I am looking at putting together a portable live well, something the size of a large camping cooler with a 12 volt compressor & airstone. Has anyone done this and what type of compressor would work. It would need to support up to five 16" trout at a time in cold water for about two hours max. Any thoughts?
Thanks, Wood.

I bought a floating water pump that draws in air for about $20 at Acadamy (I've seen them elsewhere as well) that I rigged to plug into my ciggarette lighter. I run the 16 guage wire out the back sliding window and I can keep a lot of fish alive for a long time. I don't knopw about trout.
The best thiing is that it can be put into any size cooler or barrel or even 5 gallon bucket.

Wood,
My son & I did that very thing using a 100 qt cooler only we didn't use air. We used a small water pump & fashoned a header pipe out of 3/4 pvc by drilling 1/8" holes. The pump pulls water off the bottom (it's submersable) & sprays it out the perforated pvc pipe/header down onto the surface of the water.
We have kept trout alive in it all day.

bass pro has a new oxygen generator device that sounds pretty good you might check that out.

Thanks for the info guys. I will be making one soon, I like the water pump vs air pump idea.
Wood

Wood, I think I would contact some of the guys that sell and haul fish.

I use a black plastic 55 gallon drum for a live well. I cut a square area out of the top, put a 500 gph thru-hull pump in the bottom of it an made an aerator out of some pvc that sprays the water over the top. It has a wooden latched lid to minimize splashing. I also have fillings that when it is in the boat I can hook it up to a pump to take water in and discharge it back out. It has worked out great for transporting fish, keeping shad alive for striper fishing from one lake to another and used to use it to keep my anchovy's alive when I lived in Sand Diego and went ocean fishing.

Bob

I was hoping that people that move fish for a living would have answered this. I sure don't do this for a living but have moved lots of fish.

I use two types of aerators. Most of the time, I use Bubble Box Portable Air Pumps made by Marine Metal Products. They can be purchased at most fishing supple stores. I usually use at least two of these with each container so that if one pump should fail, the other one would still be working. The other thing I use is a portable air compressor that is powered by the cigarette lighter. I've rigged it with tubbing and a 12" bottom diffuser from a pet store.

The basic container I use is an 18-20 gal. plastic container that can be purchased almost anywhere. I also have two containers about twice as large. I put the tops on to keep the water from splashing all over. Using a drill, I cut slots on one edge of the top, outside of the container to hang the aerators on. I then drill a 1" hole on the top by the aerators to drop the diffusers into the water.

Here are some things to be careful about. Much of the water we drink is clorinated. This clorine will kill your fish very quickly. Either use water from the place you are getting the fish or go to a pet store and buy a declorinator. Make sure your container doesn't have any contaminants in it. It is too easy to forget that you spilled something a while ago. I now use a fresh plastic trash bag as a liner.

It is much easier to move fish when the temps are low. If temps are high, put the fish in your container and then gradually lower the water temp with ice. When you get to your destination, gradually warm the water to the temp of your water.

Many people (including me) use non-ionized salt in the water. The pros can explain the use of non-ionized salt better than I.

Another thing I do sometimes is use a large plastic garbage bag inside the container. Instead of aerators, I have a pure oxygen tank and fill the bag with oxygen. I twist the top and use either wire or rubber bands to make sure the bag doesn't leak oxygen.

Most of us want to put as many fish into the container as possible. Remember though that it doesn't matter how many fish you start with. What matters is how many fish surive and thrive in your lake.