Question about tank weights.

[emcbride81]

I am looking to put some weights on my tank (face first at surface, face down descents) and was looking at two options. The first was just putting a ankle weight belt on the tank, but then I saw a 5 lb butt plate for the bottom of your tank. Anyone have an opinion on this?

 

[NorthWoodsDiver]

If you have read my other posts you will see that I made the mistake of getting aluminum 80 cuft tanks (got 4 of them unfortunately) and I had lots of buoyany issues that took lots of extra cash to hash out but I ended up getting the 5 pound weight system inside a boot for each of my tanks and that helped alot and so did changing the placement of the tanks on my bc. I think I moved the tank down but I dont remember off hand. the ankle weight idea works kinda but I dont like to do it. what helped me was to put 5 lbs in each rear trim pocket and 1.5 lbs on each ankle along with the 5 lb tank weights and 8 lbs in each front ditchable pocket, yep I use 34 lbs with my 7mm 2 piece suit but the combo I have allows me to trim out ohh soo nice. Buoyany on the surface can be combated also by not over inflating your bc or wing if you use a rear wing system like me (knighthawk).

 

[Tanked Monkey]

How about getting trim pockets to put weight on the sides of your tank? Are you using a bc, or bp/w? If it's a bc, does your bc have trim pockets up high in the back?

Mike

 

[hudson]

I use two XS Scuba weight pockets on the upper band. Putting weight lower on the tank will not help much with your trim (it will help on the surface). Right now I'm using 12lbs on my weight belt and 4 lbs on the upper band (2 x 2) with my 7mm and HP80 steel tank. I also carry my tank as high as possible without consantly hitting my head on the valve and combined this gives me almost proper trim.

 

[emcbride81]

Thanks for the input. I have a BC...and I shirked the expense and did not get one with the trim pockets in the back...now seeing the error there. I may give the weight pockets a try first. I didn't know Aluminum 80's were worse for bouyancy than steel 80's...makes sense, never thought about it. I don't own tanks now, so if I rent should I request steel?

 

[hudson]

If you can get steel at no extra charge at all the places you plan to dive and actually get it properly filled to the correct pressure,
sure. But it'd be wrong to say AL80s are bad for bouyancy. What it boils down to is you'd need more weight to compensate, which may potentially make it harder to find the correct weight distribution initially, also means you need to deal with more weight out of the water (for the purposes of donning your gear, moving around etc)

 

[Nemrod]

You can use an old camband as a mini tank weight belt. Slip on the weight needed and close the camband over the tank--simple--easy---adjustable. I do it often with aluminum tanks when using my heavy suit. N

 

[Tanked Monkey]

I use the XS Scuba weight pockets on the top cam bands too. Works well, and an inexpensive solution.

Mike

 

[scubatoys]

In a pinch, you can always just thread a weight onto the top cam latch (assuming you have 2) to keep that weight higher. Another thing I've seen a lot is just taking a 2 lb ankle weight and snap it around the valve.

 

[Hoosier]

How about getting trim pockets to put weight on the sides of your tank? Mike

That's my way.