someone said they use coffee mate in there bait tank instead of shad keeper. thats a first for me anybody do this?does it work?

Coffee Mate keeps the foam down. Shad Keeper does not. I hear that Coffee Mate works but I use Foam-Off when needed for foam control. Shad Keeper and similar products are mostly salt. All I've been using is salt lately and the only difference I can tell is the water stays clear instead of turning blue. The bait lives just as well.

will try it this evening! go fish!

rock salt and coffemate works as good as those expensive chemicals does.

Coffe mate works for taking the foam away, but you dont want to use to much. Sprinkle a packet into your tank that you would pick up at hardees.. As for the shad keeper. I use to use it, now i use nothing but rock salt. Mortons water purifing salt you can pick it up at wal-mart. 40lb bag last you might near all season.. The shad keeper is basically rock salt in a fine material with coloring, ever notice you never see an ingedients list on the bottle? I was having problems with my bait turing rednose and some were even killing over, but my bait wasnt active as it should and wasnt living to aweful long on the hook. So I ran a test back in april. I started my tank out as normal using shad keeper. The bait went as normal, getting read nose, some died and not active as they should be. By 10am, i emptied and cleaned my whole bait tank, fresh water, fresh bait and used nothing but the rock salt. My bait has stayed extremly active, clean and beautiful looking baits, Ever since i started using the rock salt. My water stays clear, to were i can see to net the baits as well.. I rarly have a bait die. I use a 30 gallon tank, I use one and a half handfuls of salt in my tank... I wouldnt use no other..
As for the foam off liquid it works well, as I havnt tried Tranquil but i heard if works well on fast moving bait such as alewives and larger herring species...

Travis
CatsNstripers

A neat trick on using no-foam or foam-off.
Put it in a spray bottle and add same amount of water.
When foam appears in your bait tank just spray with the mixture and foam will disappear. Usually only one shot will do the trick.

Ramrod

After losing two bait tank pumps due to rock salt granules getting hung in the impeller, I bought a bag of livestock salt from Raleigh Livestock Supply. 80 lbs of table grade salt for $8. It solved the problem and that was over two years ago. I gave some to friends and still have some left.

Remember to make sure you do NOT use iodized salt.

One of the techniques I use is Aspirin. This
Is completely harmless and will add to the
Viscosity of the water. I use a 30 gallon
Tank and I make sure I dissolve the tablets
Before adding the shad. The recommended
“dosage” so to speak, is around 12 tablets
Per 30 gallons. This is a substitute for rock
Salt, but not for foam off. The aspirin puts
A chemical, we need for pain relief, in the
Water so as the shad digests the diluted
Aspirin, it preserves their bodily functions.
I found this out about 9 years ago and have
Been using it ever since.

ShadHawg:

maybe I used to much creammate but it made my filtering system stop up and it was really slimy but other than that they stayed lively as **** I'll try just a packet next time instead of a handful

Isn't there a chance that the salt will damage any pumps on your bait system, such as pump out or recycler?