What size tank should I get I'm Confused.

[Tagerisatroll]

Hey guys, I'm alittle confused, right now I'm diving a AL 80 which is to small I'm only getting about 16 mins out of if it when i go to 48' Now I know I'm wasting alot of air still but i'm currently saving up to buy a new better tank, and I'm getting confused, I had wanted to buy an OSM LP 135 because from what my research had told me at 2400 +10% it held 131 CF which was darn good. But lucky me they stopped making them in 2005. So I might be able to find one or not when I finally have all my pennies scraped together it'll be a couple months before i can afford a steel tank. But on to my real question.

So now I'm looking at the other HP 130+ tanks and it seems they only hold more air when they get filled to their max preasure and when they get filled on a boat or a LDS with an older compresser that can only get them up to 3000 psi I'm only getting According to some of the posts I'm only getting 113 CF, like I'd be ahead to go with a LP tank or get an AL 100 and save 200 bucks and get 16CF less of air for boat diving?

Basicly I don't care about weight I want the most air in the tank, most of the time. Should i go with a steel LP 130, a HP 130, or an AL 100. When I go to buy my new tank. Because I'm really confused I'd hate to buy an expensive paper weight that i can't get filled all the way up 80% of the time.

Anyway, I want more bottom time darnit...:evilsmile

 

[CompuDude]

Dive more and you'll use less air. No need to change your tank.

That said, if you can only get 3000psi fills, of the choices you gave the LP 130 will give you the most gas on your back, by far. I didn't know there was such a thing...

 

[wreckchick]

You need to work on better air consumption before you think about getting tanks. This is a classic case of trying to use gear to solve a skill issue.

Rachel

 

[PerroneFord]

Just get a Meg. Or barring that, get a Heiser HP190. You could even twin them up. They're only about 87# each. They're about 62# negative though so you're gonna need a good wing.

 

[Diver Dennis]

You should be getting 3X that amount of time on an AL80. These guys are right, dive more and use less air.

 

[Tagerisatroll]

I am 6' 4" 285lbs

I do need to work on my consumption.

When I buy my new tank though Its going to be atleast a AL 100.

 

[PerroneFord]

I'm 6'0 245, a new diver, and I get about 45 minutes out of a dive to the same depth with the same sized tank.

 

[Tagerisatroll]

Just get a Meg. Or barring that, get a Heiser HP190. You could even twin them up. They're only about 87# each. They're about 62# negative though so you're gonna need a good wing.

HMM well this might be alittle much, I was hopping to get two dives on one tank not six. LOL

 

[Knight1989]

Your airconsumption will come with time and you'll be suprised at how quickly you'll see improvments. Just concentrate on how you are breathing during your dive. Like everyones said, an AL80 should be more than enough. Depending on depth, I can squeze over an hour or so out of one, and I know tons of people way better than me. Be patient, but deffintly dont waste your money on new tanks, not just yet or for that reason.

 

[TSandM]

Rather than investigate new tanks, it might be cheaper and more useful to investigate why your air consumption is so high.

According to your profile, you're a pretty new diver. That's one reason why the air consumption is high -- it takes a while to get relaxed enough in the water to develop a slow, rhythmic breathing pattern that is efficient.

Another thing which is common to new divers is overweighting. If you are overweighted, you are unstable at depth, and end up using a lot of gas inflating and deflating your BC because every minor depth change causes so much buoyancy change (Google dynamic instability).

You could also have fallen into another new diver trap, the one of diving negative and finning up because you are worried about uncontrolled ascents. This is an inefficient strategy and increases air consumption. One way to check is to stop kicking for a few moments. If you sink, you are diving negative.

Yet another trap is being severely out of balance with your weights. If you have all your weight low (eg. in your integrated weight pockets), you may be so feet-low that you have to fin all the time to keep your legs up. That also uses air in an unproductive fashion.

So you can see that there are a lot of directions from which to attack your air consumption before buying huge tanks. I'm not implying that there is no role for big tanks, but they can be an issue to balance on your rig. It might be better to do some really shallow (20 foot) dives and work on the above ideas, before investing money in very large tanks you may eventually wish you had not bought.