Tank lights--what are they good for?

[mrbeast1414]

Hey guys,
For AOW I need a secondary light and tank light. I have an idea for what I want for the secondary light (but any suggestions would be great) but if someone has a primary light and a backup, whats the point?

Thanks

 

[tbone1004]

Tank lights allow divemasters and surface support to track you. Helps identify divers and what not. My buddies and I each have different colors to help in a light failure, or if we're tracking someone from behind
Ask your instructor if you need an actual "light". A lot of us use glow sticks. Cheap ones at Wally World work just fine

 

[Bubbletrubble]

I think the tank light serves a very important purpose if you're diving off of a boat requiring that every diver has one. (The DM won't allow you to splash without one.) I see local classes that use the lights on night shore dives to track people in the water and differentiate students (green) from instructors/DMs (red). I feel for the poor people who have to herd a group of 15 AOW students around.

Relying on tank lights to track people from the surface on shore dives in our local waters, with typically 10 ft. vis, is a joke.

For the OW recreational shore dives that I do, I think they're pretty useless.

If you need a tank light to identify your buddy from other divers in the water, you're not doing it right.

 

[tbone1004]

not necessarily a buddy, but differentiating dive teams from one another without blinding them, or as an AI to make sure you stay with the same team if you end up in a dogpile with a few other student teams

 

[vinegarbiscuit]

It does seem overkill if one is also carrying a reliable primary light and back-up, but there have been occasions when I've given my back-up to someone. Do enough night dives, and you'll find that someone occasionally needs to beg a light, either because theirs has died (and they don't have a back-up...you'd be surprised at how many folk don't), or because they've forgotten theirs, or whatever. It could happen to them underwater or on the boat. If I've handed off my back-up to a needy diver, Murphy's Law says that my single remaining light will die right at that moment, in which case, I'd be very happy to have my wee red tank strobe blinking away. It never has happened, and I hope it never will, but for that reason, I'm glad the habit of using a tank strobe is so ingrained in me.

 

[Wookie]

So us boat crew see you when you get lost and come up away from the boat. Every little bit helps.

 

[Jax]

So you can find the body.

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

When diving in groups of 3, it is nice to be able to differentiate between divers since one of us is the leader and the other 2 are following. So we have color coded glow sticks. Obviously none is needed for solo.

 

[Thunder Bay Minnow]

On my first night dive we were playing follow the leader and the third guy in line got off course which all of the rest of us followed. If instructor had red it would have been a whole lot easier than the rest following the lost guy around.

 

[Farback]

So you can find the body.

As an occasional PSD, I would find that very thoughtful.