Catalina 63 Cu Ft Aluminum Scuba Tank with Pro Valve

The Catalina 63 Cu Ft Aluminum Scuba Tank with Pro Valve is a 63 cubic foot (9 liter) aluminum cylinder rated to 3000 psi (207 bar), fitted with a K Pro Valve that takes yoke or DIN regulators. Catalina lists it as a primary youth cylinder or an instructional pool cylinder, and that is exactly what its size is built around.

Who this suits

Instructors and dive shops running pool sessions, and families kitting out a junior diver. At 21.7 inches and 26.9 lbs, it is a cylinder a smaller diver can carry to the water and get on their back without help, which is half the battle in a confined-water class.

It also works for an adult who wants a shorter, lighter cylinder for shallow work: shore dives on a house reef, camera dives in the shallows, a training tank that lives in the car.

Skip it if you want one cylinder for everything. Sixty-three cubic feet is a smaller gas supply than a full-size single cylinder, and on a deeper dive that difference comes straight off your bottom time. Buy it for the job Catalina names on the listing, not as a general-purpose tank.

63 cubic feet, 26.9 lbs, 21.7 inches

Those three numbers are the whole reason this tank exists. Sixty-three cubic feet is enough gas for a pool session or a shallow supervised dive with a sensible reserve, and not much more.

The 26.9 lbs matters more than the capacity for the intended user. A young student lifting a cylinder onto a bench, or an instructor moving a stack of them from a store cupboard to a pool deck twice a week, feels every pound. The 21.7 inch height is the other half of that: a shorter cylinder sits higher on a small back instead of banging against the back of the legs.

The diameter is 7.25 inches, so it uses the same tank bands and BCD straps as a standard-diameter aluminum cylinder. Nothing special to buy on the rigging side.

Buoyancy swings 3.5 lbs across a dive

Catalina publishes both ends of the swing: 2.8 lbs negative when full, 0.7 lbs positive at 500 psi. That is a 3.5 lb change between the start of the dive and the end of it.

In the water that means weighting for the end of the dive, not the start. A student weighted to sit neutral on a full tank will be fighting to stay down on a safety stop with a nearly empty one, which is the exact moment you least want a struggling diver. Weight them so they hold a stop at 500 psi and the beginning of the dive takes care of itself.

The K Pro Valve and nitrox

The valve accepts a yoke (A-clamp) first stage as it comes, and a 200 bar DIN insert converts it for a DIN regulator. On a shop or school cylinder that is worth real money, because the same tank serves a rental yoke reg and an instructor's own DIN setup without an adapter in the bag.

It carries a multi-ported burst disc plug, the safety fitting that gives over-pressure more than one way out instead of relying on a single port.

Nitrox is listed as compatible up to 40 percent, and the cylinder is nitrox ready as it ships. Pool programs run on air, so this is a feature for later: when that junior diver moves into open water and takes an enriched air course, the tank goes with them.

Aluminum, and how it arrives

The cylinder is aluminum, and Catalina's corrosion row notes that oxidization forms a protective coat on the surface. For a tank that gets rinsed, stacked and left in a damp store room between sessions, a metal that seals its own surface is the sensible choice.

It carries DOT-3AL and TC-3ALM specifications, the US Department of Transportation and Transport Canada standards for aluminum cylinders. Fill stations outside North America may want something else, so check locally before you buy.

The valve ships removed, and the tank needs re-inspection before a fill station will charge it. If it is meant to be in a pool on a set date, order it well ahead of that date.

The bottom line

A well-judged training and youth cylinder: light enough for a small diver to handle, short enough to sit properly on a small back, and specified like a grown-up tank with a convertible valve, nitrox to 40 percent and DOT and TC certification.

The capacity is the whole trade. You are giving up bottom time to gain 21.7 inches and 26.9 lbs, which is a good deal in a pool and a poor one on a deep wall dive. Match it to the diving and it is hard to fault. Also plan around the inspection it needs before its first fill.

Specifications