Substitute for glowsticks

[Damselfish]

I was wondering - what would be the best color to use? I was thinking about a flashing red one. And then I was going to get my fiancee a green one, and me a orange one. That we we can distinguish ourself from other divers. What color is the most visible underwater?

For marker lights I think it's annoying to other divers to wear a flashing one. Stick with constant on.

If you are night diving regularly with other people you know in close quarters for some reason, then maybe it would be useful to have different colors to tell who is who. Otherwise you may as well just get 2 of the same color, gives some indication you're a team, which is arguably more useful than other people being able to tell you apart. A bunch of strangers on a boat really aren't going to memorize everybody elses marker light colors. You don't know what other people might have anyway.

I'd avoid the yoke lights, nice idea in theory but they flood way too easily.

Even if the sticks aren't toxic, when used on land they will at least most likely get thrown in the trash. When used diving I think the fear is they may wind up in the water and something will try and eat them. Even if the stuff inside isn't harmful the case isn't so good for any critter.

 

[Nautical Dreamer]

I looked into the chemicals used to make the glow sticks after my tank accidentally broke one that was in the back of my jeep. I went to get a tank out of the back of my jeep on Sunday. There was a red liquid spilled all over the gear liner in the back. I used some paper towels to wipe up the liquid and found the broken light stick under one of the rental tanks. When I went to wipe clean the tank some of the paint on the rental tank wiped clean off similar to when you us a commercial paint stripper. This freaked me out and I spent the next half hour cleaning before I even dared placing my SCUBA equipment back in.

In my research about the contents of light sticks I found the following web page. http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=296954 From what I read, the main product of the chemical reaction is phenol. Phenol is not a nice chemical; the EPA has some additional information on it. http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/phenol.html Phenol is a benzene ring with OH compound attached to one of the carbon atoms in the outer ring. I am not a fan of anything in the benzene family, and will be purchasing a Glow-Toob soon.

FYI look into anything marked as non toxic. Non Toxic only means that there are no known adverse side effects. These companies only spend the absolute minimum amount of time and money investigating these side effects. Back in the day asbestos would have been considered non-toxic and natural. They used to make bed sheets that contained asbestos. So buyer beware!

 

[CompuDude]

It's true that there are chemicals in there that aren't super-friendly (although I know for a fact that it's not all as bad as you might think... I know a bunch of people who used to rub the glo juice all over themselves, and have had no adverse reactions). But how unfriendly are they is the question? The EPA page you linked mostly complains of small amounts of health issues due to long term, extended exposure. Not the end of the world unless you intend to drink the stuff... on a regular basis. And perhaps not even then,,, the stuff is used in a number of cough remedies, such as cogh droups and that chloroseptic throat spray stuff. I don't think it would be approved for such uses if Phenol was as bad as you imply.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenol

When released into the soil, this material is expected to readily biodegrade. When released into the soil, this material is not expected to leach into groundwater. When released into the soil, this material may evaporate to a moderate extent. When released into the soil, this material is expected to have a half-life between 1 and 10 days. When released into water, this material is expected to readily biodegrade. When released into water, this material is not expected to evaporate significantly. When released into water, this material is expected to have a half-life between 10 and 30 days. This material has an estimated bioconcentration factor (BCF) of less than 100. This material is not expected to significantly bioaccumulate. When released into the air, this material is expected to be readily degraded by reaction with photochemically produced hydroxyl radicals. When released into the air, this material may be moderately degraded by photolysis. When released into the air, this material is expected to have a half-life of less than 1 day.

Can you say the same about the heavy metals in batteries?

In all honesty (and again, recall that I use electric lights over glowsticks myself), I think the batteries used in glowstick replacement devices are probably far worse for the environment than the actual glowsticks.

 

[archman]

I dumped glowstick fluid in my hair a few years back, and man did that stuff burn! I couldn't run quick enough to the rinse hose to get it out.

 

[LowVizWiz]

I was wondering - what would be the best color to use? I was thinking about a flashing red one. And then I was going to get my fiancee a green one, and me a orange one. That we we can distinguish ourself from other divers. What color is the most visible underwater?

Red is the first color to disappear underwater, so I'm wondering what a red light would look like UW. Now I know it's only the color red not the shapes etc.

I guess I have to file this one under things that make you hum... until I try it.

Wys.

 

[bperrybap]

I've actually played with several different types of marker lights.

Yoke lights:
Both my wife and I have yoke lights. (From crazyscuba)
These work pretty well.
My wife keeps hers on her 1st stage all the time and its been down on
around 70 dives. (Yellow knob matches her Bare Wetsuit)
Down to around 100 ft several times and
still going strong after a year and no flooding. The key is not
to loosen it too much and make sure to disassemble it and clean it
and lube it after each dive trip.
Even when off, they do tend to come on due to pressure at about
60 ft. ; probably do to me not loosening it quite enough,
but I'd rather it come on at 60ft than to flood.
The only drawback is that it projects light out in a cone and
with a back inflate BC (possibly others),
you won't be able to see it if you are below your buddy.
Example: 5 feet lower and 10-20 ft away.

Glo-Toob
If you go this route get the FX model. This model allows you
to program the light output. It can flash different patterns or
can be steady full on or partial dim.
I've had a long conversation with the guys at Glo-toob about
the flood failures. There are two o-rings. Most people don't know t
about the second o-ring which is inside the pin switch.
One problem that theyve had is due to it being made of aluminum.
Aluminum shavings can get in one of the orings and cause
a leak.
They seem to work pretty well. When hanging from the 1st stage
they are easier to see than the yoke lights especially if you
are lower than your buddy.

Innovative TankLights.
These are LED lights just like the yoke lights but are on a 1 inch
band that you wrap around and attach to your tank. A set
comes with 3 lights. I use one of these and put it low on my
tank with only 2 lights, one on each side. My wife likes it
because she gets nervous when she can't identify me.
And these lights can be seen from just about any angle.

--- bill

 

[Dive-aholic]

Red is the first color to disappear underwater, so I'm wondering what a red light would look like UW. Now I know it's only the color red not the shapes etc.

I guess I have to file this one under things that make you hum... until I try it.

Wys.

Colors are a property of light, so they only disappear without light. Red lights look red underwater.

 

[loosebits]

You wouldn't be able to see red wavelengths underwater as far as you could see blue. A monochromatic red light (e.g. a laser) wouldn't be visible for nearly as far as a higher frequency one but those things people put on the back of their tanks aren't even close to being monochromatic.

 

[Kaufdropp]

Even though red is the first color you lose i think you will still be able to see it because the light supplied from the strobe or whatever would give it light so it would look red.

 

[bperrybap]

You wouldn't be able to see red wavelengths underwater as far as you could see blue. A monochromatic red light (e.g. a laser) wouldn't be visible for nearly as far as a higher frequency one but those things people put on the back of their tanks aren't even close to being monochromatic.

The ones that are LED based will be pretty monochromatic.
red LEDs tend to have a very flat spectrometer plot with
a sharp narrow peak in the 620nm to 640nm (red color) range.

--- bill