Let's Talk About Cylinders | Deep Dive

hi everybody and welcome to simply scuba in this episode of deep dive we're going to be looking at diving cylinders or tanks well first of all we really shouldn't be calling them tanks because tanks are used to store liquids not gases cylinders is actually the correct term but i don't think it's ever resulted in any kind of confusion on of a dive boat scuba diving cylinders come in a whole range of sizes materials shapes colors setups you name it there's actually a surprising amount to break down when it comes to choosing the correct tank and trying to make sure that you don't just go for the first dusty tank laying down in the dive center because it could have some important repercussions if you invest in the first tank you see so this is going to be a pretty long video you can probably already see that from the the view counter down there um it's meant to be more of a encyclopedia of like literally everything you need to know about cylinders instead of just kind of casual viewing so down in the timeline on youtube you should see the chapters actually broken down so that you can skip to the parts that you want to hear about and kind of skip over the bits that you don't but anyway let's dive straight in and take a closer look at scuba diving cylinders so the first thing that you need to think about is the size and depending on where you live the terms and sizes can have radically different names and values right here in the uk we measure cylinder size by their internal volume so if you just took the valve out you filled it up with water which i don't recommend but i'll get to that later the amount of water that you can physically get into the tank would be what we call it so common sizes are one and a half liters uh three liters five liters seven liters 10 liters 12 liters 15 liters uh and those are the the standard sizes one and a half liter tanks they are diddy they're really tiny and these are usually reserved for suit inflation tanks a completely separate small tank that you only use just to fill up your dry suit that way it's a completely independent air source and you're not wasting your breathing gas just to inflate your dry suit three liter tanks are your kind of smallest bailout tanks many divers strap a three liter next to their main tank as a redundant backup that we call a pony um that you can breathe from but you don't get a great deal of backup so they're best used for really shallow dives where you can get to the surface pretty quickly if you're diving down deeper then that's where seven liter tanks start to come into play they have some more volume so you can they basically give you a bit more time to get to the surface from a greater depth and it's also a nice size to start kids with because they're kind of proportional size for smaller divers and they're not too much weight for them to carry out of the water once you get into 10 liter tanks you're in the realms of primary tanks for adults but i'm not a huge fan of 10 liter tanks 10 liters are usually the same diameter as a 12 liter tank but they're shorter which means that when they're actually strapped onto your back and then you sit down the bottom of the tank isn't actually touching the bench so the whole weight of the tank is still bearing down on your shoulders 12 liter tanks is the golden standard they're a decent choice they're a decent size and length and it's where most divers use as a primary and as stage tanks as well but be aware that you can find dumpy twelves and tool twelves tool 12s are the standards dumpy 12s are the same diameter as the larger 15 but they're only as tall as a 10 so you have that same problem with them just bearing down on your shoulders only this time they're that much heavier 15 liters is the largest tank size you can find bigger but if you walk into a dive center 15 will most likely be the largest that they can sell you and these are the same length as a 12 but they're just larger in diameter they're good if you breathe quicker than your buddy um and you don't want to invest in an extra bailout with sort of extra rigs and stuff elsewhere around the world tanks can be sized up differently which is kind of tricky for me because it's like a different language for me and of course correct me if i'm wrong down in the comments below um instead of metric liters these are measured in nominal volume so the internal volume multiplied by the working pressure converted into cubic feet so you'll find 40s 63s 80s 100s and 120s but they're all ever so slightly different between brands and the working pressure of course affects it too so they'll often have a letter before that number but in the meantime a40 is kind of a five liter so it's pretty small best used as a shallow bailout 60s are a bit like our seven liters they're a little bit larger 80s are kind of the most common size they're a bit like a 12 liter uh technically they're only 11 liters but they're the most common size 100s are a touch larger and then 120s are a bit like our 15s now hopefully that all made sense because there was a lot of numbers um but if you're just starting out and you want a standard single tank similar to what you learn to dive on it will probably be a 12 liter or an aluminium 80. on top of a cylinder's volume you also get a choice of working pressure now i'm going to keep calling it working pressure and that will all be explained later when i talk about cylinder markings and testings but for now working pressure is what your tank will be filled up to or at least what they try to fill it up to metric tanks will use bar to measure the pressure and imperial cylinders will use psi there are two standard bar pressures and one kind of old-fashioned one 200 bar tanks they they're quite they were standard uh but they're kind of going