Which Size Steel Scuba Cylinder Is Right For You?

Divers in cooler temperate waters most commonly use the following three Faber steel tank sizes:

Faber 10.5 Litre (85 cubic foot), 232 bar — This smaller cylinder size is preferred by many women because it's lighter and easier to handle. If you are a diver with a very good surface air consumption rate, as many women are, then this cylinder has enough air capacity for most dives. A pair of these steel tanks is also popular with sidemount divers, and women technical divers.

Faber Standard 12.2 Litre (100 cubic foot), 232 bar — This standard size, 178 mm (7 inch) diameter, cylinder size is used by the vast majority of divers. A pair of these cylinders is also the most common choice for technical divers.

Faber Standard 15.0 Litre (125 cubic foot), 232 bar — This larger size, 204 mm (8 inch), cylinder size is the choice of divers with a poor surface air consumption rate. However, it's larger size and weight makes it awkward for many divers to use.

Faber 3 Litre (25 cubic foot), 232 bar, 100 mm (3.9 inch) diameter, are the popular choice of rebreather divers.

Low and High Pressure Steel Scuba Diving Cylinders

Faber Low-Pressure Steel — 232 bar — Lighter on land than standard aluminium scuba cylinders, these Faber 232 bar steel cylinders feature a higher working pressure than most aluminium cylinders, thus delivery a larger gas capacity for the same internal volume. The 232 bar Faber cylinders come equipped with a DIN/K type valve that easily converts back and forth depending on the type of First-Stage Regulator to be used in conjunction with the cylinder increasing the versatility of the tank. When diving with these cylinders less weight is needed, making them perfect for divers that use drysuits, or wetsuit divers in cold/temperate waters. The Faber steel cylinders are popular for cave diving and have a strong following among technical divers everywhere. The average working pressure is 232 bar.

Faber High-Pressure Steel — 300 bar — Much heavier than standard aluminium and steel scuba cylinders, these Faber 300 bar steel cylinders use much higher working pressure to provide a huge gas capacity in a small size. Like their low-pressure steel cousins, less weight is needed with these cylinders. A favourite with wreck divers, the average working pressure is 300 bar.

Faber is the leading manufacturer of steel scuba cylinders in the world and is the market leader in Europe and Australia where diving with steel cylinders is the norm. Faber's cylinders are manufactured from deep drawn 34CRMO4 Chromium Molybdenum steel plates to ANSI specifications. This process results in a light cylinder with the right buoyancy characteristics allowing the diver to reduce the amount of weight from their weight-belt. The interior of the cylinders are shot-blasted followed by their exclusive phosphatised coating which creates a perfectly cleaned internal surface, highly resistant to rust. The exterior of the cylinder is triple protected with zinc spraying, epoxy primer coat and polyurethane finish coat for durability.

The service life of a properly cared for modern steel scuba cylinder is widely considered to be 50 years or more. The service life of a properly cared for aluminium cylinder is more controversial. Most dive shops, including The Scuba Doctor, won't fill an aluminium tank manufactured before 1990.

The Scuba Doctor carries an extensive selection of Faber steel cylinder sizes starting with the 2 litre (16 cubic foot) all the way up to the 18 litre (150 cubic foot) cylinder. Faber cylinders are available in 8-inch, 7.25 and 7-inch diameters with working pressures of 232 bar and 300 bar.

All dive cylinders from The Scuba Doctor dive shop are visually inspected and shipped with a current hydrostatic date (except where indicated).

Bay of Islands

Reef Dive | Boat access

Bay of Islands | Source: Visit Victoria

Depth: 2 m (6.56 ft) to 20 m (66 ft)

Level: Open Water and beyond.

The Bay of Islands is a boat diving and snorkelling site, located between Peterborough to the east and Warrnambool to the west, off of the Great Ocean Road (B100) on Victoria's Shipwreck Coast. If you want to tackle this area as a shore dive, please see Boat Bay.

