Getting my own tanks

[UWZen]

Marie13, what fins are you using?
I recall you mentioning you had a drysuit as well. Was the head-heaviness present with the suit?

 

[elgoog]

If you are head heavy, you want to remove the weight that is closest to your head. Taking weight off your waist is probably the last resort, not the first.

Yep, keep the weight on your waist. My wife is 5'6" and had a heck of a time trying to balance these tanks out and we gave up eventually (mainly because I had acquired HP100s by that point). Another thing you may have to do if you are still head heavy after removing weight or moving it lower is loosening the shoulder straps and also tightening the crotch strap which will bring your whole rig and CG down lower. This was how I trimmed out my doubles but the principle is the same.

 

[Jack Hammer]

The useful point (I think) is that Nitrox stickers are meaningless (except, possibly, to a shop that wants to sell Nitrox stickers). They have nothing to do with whether you can get fills from a PP fill station (or any other kind of fill station).

Similar to the "but you have to have a Nitrox C card" story, if someone ever tells me that they can't give me a Nitrox fill because I don't have Nitrox stickers on my tanks, I guess I'll just have to pull out my Helitrox card and tell them I changed my mind. Can I please have Trimix 32/0? LOL

While I agree with your sentiment, not all shops I've been in agree it. Ive personally heard and been told all kinds of stupidity about why our tanks couldn't be filled. That includes refusals for Nitrox from multiple shops around the country because of either no Nitrox sticker or the ones we had "werent legal".

 

[Marie13]

Marie13, what fins are you using?
I recall you mentioning you had a drysuit as well. Was the head-heaviness present with the suit?

I've been diving wet with a 5mm for the past 2 months.

I'm using Atomic Splits. I have two bum knees which are the only reason I went to splits. The 4 pairs of paddle fins I tried hurt something awful. Now I can fin without pain.

I like to imitate a seahorse regardless of whether I'm diving wet or dry, but that might just be posture. I can have decent trim sometimes. This pic is from a Lake Michigan shipwreck dive Sunday.

 

[Sevenrider860]

My tanks don't need to have the big green and yellow nitrox stickers on them since they're not O2 cleaned. If your tanks are filled with pre-mixed nitrox, your tanks don't need to be O2 clean. They only need to be O2 clean if you get partial-pressure nitrox fills.

One thing to point out is that the big green and yellow nitrox stickers are not intended to represent that the cylinder does or does not meet oxygen service standards. The primary use is to indicate an enriched O2 content is in the cylinder.

The use of the nitrox stickers or requirement for the sticker to get a fill does vary widely. You usually see them on new cylinders (sticker up-charge??). Any cylinder that gets transported around a lot will soon have a mess of a sticker and technically the sticker should be removed at each visual inspection (but often is not).

Here in the Southeast I have never been refused a nitrox fill because I don't have a nitrox sticker. If the facility is Partial Pressure filling, then the O2 Clean box on the VIP sticker or a separate O2 Clean sticker is what they want to see. There is one facility north of Atlanta that won't give a partial pressure fill unless you have a PSI-PCI Evidence of inspection sticker with O2 clean indicated.

The nitrox sticker debate has led to some funny stickers. There is also the "all purpose" stickers. All designed with the basic rule...don't dive with a cylinder unless you know what is in it.

 

[kafkaland]

Interesting. I thought it was cardinal rule to have the tank marked if it contained anything other than 21%? I always be learning up on here.

I guess the take-home message is ANALYZE YOUR TANK. Every time. Even if it has no sticker on it, don't assume it's just air.

 

[UWZen]

View attachment 420639

I've been diving wet with a 5mm for the past 2 months.

I'm using Atomic Splits. I have two bum knees which are the only reason I went to splits. The 4 pairs of paddle fins I tried hurt something awful. Now I can fin without pain.

I like to imitate a seahorse regardless of whether I'm diving wet or dry, but that might just be posture. I can have decent trim sometimes. This pic is from a Lake Michigan shipwreck dive Sunday.

Great trim in that pic!

Curious, can you please elaborate a bit more on feeling both 'head heavy' as well as 'seahorse posture' which I'm assuming means feet/knees dropped out of trim? I'm having trouble understanding how you can be experiencing both simultaneously, I think I must be missing some detail.

 

[tridacna]

I guess the take-home message is ANALYZE YOUR TANK. Every time. Even if it has no sticker on it, don't assume it's just air.

In Kafkaland perhaps. Are you suggesting that all divers including those who have never been trained in Nitrox procedures test every tank that they dive?

 

[Marie13]

Great trim in that pic!

Curious, can you please elaborate a bit more on feeling both 'head heavy' as well as 'seahorse posture' which I'm assuming means feet/knees dropped out of trim? I'm having trouble understanding how you can be experiencing both simultaneously, I think I must be missing some detail.

Probably just writing incorrectly, plus I'm on my phone. I'm often head-UP aka Seahorse Syndrome.

So if I'm understanding correctly that others using HP80s tend to be too much head DOWN, then maybe they will trim out correctly with me. Correct me if I'm midunderstanding.

 

[UWZen]

Probably just writing incorrectly.l, plus I'm on my phone. I'm often head-UP aka Seahorse Syndrome.

So if I'm understanding correctly that others using HP80s tend to be too much head DOWN, then maybe they will trim out correctly with me. Correct me if I'm midunderstanding.

Yes, switching to an HP steel and a short one is going to help your weight distribution and hopefully trim. The Center of gravity of your tank will be higher up. The extra ballast provided by your tank will be centered higher so take the 4lb off the waist if you struggle with being too head-up (ignore my comments to move cam pouches lower to correct for head heaviness).