out of fashion you don't see 200 bar tanks that much anymore the current standard is 232 bar and 300 bar most divers like two three two bar tanks it's easy to get a proper fill and you get plenty of gas 300 bar cylinders they can be filled to a higher pressure but in my experience even filling up my own 300 bar tanks it's actually rare that you get actually anywhere near to um to the 300 bar once the cylinders cool down so 300 bar it sounds appealing but actually you don't get that much of a true benefit by the time you actually hit the water and the tanks themselves they're just that much heavier so i wouldn't worry too much about 300 bar tanks in imperial you tend to find three thousand thirty three hundred and thirty four hundred and forty four hundred these are just the imperial equivalent so three thousand psi is around two hundred and seven bar thirty four hundred is about two three two and forty four hundred is about three hundred bar there are two standard materials that scuba divers use and some alternatives that we don't really take diving the two most common are steel and aluminium steel tanks are heavy and strong steel tanks will always sink so they're a bit more predictable in the water steel tanks will usually have round bottoms as well so they don't stand up by themselves aluminium tanks are a bit larger but lighter aluminium tanks will at some pressure become neutrally buoyant and then as you breathe even more they'll become positively buoyant so you need extra lead to compensate for that because of the weight of gas inside of the tank an aluminium tank will literally sink when it's full but when it's completely empty at the end of the dive it will actually float on the surface for this reason most divers prefer steel tanks to wear on their backs because of the weight and they use aluminium tanks for stage cylinders on the sides now there's nothing wrong with using aluminium tanks as a primary but if you're investing in your own tanks i prefer steel to go on my back and aluminium to go on my side around the shoulders of tanks you'll have all of its vital information stamped into the metal itself and you can learn a lot about a tank from their shoulders and it doesn't matter what the guy selling it to you says or what any stickers on the tank says if it isn't physically stamped into the metal then it doesn't really matter on top of the serial numbers and lots of boring standards then you will see the cylinders volume the working pressure test pressure and the date that it was made and possibly any test dates if it's an older tank these are the parts that you should really be interested in the working pressure and the test pressure will often be side by side and will look like wp-232 bar and tp348 bar stamped into your tank each manufacturer does it ever so slightly differently but the lowest pressure will be what your tank can be filled to the working pressure and the higher number will be what your cylinder is actually pressure tested to when it's being tested so i always used to look for both of these numbers when filling up a tank because you might see 300 bars stamped into it and think hey that's a 300 bar tank but actually it's a 200 bar so make sure that you look for both the working pressure and the test pressure the birthday of the tank and any test stamps are essential to see too in line with the manufacturer's stamps they will have a stamp a month and a year of manufacture diving tanks have to be tested every so often to make sure that they don't go bang basically how often they need to be tested is really up to the country that you live in but if your tank goes over a certain age since its last test you just won't be able to get it filled anywhere so older tanks will have test stamps stamped into their shoulders these will have a similar date of when they were tested along with a unique stamp identifying the test station and maybe some more information valves are a separate entity in their own right now you can fit your own valves you just have to be sure that you have the right size thread and you don't you know over torque it when you're putting it in so if you're ever unsure then just ask a dive center to do it for you if you talk a tank valve in too much then you can actually damage the threads of either the valve the tank or both and there's no way to unstretch a thread so the tank will literally just be scrapped so for the tank valve this little bit at the bottom is called the snorkel uh this just helps prevent any particles like rust or whatever is on the inside of the tank from getting stuck inside of the valve and blocking it these just screwed in and they can sometimes unscrew themselves so if you hear something metal or plastic sliding around inside of your tank when you move it it could just be the snorkel a technician just needs to drain your tank pop the valve out and refit that snorkel moving up from that you have these screw threads this is usually stamped into the valve somewhere and this needs to match the thread of the tank which is also stamped into the tank somewhere usually it'll be m25 by two up from that you'll find a chunky o-ring and further up the handle uh depending on which side the valve handle is on is whether the tank valve is left or right handed the easiest way to remember which is which is if the valve is facing away from you and the screw handle is on the right hand side then it's a right-handed valve this is useful to know when you're building a twin set but most basic valves are right hand valves all valves will screw in the same way with a right hand thread and you only have to close them finger tight the tighter you wrench it in you're just going to damage the seal on the inside and it will just leak after a while and you just won't be able to close it anymore so just finger