Rebuilding/converting my livewell into something useful

[bashr52]

My new center console has a "livewell" which is nothing more than a watertight box you can manually fill with a pump to drain it. I think it was originally designed to hold ice to pack fish on, and then pump it out at the end of the day, although the switch for the pump is labeled "aerator".

I'd like to convert it to an actual livewell with a recirculation feature, and way to tap into the pump for rinsing off the deck from fish guts, blood, dirt, etc.

Here is my rough microsoft paint sketch of what I'm thinking about doing. Anyone see anything I'm missing? I'm planning on plumbing the overflow and drains into the same fitting so I don't have to drill more holes that necessary in my transom.

To run the livewell, water pumps direct from the intake to the spray bar, and then out the overflow and back out to the source. To recirculate, the valve on the drain closes, and the T fitting at the intake side pulls water out of the drain line and closes off the intake. If I want to pump some water onto the deck to clean off some debris, the valve to the spray bar closes off and the water is forced out the deck hose.

I realize a livewell pump wont put out any serious pressure or volume for really power washing a deck or something, but for just rinsing off some blood/guts or filling a dog dish or something, it should be enough,

 

[gm280]

Understanding what you have, and what you want to accomplish, I think you should rework the original live-well setup for a typical setup with the aerator switch. Then install a desperate pump mainly for the wash down. That way you don't have so many T-valve fittings and fancy plumping to rework with to have both capabilities. And you can buy as large a wash down pump as you like to do the wash down. JMHO

 

[bashr52]

My existing setup is nothing more than a container with a drain hole that someone installed a live well pump in the drain that is activated by the aerator switch and just pumps out any water that is caught in the container. I'm going to have to add a spray bar and overflow anyway, so with a few additional valves I figure I can get all functionalities. This way I only have to add 2 thru hull fottings. I've already sourced electronic valves and with a few relays I could have dedicated switches for all 3 functionalities

 

[gm280]

My existing setup is nothing more than a container with a drain hole that someone installed a live well pump in the drain that is activated by the aerator switch and just pumps out any water that is caught in the container. I'm going to have to add a spray bar and overflow anyway, so with a few additional valves I figure I can get all functionalities. This way I only have to add 2 thru hull fottings. I've already sourced electronic valves and with a few relays I could have dedicated switches for all 3 functionalities

Well that can work. Just make sure where ever you install the electronic valves that you can get to them again in the case and issues. JMHO