Hookah type diving with a tank

[brueggy]

Has anyone done any diving in relatively shallow water with a tank left on the surface and a Hookah type hose? I am not real excited about the Hookah compressor and the fuel and all that but I thought with my Florida spring and clear river diving in 30 feet or less, I could leave the tank in the kayak and just connect with a 40 foot hose and leave the tank topside.

Is this just a dumb idea or does it have possibilities?

Is the Hookah hose compatible with Scuba first stage pressure?

 

[dmdalton]

Pressure is the same. Seems it would be easier to just wear the tank.

Dave D

 

[rmediver2002]

It is really common for ships husbandry, the US Navy does the same thing for emergency gas supply with AGA in confined spaces. They leave the cylinder or cylinders on the surface with a 150' whip and set the first stage to 150 to compensate for overbottom pressure.

I have seen welding carts used to transport the systems around marina's and it worked really well.

Let me know if you have any specific questions,


Jeff Lane

 

[seadog]

but I leave a tank in the cockpit and use a hooka rig when cleaning the bottom of my boat.

 

[Diver0001]

rmediver2002 once bubbled...
It is really common for ships husbandry, the US Navy does the same thing for emergency gas supply with AGA in confined spaces. They leave the cylinder or cylinders on the surface with a 150' whip and set the first stage to 150 to compensate for overbottom pressure.

I have seen welding carts used to transport the systems around marina's and it worked really well.

Let me know if you have any specific questions,


Jeff Lane

Do you have to adjust the IP?

R..

 

[rmediver2002]

Sorry, thats what I was refering to when I said over-bottom pressure.

The I.P. is adjusted up .5 psig (rough measurement of one foot of sea water, actually .445) for each foot of anticipated depth.

The Navy defalt setting for the emergency gas supply second stage during AGA operations (max. depth 60 feet sea water when surface supplied) is 150 psig.


Jeff L.

 

[Bob3]

As already stated, it's done quite frequently. Brownies even has a hookah rig already set up like that for yakkers.
Standard hookah hose is 250psi max working pressure, no problems with jacking the IP a tad for overbottom pressure.
Don't use a hookah reg tho, they use weaker springs & run off "about" 45psi, use a normal scuba reg.
If you use an adjustable second stage, there's no need to fiddle with your IP.
A source cheaper than Brownies is from the guys that make the gold dredges, Keene Engineering: http://www.keeneeng.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=KES&Category_Code=DE

 

[detroit diver]

Do you have a second hose for an SPG, or do you just surface rapidly when you run out of air?

 

[Genesis]

If you're doing things like boat cleaning, an AL80 lasts a hell of a long time. I get close to 2 hours out of one.... usually takes me about an hour, so I "burn" about half a tank doing my boat.

 

[rmediver2002]

Good point detroit diver:

If your using the rig as an emergency gas supply system then you would abort the dive as soon as you were required to switch to it.

If using the system for shallow work then you would ascend if increased breathing resistance was felt.

(when the air supply pressure begins to get low you will have in increase in breathing resistance, at these shallow depths this is a signal that you only have 15 to 25 breaths left... Plenty of time to do a controlled ascent)

Jeff