tight and that should really be enough the opening will either be an old old-fashioned a-clamp that just has an o-ring and a teeny tiny small opening you don't tend to find too many of these left in the wild most tank valves today have a removable insert that we call a donut so you can swap the valve from a clamp to din if it has an insert or is just a uh an old a clamp valve then your tank will be 2 3 2 bar or less because anything above that requires a 300 bar valve 300 bar valves have a longer snout for more screw threads but you can't fit an insert or an a-clamp regulator to a 300 bar valve a-clamps just cannot go to those higher pressures there also exists m26 valves that throw a lot of confusion in the industry and how they're used is regional as well which makes it even more complicated so m26 was conceived as a valve thread that could only be used for nitrics with a different thread so that you have to have a nitrox regulator because a normal regulator wouldn't physically fit onto it where it gets complicated is that normal regulators can be used on nitrox up to 40 percent which is most recreational mixes anyway so m26 is really only for nitrox mixes over 40 percent double check what your local requirements are but unless you're planning some serious accelerated decode i wouldn't worry too much about m26 for me i've been diving standard recreational nitrox mixes with my standard regulators around the world with no real problem the only time i've used m26 valves is on a pure oxygen tank on a rebreather so for normal nitrox just check your regional requirements but i wouldn't worry too much about m26 you can also find single valves with multiple outlets these are often called h valves y valves or k valves these just mean that you can fit a second first stage for redundancy on a single cylinder and then you find modular valves which is where the left and right handed thing really comes into play so a modular valve will be much like a basic valve but it will have an extra section on one side opposite the handle that you can either blank off or you can fit a manifold to so you can connect two valves effectively uh sort of connecting two tanks together modular valves are great for twins so you don't have to swap second stages from time to time during the dive and i prefer them for side mount tanks too because that extra bits are kind of blanked off makes an extra attachment point to hold on to the bottom of a tank is important to take note of a lot of steel tanks they have a round bottom which means that they can't stand up by themselves you need to fit a boot which is often a rubber boot that fits tightly to the bottom of your tank to protect the bottom from bumps and scrapes and it also makes the bottom flat so they can stand up if i'm not using boots at all on a round bottom tank then often use a couple lines of duct tape just to protect the bottom of the tank from damage aluminium tanks they often have flat buttons which is nice it's just the way they're made so they don't need a boot but you can still use one to protect the tank from bumps and scrapes most divers don't think too much about the colour of their tanks but the colour of your tank can actually mean something in certain circles most recreational tanks have a body of just bare treated metal or they're painted white or yellow so that they stand out pretty well in the water but the shoulders will often be painted black and white white shoulders again depending on where you are white means oxygen and black means nitrogen so black and white quarters means that the air inside is a mixture of the two uh which is basically air air is made up of nitrogen and oxygen and just a few other trace gases so they're black and white in the u.s oxygen is green and air is yellow which is where we get our green and yellow stickers from that mean nitrox air plus oxygen see these things are starting to make sense now brown typically means helium for trimix and if you're using argon for suit inflation they're typically green now it's rare that the color of your tank is actually an issue as a recreational scuba diver so don't worry too much about getting creative with them but it may save you a little bit of money from time to time not to paint over the black and whites because you would just get charged for a sticker to go over the top tanks come in a wide range of finishes aluminium tanks can come in what's called a natural finish which is just a matte kind of grubby outer which is obviously the cheapest but it's just that gray streaky finish that you usually find on rental tanks but if you want you can pay a little bit extra for a brushed or even a polished finish the only real upgrade is cosmetic they do look good all shiny and new but i don't think you get any particular benefit the only thing is is that they'll eventually get scuffed up tanks get grubby pretty quickly so if you're particular about your tanks looking really good i'd actually get that idea straight out of your head and embrace the idea of grubby tanks but most tanks are painted or coated to protect them you'll find both clear and coloured coatings clear is great because you can see anything that's going on underneath that coating coloured coatings are nice that so that your tank really stands out in and out of the water but they can hide what's going on underneath that coating and finally you find a hot dipped and hot sprayed galvanized finish steel tanks they often get a zinc coating to protect the steel from rust um pretty much all steel tanks are then painted over the top of them or they have like an enamel like coating but you'll get coated and painted aluminium tanks also so it's important to check the enameling over time because this of small imperfection can actually allow water to get underneath that enamel and then