stano
Contributor
Put a 3-4lb weight on the bottom of each tank on a cam band. From my experience aluminums require it pretty much.
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You dont need to add weights to your AL tanks just clip them off to your waist d-rings.
i dont have a butplate, i put my waist d rings as far up as possible. i dont think ill have a problem with them there when the tank is heavy, but when it starts to float like today's test run, id need to add a lower d ring.
I was one of the guys who did it themselves. Not many, pronounced "ain't not one damn", sidemount instructors here. I also have the means to dive pretty much any time I want to. I have approx 60 dives in SM since January. It took a LOT of tweaking and playing around. Now I am trying a new bungee loop setup and that is even more tweaking. It is helpful to have a friend who can take pictures or video tape you. This helped me tremendously.
If you are just wanting to run one tank, "Monkey dive", and are not real worried about bottle trim and the such, I guess going it your own will not be as difficult. Modifying your gear could be an issue. I chose to buy a SM specific rig, and not try to make one. To me this is a much better way to go, if you don't have anyone to help.
After saying all this, you live in Florida. You have MANY quality SM instructors available to you. I would highly suggest a class. I actually plan on taking a class when I get home, even though I will already have over 100 dives in it. I am going to be switching over to steel from AL80's and I think it will be a good idea to get someone like Rob "dive-aholic" to instruct/mentor me in steels/drysuit.