Do you have a minimum viz or temp for a dive?

[shaggie]

I recently dove in a friend's stock tank (since you are from Texas you know what that is). For those that don't know that term, it is a small manmade pond used to provide water for cattle. He needed me to check the depth and find the end of a water line. The depth was only 14' (he thought it was 30'). It had filled in with 16' of silt in 4 years from rains. There was 0 visibility. I could not count the fingers on my hand when placed 1" from my mask. At 8', there was no light penetration, it was like diving at midnight without a light. The surface temp was 92° and at 12' it was 70°.

I would compare this to diving in a giant pond of chocolate milk.

I found the water line, and had to follow it along the bottom with my hands, reaching from armlength to armlength, searching in the mud for the line. I followed it from the edge to the middle of the tank (pond), and found that the end was not buried in the mud, which was my goal for the dive. Hope to never do one like this again.

Had a friend ask me to dive his stock tank to pull out some submerged logs. Had to say no thanks to that one.