Poll: How many tanks do you own? Rec or tek? Boat Owner?

[Deep South Divers]

I'm not at the shop, but off the top of my head:

Tanks:
16 AL80s set up for singles
3 AL40 dedicated stage bottles (we can also stage our single AL80s on the fly - all bottles are clean)
4 AL13s. AL6s and AL4s for various uses
1 pair of AL80s doubled
3 6000 psi banks in the cascade that I didn't think to count the other when someone asked me the same question
(I think that's right - there may be more tanks not in service)
What's that... Like 25 or 30 depending on if you count the cascades

Compressor:
1 really badass little Bauer compressor with cascade banks, regulator and fill panel that fills tanks cold and dry in 6 minutes - her name is "Trinity." She's a real sweetheart.
(I'm including this because if we didn't have Trinity, we'd have more tanks - a lot more)

Boats:
23' McKeecraft cuddy outboard with hard top and full Eisenglas
19' Sea Hunt center console outboard with soft top
35' Bertram "the junk pile"
30' pontoon "in the works"
All fully equipped with Lowrance HDS-10 GPS/Chartplotter with integrated side scan sonar (we are sponsored by Lowrance), VHF, onboard and Doppler radar, 800 Mhz county emergency radios, and emergency lights
There's also access to several other boats, barges and cranes donated by clients and subcontractors... Some of which are equipped with Humminbird sidescanners.

My company is a commercial dive operator - we respond to emergencies, do a lot of underwater demolition and construction and repair on a per-job basis, and of course, do a ton of boat cleaning. We also have a new reality TV show that should be out this Fall, and have worked with the Discovery Science Channel in the past.

You didn't ask about trucks, metal detectors, magnetometers, scooters, wet/dry suits (we are sponsored by DUI and O'Neill), lift bags, regulators (interested in seeking sponsorship), cameras, or other large-investment dive-specific equipment (or for that matter, the shop itself and all the heavy equipment - some of it run by another compressor), so I'll skip that. I recently gave away three steel 72s and four 2400 psi cascades. I passed on two small Bauer compressors, too... We weren't going to use them, and they'd just take up space in the shop and need VIPs and hydros and maintenance...

 

[8240241]

My husband and I own 22 tanks - 8 aluminum, which he prefers, the rest are steel. We have our own boat and dive Lake Erie as often as possible. We usually get in 75 to 100 dives each a year. Oh, I forgot the set of 98 doubles we have for sale so that makes 24. We are just recreational divers, no deep dives, no tech dives or wrecks.

 

[Sherrodmustang]

Back from the dead, kinda on the topic.

What is a good starting point for a new divers to have tank wise? Looking at picking up some aluminum 80s for me and the wife for some weekend diving here and there locally.

I was thinking three a piece was enough for a day of diving?

 

[Steve Barsky]

Back from the dead, kinda on the topic.
What is a good starting point for a new divers to have tank wise? Looking at picking up some aluminum 80s for me and the wife for some weekend diving here and there locally.
I was thinking three a piece was enough for a day of diving?

It really depends on where you live and the type of diving you do. My wife and I own a small boat (22 feet) for diving and we never go out with less than 3 tanks each for a one day trip, since we don't have a compressor on board and most small compressors are slow). (Total of 6 tanks on board). Our transit time to and from diving is about an hour each way and we have to clean the boat and gear on return, so there is rarely time for more than 3 dives.

Conversely, if we dive off a charter boat in Southern California, all have compressors capable of filling a tank quickly (or they will usually have additional tanks). If you shore dive, then it's a question of how much energy you have. Beach diving in So Cal through surf takes a lot of energy, and most people don't make more than one beach dive a day.

 

[toddster541]

Wow. Just two for me. Most of the boats I've been on, they only want you to bring one, due to space issues, and they fill it from the on-board compressor between dives. Maybe two tanks if there are only a few of us going on a large enough boat.

Although I've got six 200's, six 100's, and a whole cabinet full of lecture bottles for the different kinds of gases I use in my lab. You wouldn't want to breathe most of those, though.

 

[rhwestfall]

well, I need to increase my reported total by 2..... added a pair of HP120's......