Anybody got any suggestions on what to use for a heat exchanger to get the water in my bait tank at the house cool? As it has been warming up my bait has been dying and I believe it is because of the water temperature.

i think you will need to give a little bit more info on the tank.is it in the sun,how big is the tank and how much oxygen are you putting in the water.also is this tank being used for shad.

Buck...Tell me more. How big is the tank, how many baits are you trying to hold and what's the average length of them? Do you have foam, ammonia smell, or cloudy water? Exactly what are you putting into the water (salt, keep alive, foam off, etc)? With the water being below 80 temperature is something you can beat....jfo

Get 2 heater cores at any auto store put one of them in the tank use a pump to run the water out of the tank into the other one outside of the tank in a bucket of ice then the cool water back into the one in the tank. Make a closed loop system. You need more than 10 degrees difference between the water in the tank and the cooling medium, otherwise not much cooling.

The size of the tank is about a 10 cu ft deep freezer not really sure how much water it holds. Been using some keep alive in it but that has not been helping yet. Had pretty good success with this setup last year but is not working to well this year. I have a pump that recir's the water from the top and sprays it back into the water and two other air pumps pumping air into it. Mainly trying to keep goldfish and bream in it.

Buck, Bream & goldfish are more hardy than gizzards. From what you describe something else is gone amuck. 10CU is pretty darn big. How old is the water in the tank? I'll assume you start with good water. In a tanks that big, to kill a bream you almost have to have ammonia, no air, or dead water. Tell me a few more things...

When you open up the tank, smell it closely..can you smell the water? Any ammonia smell at all? 75 degree water holds a lot of oxygen. You say you have several air pumps...are these pumping air from outside? Is there foam? Buck, I promise...at 75degrees temperature isn't it....hey are your pumps somehow exchanging heat into the water? What is the temp of your water...needs to be within 10 degrees of the water you're fishing.

Sorry more questions and not answers...I thought you were holding shad...its harder to kill bream...Buck, send me an email and I'll send you a detailed method about holding shad in hot weather....do those things and bream will be just pat...jfo

There is not a top on the tank it is just open. So I dont smell any ammonia. The air pumps just from outside, just some of the small pumps that you can get from Wal Mart. I dont see that there is not heat coming from my pumps but I dont know exactly what temp the water is but I will check on that. Some days there is some foam and then some days there is not. Right now I'm looking for a freezer that works to controlt he temperature but am having a hard time finding one because I know that this will settle the problem most likely. What is you email, if you reply I'll try to email you before night is over and I leave work.

first off if your using airpumps from wal mart your probably spending a fortune in batteries, buy a 12v or 110v air pump, plus those little marble size airstones dont do muchin a tank that big. go to a bait shop and get a couple of the 8" flat weighted airstones or long strips. you could also use a peice of 1/2" soaker tubing but have to get a 1/4 to 1/2 adapter and cut some weights of an old throw net and zip tie to soaker tubing to keep on bottom. the circulation pumps are probably doing more harm than good if they arent filtered in some way or the filters are dirty. any pump that sprays back into the tank is going to create surface foam. i use shadalive or shadkeeper in my tank, it has all you need already in it. if this is a home tank and it holds goldfish and brim on a regular basis you will need some sort of recirculation filter. hope this helps some.

It looks like you could go to a garden center that sell's fish ponds and get everything you need and large enough to do the trick. Just a thought!

Buck, my email is jfojoe@verizon.net.
I'd love to help you solve this and I can assure you that until the water temp tops 90 you can solve this without coolers. A cooler will actually cause you a problem that might be worse because its a problem you cannot see as clearly as you can see dead bait in a tank.

Here's the deal. Cool water holds more oxygen, hot water holds less. Its complicated with the ph of the water also being a critical component. As a fish transitions from hot water to cold (all else the same) it will get an oxygen rush because of the additinal ability of the cooler water to hold oxygen molecules. In reverse, a fish transitioning from cold to hot gets a sudden "gasping for breath" impact due to the warmer water being able to hold enough air. In the heat of summer, if your bait-tank is very much over the lake temp, what you get is a squiggly bait in your hand when you put it on the hook but when that bait hits the hot lake...sometimes its dead minutes after the sinker hits the bottom.

In a perfect world, your bait-tank would be close to the temp you're fishing....below 90, you should be able to solve most all the issues. Is your tank self contained or are you taking/returning lake water to the tank? We need a gallon estimate of your tank and an estimate of how many/what size bait you are trying to hold. btw, I used to cool my tank before I understood what else to do. I tried lots of methods (some right expensive) and ended up using 2litre pepsi bottles 7/8 full of water and frozen. It was cheap, dirty and it worked.

This offer goes for everybody...if you'll stop by my dock when you're having trouble holding bait I'll do a quick oxygen, ph and ammonia test for you on your tank and that'll give you some ideas. Try to stop in when you're actually having a problem so the cause would be present...jfo