking of cooling the water off, I got a tip on the NCBF forum that putting a frozen bottle of water in your well helps a bunch! For the size wells we use, my guess is it wouldn't have to be bigger than a quart.

tight lines
Chris