rust just spreads underneath with a telltale bubbling only when it gets a bit too bad too much of this and your tank can actually fail a test and if you do find a small scratch after a dive it's fine don't worry too much just dry the area very very thoroughly and treat that area with an anti-rust paint or a cold galvanizing treatment so that water can't get to that spot again if you're ever worried about corrosion just ask your dive center it's better to get it early than just to leave it as i said earlier tanks needs testing periodically just to check that they're nice and strong the time between test changes from time to time and of course it depends where you are so let's just say you have one year from sort of when the cylinder was made if you're in one a country that is one year so you have one year from when it was made not from when you bought it uh and then after that one year is up you will stop being able to get that cinder filled up until it's tested that's why it's important to know how old the tank is when you buy it a well-looked after tank can last for years i've seen perfectly good tanks that were made a good 20 years ago if there's still room on the tank's shoulders for more stamps then it can be tested again and it can just keep going now there are two different cylinder tests a visual and a hydro and if you keep up to date with your tests they just alternate visual hydro visual hydro um but if you go too far if you uh sort of go out of date then your tank requires a hydro regardless of the schedule a visual test is quite simple there's a visual inspection of the outside and the inside of the tank looking for corrosion dents anything nasty the screw threads will be checked on both the the tank and the valve with go no-go gauges to make sure that the threads haven't altered over time or due to damage a hydrostatic test starts with this they do all the same things but then after that it also tests the expansion of your tank they basically fill the tank up with water drop it into a really strong water-filled capsule they then pressurize your tank up to that test pressure and then they blow it down to see how much water it displaces as it expands and when they depressurize it they check to see where it goes back to hopefully it goes back to where it started if it doesn't it fails because your the walls of your tank are effectively stretching every time you pump it up if your tank passes then of course they dry it out they talk the valve back in and they stamp a new date into it if your tank fails they have to destroy it they can't just give it back to you so they'll often cut through the threads or something so there's no chance that anybody could hurt themselves a lot of drive centers today will not fill up a completely empty tank without doing a quick visual test so make sure that you never empty your cylinder completely always leave a few bar or psi in it at all times looking after your dive cylinder is very important because if you don't they can be very dangerous so the most important thing is that you never ever empty your tank completely and the reason for this is so that you always have air pressure inside trying to get out of the tank if there's always air trying to rush out then water and dust can never get in if you do empty your tank then it's not the end of the world but the next time you take it to get filled they may be a bit suspicious and charge you that a little bit extra to check the tank out on the inside other than that between dives give your tank a good wash down with clean fresh water and dry off as much as possible any water on your tank can corrode the outside and you don't want that before long-term storage give that whole valve a good wash to get any salt crystals out and check over the body for any bumps or scrapes and take the boot off so you can check under there as well any kind of chipped paint can be the start of rust so make sure that it's clean and dry and take care of it before it becomes a problem now if you're storing your tanks for more than three months then it can be best that you drain them down until there's only a few bar left inside because completely full pressurized tanks can actually increase the rate of any corrosion inside and after three months the air inside can be stale or worse dangerous it's also best that you store tanks upright long term that way any corrosion should be at the bottom of the tank which is the strongest part not on the walls take note of your test dates and set a reminder on your calendar so that you're not surprised when they come up for a test it means that you're never caught out when you need a fill and you might save yourself a bit of money before you're actually required to have a hydro test you can buy valve plugs for your cylinder valve these are fine they're meant to keep dust and trash out of the valves and on the on the threads i prefer plastic ones plastic plugs they can't really damage the metal threads even if you cross thread it but metal plugs can actually damage the threads if you're not careful metal plugs can also have the unfortunate effect of getting stuck inside of the valve um someone in the comments will i'm sure will explain it a little bit better but when two different metals are pressed against one another for any length of time they can literally fuse together so after the long winter break you can go back and try to take that metal plug out and it's just stuck that's why i prefer plastic ones also never ever fit an o-ring or try to make it seal in any way because if you accidentally open up that valve that plug will be set in place and you will never get it out because the pressure will just hold that plug in place until it's literally drilled out bottom line keep your tanks dry check them over between dives cover up any