I have a keep alive bait tank, I have the 460gph pump in it. after about 3 trips the pump went out. I replaced it with a 360gph pump I had at the house, it lasted about 4 hrs into the next fishing trip and quit. both pumps made by rule. I cleaned tank spotless after each trip and have the "shad filter kit" neither time did the pumps looked to be clogged. Is it "rule" pumps or the set up on the tank or what? I'm thinking about changeing it to a re-circulating system instead of aerator type sytem. do you think that would help? should I buy another rule pump or swap to another brand? any help fellows would be great. see ya

The motor may be pulling too many amps because the wireing isnt large enough because ot the distance from the battery.That would cause the motor to overheat. Also you should use a timer on it. Let it run 2 or 3 minutes then off 5 minutes. The smaller pumps are not designed to run for long periods of time.

hey doug,
 it's more or less one peice, the "keep alive" part of the tank is a base with the air tube. both pumps snaped into base without problem. if I change brand of pump I will probably lose that part but I can add air other ways.

over (around) the pump is 2 foam filters, they came from keep alive also. they didnt seem to hold pump back, it had good flow.
gone cat fishing  I didnt check for that I might need to check it but I didnt add any wire to the pump, I put on the supplied battery clips and  hook it up when I start to catch bait. I do fish long hours, and I dont have a timer on it. I have 4 batteries on my toon so I turn it on and leave it.

 Well I have a super bait tank that I have run for days at santee on end. They have a rule pump...no problems. I ve even run it while the on board charger was hooked up. Im wondering about you gator clips though. I would change that and use the nuts on the marine batteries and make sure they are tight. You might not be getting the proper power through the gator clips.

I have the stay alive system also with the rule pump and only have to clean the filter regularly,,especially if shad are in the live well

my 24 volt setup is the "troll Fury" it is enclosed except for the leads. I have one (extra) battery that nothing connects to with a battery switch connecting it to the crank battery, extra battery always switched off so I can fish allnight and have a charged battery to come home on. I say this because spotlights,nitelights or livewells I make sure I plug in the main battery so I can charge and monitor how much its charged while on the lake. main battery dosent have much hooked to it, nav lights,vhf,2 fishfinders. It may be because of the charging when motor running maybe? Buck thats a good idea, fuse would tell me if something like that happening. I'll try another pump without the filter kit and with a fuse and report back.

I thought of something else,,,check your grounding of all the batteries,,,they all should have a common ground point. This prevents "floating" voltages,,in those cases you may be hooked up to a 12V battery, but if that battery has a floating ground then the potential voltage could be 24 volts or even higher with a 3 battery system.  Use a volt meter and check the actual voltages on the leads,,should be around 13.2, next check the voltage of your negative lead to ground, that should be zero,,if your reading something else then you have a "floating" ground problem.  By tieing all grounds from the batteries to a common ground,,aluminum hulls are great,,,glass hulls generally have a ground buss from the engine to the start battery -- use that to tie the remainder of your battery grounds to.  This may also point out other problems that exaberate floating grounds such as bad wiring, switches, and any electronics you have on board -- so be ready to fix something else 

Now I'm gonna tell ya something that is really wild --- by tieing all those grounds together and insuring it goes all the way to your motor you will stop scaring fish away  Having seperate batteries on a boat with out giving them a common ground will create fields of ionization that fish can "feel" .  Northwest Salmon and trout fishermen have know this for years, and most of the successful guides use what is called a "black box" on thier boats.  By tieing it to their wire down riggers they are actually able to attract fish and obtain more strikes.  I think the common voltage is about .5 to .7 volts for most salmonids,,strangely .7 volts is also the voltage that attracts catfish.  Only one other fish has more electo-receptors than a catfish and that is a shark.  So whats that tell ya -- ground your batteries together and stop scaring your fish. 

My pump does that also bigcat. 
on the batteries... I'm no electrion but was told not to use common ground on the boat because the current would (pit) the toons and make them leak. I have common ground wire which is heavy wire running to front of boat from battery it goes to fuse box, I split off to everything from there...except the bait tank and spotlight that I hook to the battery itself. I can nightfish sat and sunday and ride around during day and my trolling battery may be weak but my crank battery will be at 60-85% and spare battery still 100% so I think most wireing ok. I think leaving it on was biggest problem. most times I fish 8+ hours and I never turn it off. I did a little modification to my pump and tried it this past weekend, only fished about 6 hrs but fish lived and pump still works. I turned it on and off while fishing.