Hobie bait tank fix

[YakDout]

Alright guys so had a little problem with my bait tank last time out. My switch had corroded to the point where it had broke off and I wasnt able to get the tank to work. We all know how important live bait can be when it's the only thing the fish are going to eat sometimes. I ended up hard wiring my pump straight to the battery and I suggest it to anyone that has had a switch fail. And if your switch has not failed yet, it's only a matter of time. I can attest that the pump feels a little stronger without the switch in the circuit.

While I was in my tank I wanted to solve two other problems that I have been having with the design of the tank.

1) The problem of your battery dying and the tank draining immediately and the remaining bait dying off.

2) When the tank is draining, all the scales and debris get sucked back down into the pump. The last couple times I took my pump apart to clean it was completely filled with scales.


So this is the fix (which I can't take credit for because I think Tjones did something similar)

I found a flex hose from home depot that had a 3/4" female side that screws right onto the outlet of the Tsunami 500 pump. Now when I don't want the tank to drain when the power runs out or if my pump stops, I can reach into the tank and pull the flex hose out and it will keep it from draining.

Now to stop the scales and debris from coming back into the pump I tied one of the washing machine lint trap screens onto the end of the flex hose.

The SKU for the flex hose is #577205
And the SKU for the lint screen is 648181

For under $20 this fix was worth it to kill two birds with one stone on fixes that I think the Hobie tank should have integrated from the factory.

The whole thing took about 10 minutes and here are some pictures.

The hard wire should be self explanatory.