Do you get more air out of a Nitrox tank in scuba diving?
Does anyone know if you get more air breathing from a Nitrox enriched tank over a normal tank for scuba diving, or is it just better bottom time?
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Tags: diving, More, Nitrox, scuba, Tank
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I don’t really know, but I’d say that there will be the same amount of air in the tank. It will only be the mixture that is different. The reason for the different mixture is not to allow extra time, but to allow one to go a bit deeper without the risk of nitrogen narcosis, etc.
It just increases your bottom time with some dive profiles and is also mix% dependent. Nitrox also has it’s limitations ( which is why I mentioned dive profiles). You can’t use it deep. A 32 mix starts to pop your ppO2 (partial pressure) bubble below 120 feet. That ppO2 is your oxygen exposure. Go beyond 1.6 and it’s toxic for sure. Most divers will use 1.4 ppO2 as their limit on planning a profile for a certain mix. Nitrox’s depth limitation becomes even shallower the higher % mix you use. Nitrox sole intent is to reduce your nitrogen load that you would have normally taken on with using air instead. It’s NOT a deep gas. Look up oxygen toxicity on google and how it pertains to diving, specifically with the use of nitrox. Your bottom time for a profile is determined by time over depth and type of gas ( air in this instance). The more nitrogen in your gas, the more you absorb over a shorter time period at depth. That translates out to less actual bottom time due to that extra load and less time you have before you incur any decompression obligations which is what planning your bottom time is all about, avoiding a mandatory deco since you’re diving under recreational and not really full blown technical diving regulations . With nitrox, since it has a higher O2% and lower Nitrogen % by volume, your nitrogen loading doesn’t come on quite so quickly. That translates out to being able to spend more time at the target depth before incurring any deco obligations than you would with air. But..that’s assuming that you can use the mix in the tank for the profile you intend on doing. Go deeper than the mix’s max operating depth ( MOD), even for just moments and that can bring on O2 toxicity. You’re a probably a dead diver. Your buddy won’t be able to help in almost all cases since it comes on rapidly and starts with the spitting out of the reg because you’ve lost facial muscle control. The rest of your body muscles follow in spasm quite quickly and you’ll not be able to control your arms and hands to put the reg back in your mouth. Most O2 tox victims drown before their nervous system fries.
You can dive deeper with air than nitrox but it’s a trade off. You’ll be whacked but alive if you’re an experienced diver that knows their limits when it comes to their ability when they’re narc’d and assuming you have the deco gas. You can dive to just shy of 250 feet on air before ppO2 becomes an issue. You’ll be one silly son of a gun but you can do it if trained and have the gear.
Nitrox and you won’t go as deep, but you’ll stay longer before deco. Being narc’d doesn’t really come into play here since you won’t be using it below 120 feet, unless you’re susceptible to narcosis shallower than that ( some people are by nature, some by lifestyle led the night before).
The tank volume is the same between the two given the two tanks are rated at equal volumes in comparison, you’re not getting more breathing gas. An alum 80 filled with air is still 80 cubic feet of gas. An alum 80 with nitrox is still 80 cubic feet of gas too.
Hope that clarified it for you.
Cheers