I found CO in tanks

[grf88]

I don't understand how you get 80 PPM in one tank and none of the others. I'm not questioning you, not at all. It's not like a slug of CO gets released into a compressor and then goes away. CO in a compressor comes from an engine nearby but the hopcalite in the filter tower should take care of that in small doses. The other way is to burn the compressor oil, but again, that's a slow process, and should contaminate more than one tank.

Someone needs to spend a fortune studying the phenomena.

Hi Wookie,
After draining the tank it was found to have almost 6 inches of seawater in the steel tank that had been sitting for a couple of months. The tank was completely rusted and I put down the formation of the CO to the corrosion process that also took place on the carbon content of the steel. The tank had probably been drained and then swum in from the dive boat where it sucked in water after hitting the colder water. There was probably little oxygen left based on the degree of rusting.

 

[Schwob]

Hi Wookie,
After draining the tank it was found to have almost 6 inches of seawater in the steel tank that had been sitting for a couple of months. The tank was completely rusted and I put down the formation of the CO to the corrosion process that also took place on the carbon content of the steel. The tank had probably been drained and then swum in from the dive boat where it sucked in water after hitting the colder water. There was probably little oxygen left based on the degree of rusting.

Dying to see what the pros think that might come from.
Whatever it is, that shop would have me very worried... How in the world???
Condensate from using it as a workshop compressor tank for a year and then taken over by the dive shop w/o any check or draining???

 

[TrimixToo]

Hi Wookie,
After draining the tank it was found to have almost 6 inches of seawater in the steel tank that had been sitting for a couple of months. The tank was completely rusted and I put down the formation of the CO to the corrosion process that also took place on the carbon content of the steel. The tank had probably been drained and then swum in from the dive boat where it sucked in water after hitting the colder water. There was probably little oxygen left based on the degree of rusting.

I'd think that would make CO2, not CO.

 

[nadwidny]

Well a friend of him told me it was CO. The guy was treated for CO at the hospital. So I suspect an ugly number because incapacitation in 5 minutes takes a lot of CO.

Science ain't your gig apparently.

 

[Patoux01]

 

[dannywid88]

We just aborted a dive this morning. We analyzed our tanks with a Palm CO analyzer and found all of the air tanks contained between 6 and 7 ppm. The ambient air read 0 and the nitrox tanks read 0. The dive op said it was our analyzer because the compressor was serviced 22 hours ago. Hmmm...

They offered to give us nitrox, but one member of our group was not nitrox certified, so we declined.

I feel we made the right call. Breathing gas should not have any CO. There doesn’t seem to be any firm numbers as to what is acceptable, but it seems the consensus on this board is 5ppm max.

Does anyone have any thoughts on our decision?

Does this happen in the US? I thought this was only in developing countries and such. Should I be worried?

 

[DandyDon]

Does this happen in the US? I thought this was only in developing countries and such. Should I be worried?

Famous last words.

 

[49north]

Does this happen in the US? I thought this was only in developing countries and such. Should I be worried?

That’s what I thought. No need to worry if you analyze.

 

[Johnoly]

.... Should I be worried?

Trust your car's airbag to go off,,,you don't need to bother wearing a seat belt.