scratches and if there's anything that you're ever worried about then get it tested if you're twinning up tanks it's actually pretty easy the important thing is that you get all the right stuff and make sure that it's all compatible and obviously the right size because twins need to be really rigid the easiest way is just to get independent twins two separate tanks with opposing valves and then just strap them both to your back um this obviously doubles your gas supply but it doesn't it basically means that your buoyancy is going to shift from side to side as you breathe one tank down and uh and you'll need to switch second stages halfway through the dive it's not really worth going for independent twins most divers dive manifolded twins which are two tanks with complete uh completely connected tanks uh sorry valves at the top by connecting both valves you can breathe from both tanks at the same time simultaneously from a single second stage that's how most divers in myself included dive twins now there are four parts to a twin set the tanks the valves the manifold and the bands we've already looked at tanks and we've already looked at valves so let's look at manifolds and bands manifolds come in a few different sizes for different sized tanks if you're twinning up two seven liter tanks the valves are going to be much closer together than two 15-liter tanks which style is really up to you i prefer an isolation valve if something should go wrong with one of your first stages you can completely shut it off and it won't affect the tank that you're now breathing from that you've switched to another thing that you'll need are twinning bands again these need to be sized up to the tanks that you're using and these are essential because it's very important so that the two heavy tanks don't move or twist in any way the manifold needs to be completely static and it will not bend so using strong twinning bands is best they'll often be metal figures of eight and they're sold in pairs with a steel bolt that kind of pinches the clamps down in the middle once you know what size and style of tank you want it's pretty easy to buy a cylinder but it's usually easier to actually speak to someone because there are a lot of little options and considerations the first thing is is that uh just because a dive center doesn't show your precise sort of cylinder configuration on their website doesn't necessarily mean that they can't get that in for you dive centers are reluctant to buy hundreds of tank configurations in at any one time because if they don't sell that one particular one it just gets older and older and nobody particularly wants an older tank so ordering one in fresh is usually better but it can take some time manufacturers usually make their tanks in batches so if they've run out of that one particular size you'll have to wait until a new cycle until they've made a fresh batch and it can take a few weeks so when you're talking to the dive center be really specific about what you want and include as many specifications as you can if you want a particular valve um let them know what gas that you're planning to use in your cylinder and what that tank is really going to be used for and you can have a good discussion and they might be able to advise you a better alternative that you didn't know about cylinders from some manufacturers will come complete which means that they have a basic valve already screwed in but a lot of places will send the body and the valve as separate parts that need to be assembled so that you can sort of pick and choose the valve that suits you which is a nicer option if you know what you're doing then you can cherry pick all of the separate parts buy them separately but i'm guessing that if you're watching this video then you probably don't know it all so if you don't know what exactly you're doing then just ask tanks can only be shipped when they are completely empty something to do with health and safety transporting compressed gas vessels so when you're buying cylinders it's best to either pick them up from the dive center so that they can fill it up for the first time when you're there and then or bring proof of purchase with you to the filling station so they're a bit happier filling a completely empty tank second hand tanks can be a minefield they're a great way to save a bit of money but you have no idea what the condition of the tank is on the inside i've seen divers do plenty of stupid things with tanks and the inside of plenty of tanks to know it's dangerous so if you're buying a secondhand valve sorry secondhand cylinder be very careful and make sure that there's still gas inside of it if it's completely empty then it's not even worth wasting your time on it stickers so tanks have a whole bunch of stickers on them that have their own meanings and of course they're regional again but i'm just going to run down the basics from top to bottom around the neck you might find a donut shaped circle around the neck of the tank and that's going to be uh going back to the colors of your tanks the black and white quarters in some countries you you have these uh colors displayed so if you have a completely yellow tank or a completely white tank then it strictly needs those black and white quarters just to denote that is air inside around the shoulders and sometimes around the body you can find a blue crescent or just a boring square with a couple holes punched out of it this is a bit of a cheat sheet and it just tells you and the filling station when the tank needs testing uh and which test is next uh they can of course fall off and get damaged uh which is why we have the proper metal stamps uh but they do make your life a little bit easier trying to work out when your tank runs out but this the metal stamps they will always supersede