What Makes Up Scuba Diving Tanks?

There is a lot of science that goes into scuba diving tanks and you never really realize just how complex they can be until you really start to study them. Scuba diving tanks are those tanks that scuba diver strap to their backs before they dive into the water. The scuba diving tanks hold what is called the breathing gas for the diver so that the diver can breathe while underwater. The most common element in breathing gas is air as that is what humans need to survive but scuba diving tanks will also have other inert gases in combination with the air as part of breathing gases and this usually depends on the dive. Breathing gases are used to offset any effects of decompression sickness which can happen if a diver dives into a deep body of water and then does not follow procedures for resurfacing. The scuba diving tanks can help offset these effects with the proper breathing gas.

How many scuba diving tanks a diver needs depends on what kind of dive they will be going on. If a diver will be in the warm tropical waters checking out coral reefs then usually one main tank and a reserve is all they take. For deeper dives into colder water they will take two or more tanks and a reserve. The reason for the different number of scuba diving tanks is that dives into warm tropical areas are usually never into deep water and the warm relatively shallow water allows the diver to breathe normally thereby decreasing the drain on the scuba diving tanks. In deeper dives the diver is headed into an area where there is much more pressure on their body as the deeper you go in water the more the water compresses on anything. With all that water compressing the diver’s lungs they need more air and they also need scuba diving tanks that have breathing gas that will help them avoid decompression sickness.

Regulating The Air

Every scuba diving tank has the same basic set up. The tanks are connected to hoses that are either connected to some sort of diving helmet or regulator. The regulator is the piece that goes into the diver’s mouth and helps to make sure that the right amount of air is always flowing to the diver and also allows the diver to exhale without any problems. If the diver gets too much air all at once, or cannot properly exhale, then this can cause decompression sickness and a number of other dangerous conditions. The regulator helps avoid all of this.

Always go with metal air tanks because sharks can bite through the plastic ones and then if that happens you are in big trouble. Just remember that a shark biting into a metal air tank can save your life some day and you read it here first.