egress octopus & seaquest pro QD confusion

[mjb94]

So in my garage i have the 2 items listed above. The bc has the inflate deflate part on it along with the regulator (thats all on the same thing) so is that my secondary regulator?? but in a box i have a Apecks Egress octopus. But i thought that the first thing was my octopus?? help?!

 

[Kern]

Your Apeks octopus is a 2nd stage regulator.
Your pro QD is a buoyancy control device (BCD).

A regulator comes in 2 stages. The 1st stage regulator attaches to your tank & converts the tanks high pressure gas into an intermediate pressure. It then flows into the 2nd stage which lowers the pressure to that of the surrounding water so you can breath from it. The 2nd stage regulator you use during the course of the dive is called the primary 2nd. Also hanging from the 1st stage there are hoses for your tank pressure gauge, the BCD inflator hose, possibly another inflator hose for your dry suit & another 2nd stage regulator to be used to share your air with someone in case they run out of air (as opposed to buddy breathing). As there are now at least 4 hoses hanging off the 1st stage regulator this emergency back up 2nd stage regulator became known as the octopus.

I couldn't really get an image of what you are describing/asking so hope the above goes some way to helping. If not, & if you have a good one available, pick up your stuff & head down to your LSD for clarification prior to your course.

 

[mjb94]

Ah HA! thank you very much for clearing that up for me!

 

[weaponeer]

Since you have a Seaquest BCD, sounds to me like you have an Airsource alt air/inflator attached to your BCD. You can confirm this by looking at the unit to see if it says "Airsource" on it. If so, you use the unit to put air in your BCD to adjust bouancy. The unit also functions as a secondary regulator that you can breath from in an emergency should your primary second stage fail or you give your primary second stage to an out of air diver.

The Apex Egress is a secondary regulator, also called an octopus. Normally you would have either an alt air/inflator on your BCD -or- an octopus, but not necessarily both. You should also have another regulator that you will use as your primary second stage. You didn't mention if you have a primary second, so I'm assuming you don't have one.

If you just bought your gear and haven't used them, I'd take everything back to the dive shop you bought them from and show them what you have. They should recognise the problem right away.