these so don't try to make your own the stamped out month and the year are the month and year that you need to bring your tank in for a test after that date you will not be able to get a fill and your tank is officially out of test and it now needs a hydro around the body of the tank you'll often have green diamonds and sometimes a yellow diamond too green diamonds just means compressed gas and a yellow diamond means higher than usual concentration of oxygen um when you get into mixed gases you then have content stickers which range from proper things like this to just some duct tape with the analyzed gas your mod the date and the tank pressure so that you know what's inside that tank and then you find mod stickers near the bottom of stage tanks that just state the maximum operating depth of that gas mix so you're switching or if you're switching gases it's really obvious if you can breathe from that one particular stage tank those are the official stickers but you can always find personalized stickers from a diver's name to any kind of fun stickers to just full-on tank wraps these are quite cool they make you really stand out on a dive site so that you can immediately recognize your tank from a crowd but they do need to be removed during a test too many divers were using stickers to cover up damage on their tank so now all stickers should strictly be removed before a cylinder goes in for a test and they don't always come off really nice and neatly so bear that in mind and don't get too upset if you spend loads on tank stickers only for them just to be taken off for your next test you're going to need to have your tank filled up at some point ideally you should get it filled up from where you bought it because as i mentioned earlier filling stations don't like completely empty tanks now when i go to a new place i usually leave the tank in the car that way i can walk into the dive center and hopefully see the filling station and the compressor first i'm looking for an inlet um and any uh sort of outlet hoses to the compressor so that you can see that you're getting nice clean fresh air pumped into your tanks and not exhaust fumes from the compressor also see if you can see any kind of documentation on the compressor we usually like to put when the filters were changed physically on the compressor to remind ourselves it's not the end of the world if you can't see anything like this but if the facilities are nice and clean and or at least reasonably clean then you should be fine the last thing that you want is for oil or fumes to get inside of your tank but if everything is fine then bring your tank in and the first thing that will happen is they'll take a look at your test stamps and the stickers on your tank um they're under no obligation to fill your tank even if it is in test if they don't like the look of something about your tank then they can just turn you away after all they're the ones stood next to the thing when it's being filled so let them know what you want inside your tank if it's just air that's easy just ask for air and the pressure that you want it up to if you want nitrox then they'll test the mix inside and the pressure inside they'll do some quick maths and fill up your tank appropriately filling up tanks is the best done as slowly as possible because tanks actually warm up when they're pressurized but they eventually cool down and the pressure inside will actually drop so give them as much time as possible to fill your tank so that you get a proper fill if you're busy that's great just leave it with them if you can that way you'll get a better fill if you're diving twins make sure that your isolation valve is fully open i've done it before i left my isolator closed for whatever reason and of course only one side gets filled up a good filler will notice that it's filling up a little bit quick um but to avoid a short fill open up your isolation valve and tell them that you've got plenty of time so that they don't leave it with you and a hot fill if your tank is out of date then tough it does not matter how much you kick or scream or how much it's going to be ruining your weekend plans they will not fill your tank i have had every single story under the sun and found crumpled up date stickers out front of the uh the dive center from people who know their tank is out of date and they're just trying to fast one on you if your tank is out of date it's out of date you should have had it tested earlier now most people only use their own tanks at home if they're diving abroad then they just rent a tank out there you can take scuba tanks on airplanes but it's not the easiest or the cheapest neither if you desperately want to bring your own tank with you then there's a few things that you need to consider the first thing is that you will need to tell the airline well in advance so they are aware and that you can pay any extra sort of fees airlines also don't like pressurized containers inside them neither so they usually require the valve to be removed completely from the tank before they accept it so um contact the airlines well in device and see what their policy is on that and that may include those uh really small suicide bottles on your dsmb or bcd so if you have one of those think about that see if you can get some plugs for your tank and uh sort of cover for the thread on the valve if you brought them from new they usually come with them so don't throw those away um but yeah you don't want any kind of dust or moisture from getting inside your tank or anything damaging those threads of the valve so look after those if you're not flying with your tank you're just driving them or you're putting them on a boat then your primary focus is lashing them down as securely as possible in the back of my car i use an anti-roll device