Are my Regs ruined?

[ReefGuy]

The records room is right under us. The guy in the office next to me was lifted off of his seat. It was really wierd. It sounded like the racks fell over in the server room or something. I don't know if they'll let us go back Monday or not. They're supposed to call around.

Jim's top notch. When I went to get certified I looked everywhere between north port and fort myers. Jim was head and shoulders above the rest.

 

[mmcdds]

(1) Because "fresh" water isn't fresh. If it's gear in a tub, contaminants from the rest of the gear will be in the water. If it's "fresh" water (lake, river, spring) there are invariably critters in the water that might take up residence inside the reg. Unlike the fresh water rinse and immediate thorough drying in the shop when the reg's broken down for service, "fresh" water in the wild (or the tub) isn't.
(2) When we rinse reg pieces in the shop, we disconnect the hoses first, and take care to not get any water inside the hoses. You can't keep water out of the hoses if you've gotten it inside the first stage with the hoses attached, and again, the inside of the hoses is a nice place for things to grow in the damp dark. Anyone care for a nice lungful of mold spores?
As I said, at the minimum I'd blow a bunch of dry air from the tank through it to dry things out as best as possible to keep unpleasant things from taking root inside - and I, personally, would disassemble, inspect, rinse in cleaner (which is also a disinfectant), fresh water, thoroughly dry and reassemble.
Rick

We just got home from Roatan last night where my wife left the dust cover off her reg when she threw it into the rinse tank last Wednesday and those rinse tanks are definitely not clean fresh water. As soon as she told me what had happened, I took off all the hoses and port plugs and put it on a tank, opened the valve and let it blow all the water out, I then had her use the spare reg for the rest of the week. I'm going to disassemble, clean and rebuild the reg today or tomorrow, but when you mentioned about mold growing in the hoses, that got me wondering how to go about cleaning the inside of those second stage hoses. Do you just pour some of the cleaning solution into the hose and hope it gets everywhere?