The Bay of Islands forms a part of the Bay of Islands Coastal Park, a 32 kilometre stretch of coastal reserve on the Shipwreck Coast of Victoria along the Great Ocean Road between Peterborough and Warrnambool. It's an irregular, semi-circular bay that faces south-west and has several large sea stacks or islands dotted about the bay, together with rocks and reefs. Most of the bay shore is made up of steep, 10 to 20-metre high limestone bluffs. However, tucked in the eastern corner of the bay and right next to the bend in the Great Ocean Road, is a gorge containing a 70-metre long beach. The beach is used for boat launching and there is a steep ramp and steps descending from the bluffs to the beach. The beach itself is narrow, with deepwater offshore, particularly at high tide. The reefs filter out most waves, with usually calm conditions at the beach.

Diving and Snorkelling the Bay of Islands

Bay of Islands Boat Ramp

The Bay of Islands site is a boat diving and snorkelling adventure starting at Boat Bay, where there is a boat ramp and plenty of parking.

There is plenty of interesting structure to explore and marine life to see at the Bay of Islands. The site faces south-west, and is very shallow for a long way out which makes it better as a boat dive site, as you can more easily access the many interesting areas, especially further out than you'll get on a shore dive.

The Bay of Islands looks to be a similar dive site to Crofts Bay. However, it's not as sheltered a dive location and is subject to currents, especially when there are big breaks on the outer reefs.

Location: Boat Bay Road, Peterborough, Victoria 3270

Parking: There is a car and boat parking area on Boat Bay Road, off the Great Ocean Road (B100). Before heading out, check out the water. If you see lots of white water, head on home.

Safety Warning: Boats launch here, so make sure you tow a dive float with a dive flag for safety, or keep your boat running live nearby.

Ideal Conditions: The Bay of Islands is best dived at high tide when the reefs are covered. See WillyWeather (Bay of Islands) as a guide for the tide times and the height of the tide.

Boat Launching: The nearest boat launching facility is right here at the Peterborough Bay of Islands Boat Ramp, or you can venture out from the Peterborough Curdies River Dorey Street Boat Ramp.

Eastern Maar country

Traditional Owners — This dive site is in the traditional Country of the Eastern Maar people of south-western Victoria between the Shaw and Eumerella Rivers and from Yambuk in the south to beyond Lake Linlithgow in the north. This truly ancient Country extends as far north as Ararat and encompasses the coastal townships of Port Fairy in the west, Warrnambool, Peterborough, Port Campbell, Apollo Bay, Lorne, and Airies Inlet in the east, including the Great Ocean Road area. It also stretches 100 metres out to sea from low tide and therefore includes the iconic Twelve Apostles. "Eastern Maar" is a name adopted by the people who identify as Maar, Eastern Gunditjmara, Tjap Wurrung, Peek Whurrong, Kirrae Whurrung, Kuurn Kopan Noot and/or Yarro waetch (Tooram Tribe) amongst others. We wish to acknowledge the Eastern Maar as Traditional Owners. We pay respect to their Ancestors and their Elders, past, present and emerging.

Bay of Islands Location Map

Latitude: 38° 34.950′ S (38.582497° S / 38° 34′ 56.99″ S)
Longitude: 142° 49.306′ E (142.821774° E / 142° 49′ 18.39″ E)
Datum: WGS84 | Google Map
Added: 2021-06-04 14:21:49 GMT, Last updated: 2022-05-23 19:39:46 GMT
Source: Google Earth
Nearest Neighbour: Boat Bay, 577 m, bearing 73°, ENE
Peterborough, Shipwreck Coast.
Depth: 2 to 20 m.

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DISCLAIMER: No claim is made by The Scuba Doctor as to the accuracy of the dive site coordinates listed here. Should anyone decide to use these GPS marks to locate and dive on a site, they do so entirely at their own risk. Always verify against other sources.

The marks come from numerous sources including commercial operators, independent dive clubs, reference works, and active divers. Some are known to be accurate, while others may not be. Some GPS marks may even have come from maps using the AGD66 datum, and thus may need be converted to the WGS84 datum. To distinguish between the possible accuracy of the dive site marks, we've tried to give each mark a source of GPS, Google Earth, or unknown.