If I owned a Dive Quarry, I would.....

[Hank49]

Heating. If you pump warm, surface water down, it will force cool water up. This in itself isn't a bad thing unless the bottom, cool water is more nutrient rich, in which case you will probably get a nice algae bloom....good for the fish but bad for diving. Some lakes do this naturally at times and "turnover" causing an oxygen crash which kills all the fish.
As to using diesel or fossil fuel to heat....I spend $20,000 per year to heat about 1,500,000 gallons of seawater an average of 3-4 degrees centigrade. A 3 acre (small) 100 foot deep quarry would be around 60-90 million gallons, depending on slope. A bit of overhead running that quarry....Sell a lot of beer....

 

[ClayJar]

Heating. If you pump warm, surface water down, it will force cool water up. This in itself isn't a bad thing unless the bottom, cool water is more nutrient rich, in which case you will probably get a nice algae bloom....good for the fish but bad for diving. Some lakes do this naturally at times and "turnover" causing an oxygen crash which kills all the fish.

Hmm... so, using spargers would not only work toward removing a thermocline via mixing, but they would also oxygenate the water, making the fish all the happier. :biggrin:

 

[Hank49]

Well, maybe. But the fish will go to the oxygen, which is usually nearer the surface. If you "over fertilize" the quarry but bringing the nutrients to the surface, the plankton will produce oxygen on sunny days but consume it at night, possibly driving the level below 1 part per million....which won't make the fish happy. You would start a cycle of recycling the nutrients (algae will bloom, use up available nutrients and crash, falling to bottom, get consumed by bacteria and start the cyle again...in a nutshell) and depending on the age of the quarry and the amount built up on the bottom...a lot of possible scenarios could play out. You COULD vacuum all the sediment out and dump it somewhere on the side to avoid this...but that's another project.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I love Mermet!! Thats who has the underwater speakers I love listening to Pink Floyd and Night Diving

As for visibility;....this is a must, how can we accomplish this? I have made a couple ponds in my parents back yards over the years and they have a filtration system and waterfall....Could this be done on a bigger scale? Be too time consuming to clean? How else could we keep our "Mega Quarry" Clean and with high visibility?

Well, gear tables, showers, cabins and all that stuff are nice but I don't mind doing without for a decent dive. I don't even mind paying a few bucks, but...I've about had it with paying $10 - $20 to dive in a quarry that's mucked up by divers that can't stay out of the bottom.

Most of our quarries have pretty good vis for most of the year as long as there aren't any divers there.

 

[Dive Right In Scuba]

Well, gear tables, showers, cabins and all that stuff are nice but I don't mind doing without for a decent dive. I don't even mind paying a few bucks, but...I've about had it with paying $10 - $20 to dive in a quarry that's mucked up by divers that can't stay out of the bottom.

Most of our quarries have pretty good vis for most of the year as long as there aren't any divers there.

But you would pay $20 for great viz.....so we figure out how to clear up the water, cheap...and possibly have different sections for divers....Beginners and classes- Over there....Recreational over Here, Technical over there.....Hoping that if you have a big enough area, it will kind of work...BUT water does travel, and so will the silt....Hmmmmmm

 

[mike_s]

cabins sound great, but unless the quarry operator can fill them on a regular basis, it's a hard sell to the underwriter of the loan. seeing how most/many quarries only operate april or may through october and only on weekends, that might be a hard thing to sell. either that or the price would be so outrageous that folks wouldn't use them

example is Vortex charges like $149/nite for the 2br or 3br 'grandview lodge. I think. I imagine that it's booked mostly weekends and not a week at a time. (but just a guess on my part.)

some of the other florida quarries/springs have lodging... but they can operate those throughout the year. hard to do in illinois due to weather hampers most people from diving year round.

 

[MikeFerrara]

But you would pay $20 for great viz.....so we figure out how to clear up the water, cheap...and possibly have different sections for divers....Beginners and classes- Over there....Recreational over Here, Technical over there.....Hoping that if you have a big enough area, it will kind of work...BUT water does travel, and so will the silt....Hmmmmmm

There is an easier way...for instructors to be willing and able to teach in such a way as to not much things up. When I was teaching, we just taught students to stay off the bottom and propel themselves in a mannor that wouldn't silt before leaving the pool.

All you have to do is get all this kneeling, head up trim flutter kicking nonsense out of training...teach diving instead of underwater breathing and kneeling.

It probably won't happen so, in the mean time, I'll just skip paying to dive sites where there are a lot of silting divers regardless of what other features the site has to offer.

 

[Buoyant1]

Good vis! More than anything else!

Warm temps! (yeah right!)

Cool things to see (Planes, trains, boats, trucks....whatever)

Buoyancy courses

BIG swim throughs (and places to practice wreck penetration, where you can usea reel, or practice progressive penetration, but have places for egress in case you get screwed up)

Docks/entryways So you an kit up without becoming a contorsionist, or getting TOO familiar with your buddy! (not that there's anything WRONG with that!)

Pink Floyd through speakers on night dives would be cool!

Close to my house (and a nice pizza place that serves adult beverages on the way home is always a plus!)

Oh, and maidens in mermaid costumes to help rub the cramps out of your leg!

 

[Dive Right In Scuba]

Sooooo.....Anyone know where to look for items to stock in a quarry? Planes, trains, automobiles

Any places to look for donations, or buy cool things cheap?

Lots of great ideas from this old thread....and I have something brewing

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

Didn't read the thread; this may have already been said.

Sell it to some sucker and buy something comfortable in the tropics