which you can buy or you can build it yourself they're not that tricky to uh to make you just need some some rope and some pvc piping and these basically stop the tanks from rolling around but they don't stop them from moving completely luckily my car has anchor points in the uh in the boat um that i can tie the tank valve to uh it basically stops them from sliding around every time i turn a corner but you can also pile uh kind of kit on top and around the tank and uh yeah that just stops that heavy metal uh sort of tank from shifting around because one turn or an emergency stop can really damage the tank and your car moving tanks around can really suck because they're quite heavy so if you're traveling any great distance then invest in a sac barrow or a suck truck uh whatever you call it one of these which make your life so much easier especially with twins your alternative is to set the tank up on your bcd in the back of the car and literally put it on and carry it to where you need to go if you're driving with compressed gas in a vehicle it should also be displayed on the back of your car so that if you're in an accident emergency services know that there's a pressurized container in that vehicle you can buy these online just a green diamond or a green and yellow if you're carrying night trucks on a boat they'll often be a system for storing tanks either upright with a tank kind of sitting in a hole on the bench or lash to the rail behind it um you want as little movement as possible because a rocking boat will really test your knots and too much slack will just give the tank uh just room to build up momentum if ever in doubt just ask and uh the lower the better the lower it down a tank that's laid down on the deck with gear packed around it shouldn't really go too far but um do your best to stop it from moving at all because they will just wander around the deck and just cause chaos when the waves pick up but again if ever in doubt just ask someone else on board and personally i like to bring a strong bungee cable just as a backup to to that rope you can of course accessorize your tanks uh some are practical others less practical the practical ones are things like tank handles so these are just tough handles that grip around the neck of the cylinder and just give you a good place to pick them up from you shouldn't really pick up tank valves by the actual valve handle the bit that you turn because they're a bit delicate so a good and proper handle is nice i'm not a huge fan of the hinged handles because they just bend a little bit too much for my liking i find they just pinch your fingers so i prefer the big chunky handles for the body you can get tank mesh either a plastic mesh tube that just covers the body of the tank and protects that a little bit from damage and it gives your kanban something to physically grip onto you can also find nylon mesh kind of sock tubes these are better for covering the entire tank for damage they do protect the valves oh sorry to protect the valves you can fit a protective metal cage again like the handles they attack they attach around the neck and and they make a sort of metal protective cage around that valve and your first stage to protect them from bumps carry handles and stage straps they help you carrying the tank around they go down the kind of the length of the body and these are best for sort of side mounted tanks and tanks that you uh sort of don't strap to your back kanbans and jubilee bands make for a good fixing point on tanks so that you can attach bolt snaps and other things to it like leads tank bangers are a very simple communication device that basically lives on your cylinder they consist of a rubber band and a plastic ball if you need to get your buddy's attention just reach behind pull on that ball and then when you let go of it the rubber band snaps it back it hits the tank and it makes a loud cling sound and then you get various cosmetic accessories from small tokens that make you stand out in the water and tank wraps that again they make you stand out some divers choose to invert their tank so the valve is now at the bottom not the worst idea ever it makes the valves much easier to reach because they're down by your bum and swimming in overhead environments the valve isn't going to be the first thing to get hit but it does put them in a slightly odd position on your back and now whenever you sit down your valves are actually hitting the bench so it's best that you have a cage around them which then pushes the tank even higher on your back and the bottom of your tank is now kind of bumping onto the back of your head this is where dumpy tanks come into their own you can invert a dumpy tank quite nicely but otherwise just work on kind of exercising your shoulder movement so you don't have to invert them so that's about it well done if you just sat through the entire thing like shawn and i have just done and of course well done to sean who had to edit all of this i imagine his computer is about to warm up trying to render all of this in 4k and then upload it to the internet um but what do you prefer for diving and what do you use your tank for let us know in the comments below along with any tips or advice that you have for new scuba divers thank you for watching and safe diving you

Channel: Simply Scuba

Views: 6,008

Rating: 4.942029 out of 5

Keywords: simplyscuba, simply scuba, Simply, Scuba, Internet Fusion Group, Scuba Diving, Scuba Advice, Advice Videos, 08/11/2020, Let's Talk About Cylinders | Deep Dive, Let's, Talk, About, Cylinders, Deep, Dive, Deep Dive, list, top 10, list video, buying cylinders, buying tanks, scuba diving - topic, scuba diving advice, scuba advice

Id: oEUSyCzB-KM

Length: 43min 38sec (2618 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 08 2020