ebay water filtration?
- Thread starter 7808
- Start date
kdblove_99
New member
I would check with RC sponsors! great customer service.
AZDesertRat
In Memoriam
With the ebay units you get what you pay for and thats not good.
You will find some use off brand Chinese clone membranes and filters as well as plastic parts like housings and fittings. there are numerous reports of failures causing floods and rarely do you see a good report.
Stick with a known source and for just a little more you will get a quality system with everything you need and will both last and give you good water quality. $150 is about the bare minimum for a RO/DI with a pressure gauge, TDS meter and vertical refillable DI. Any less and you are getting inferior filters, no TDS meter, small low capacity horizontal DI, no DI, no RO bypass valve etc.
You will find some use off brand Chinese clone membranes and filters as well as plastic parts like housings and fittings. there are numerous reports of failures causing floods and rarely do you see a good report.
Stick with a known source and for just a little more you will get a quality system with everything you need and will both last and give you good water quality. $150 is about the bare minimum for a RO/DI with a pressure gauge, TDS meter and vertical refillable DI. Any less and you are getting inferior filters, no TDS meter, small low capacity horizontal DI, no DI, no RO bypass valve etc.
OnlyCrimson
New member
I have an ebay unit. No complaints. Dropped the tds from 120 or so down to 3. I added a DI housing from bulkreefsupply and the tds runs 0 now.
AZDesertRat
In Memoriam
Quite the opposite.
Take a look at the ads. Notice things like math that does not add up? They make claims like 98% removal but then use numbers like 300 TDS incoming and 15 TDS after RO, thats not 98% in my math class. Notice thngs like large micron rated prefilters which ar about as effective as a screen door, granular activated carbon which has no place in a reef water system due to its short 300 total gallon life span, little horizontal hollow tubes with 6 or 9 oz of outdated resin ........
You get what you pay for.
Take a look at the ads. Notice things like math that does not add up? They make claims like 98% removal but then use numbers like 300 TDS incoming and 15 TDS after RO, thats not 98% in my math class. Notice thngs like large micron rated prefilters which ar about as effective as a screen door, granular activated carbon which has no place in a reef water system due to its short 300 total gallon life span, little horizontal hollow tubes with 6 or 9 oz of outdated resin ........
You get what you pay for.
SpSFreakFix
New member
Well regaurdless my water general does an awesome job. Ill let you pay the big bucks for your ro/di while my cheap 6 stage does as good if not better.
AZDesertRat
In Memoriam
Does you RO take tap water TDS from 835 to 5.3 with RO only? I seriously doubt it. Like I said you get what you pay for and unless you have ever seen good and bad units side by side for comparison you have no way of knowing the difference. There is a difference. Quality varies tremendously and there are some very unscruptulous vendors on e-bay who don't give 2 cents about you or your reef, they made their buck on their Chinese junk and are laughing all the way to the bank. Its sad but true.
AZDesertRat
In Memoriam
0 TDS is not 0 TDS and initial investment versus long term investment are two different things. The longevity of thing like membranes and DI resins are a big issue with cheap units using cheap filters. With good units its not unheard of to have a membrane last 9 or 10 years or DI cartridges that outlast others by 4 or 5 times or more.
I thought the same thing at one time but after buying a Spectrapure MaxCap system I can say from personal experience there is no comparison and I have log books with tons of data collected over the last two years to back it up. I recouped the cost difference in the first 6 months and it was paying me after 18 months. Its a case of pay me now or pay me later.
Take a look at the sticky posts at the top of the Spectrapure Sponsors Forum for more information on both 0 TDS and on the differences between various components and filters.
Again, you get what you pay for.
I thought the same thing at one time but after buying a Spectrapure MaxCap system I can say from personal experience there is no comparison and I have log books with tons of data collected over the last two years to back it up. I recouped the cost difference in the first 6 months and it was paying me after 18 months. Its a case of pay me now or pay me later.
Take a look at the sticky posts at the top of the Spectrapure Sponsors Forum for more information on both 0 TDS and on the differences between various components and filters.
Again, you get what you pay for.
carlso63
Reefkeeping since 1977
Re: ebay water filtration?
Instead of arguing back and forth I am actually going to give you some unbiased advice...
First, before you buy anything, have your tap water tested for the TDS (total dissolved solids) level... any decent Marine LFS can do this for you, usually for free... make sure you bring them a water sample that came straight from your tap and that the container you put it in was not dirty or contaminated or recently cleaned with soap, things like that.
Now, the TDS reading can help determine the level of equipment you would need to achieve the desired (0 TDS) readings and the minimum you could "get away with"...
If your TDS test shows a high level of dissolved materials in your tap, then you will need to spend the money and buy a higher end unit as the cheaper ones don't have the capacity to remove all the solids nor do they have the quality to remove high amounts of solids long-term.
IMO, a "high" level TDS is anything above 250 - 300 PPM. The 800 - 1200 PPM that AZ DesertRat mentioned is really, really high... if you tried a cheap eBay type unit on his water it probably wouldn't last more than a few gallons before everything started to go downhill...
However, if you have a lower tap TDS IMO you can choose "to get away with" using a cheaper unit:
This is the unit I have... it is one of those eBay units, and it cost around $100... I have had it for about 17 months now. I changed out the prefilters after a year and the DI resin just last week, when I used it to fill my new 225 tank. It should be noted that the original resin was giving me an output TDS that had risen to 2 ppm from 0 ppm at the time; I could have left it in until the TDS went up to maybe 5 ppm, but I chose to change them out as I wanted that 0 ppm for the new tank fillup...It also should be noted that the DI cartridges on my unit were originally mounted horizontally above the RO membrane; it was a simple thing for me to reorient them to vertical as the horizontal layout of the DI is not nearly as efficient as a vertical one.
Now, my tap TDS measures around 200 - 220 ppm, depending on time of year. On this day the input tap TDS was at 202 ppm:
And here was the output TDS:
Now, for the record, I also have a handheld meter that I use to verify the numbers (it's just easier to shoot a pic of the numbers with this meter) and I have had it verified by a few local club members who checked it with their own meters as they
themselves were skeptical of the eBay unit's capacity...
I would also add that I have not had any problems with leakage or poor quality fittings, clogging filters, etc on my unit. I can't say that means all cheaper units don't have any quality issues; it just means that after 17 months mine hasn't had a single problem...
And, as far as "0 TDS being / not being 0 TDS" I think Rats point is that your "0" reading may not stay at zero for long... and I agree with that... if....IF.... you start off with a high tap TDS. In that situation you have no other choice but to go with a higher capacity unit. But my own experience has shown me that IF you have a lower tap water TDS then you certainly can choose to go with a lower budget unit and still get the desired result.
So, IMO, the most important thing is to have your water tested first...
Hope this helps.
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12479817#post12479817 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by 7808
im lookin for a low cost alternative to buying RO water in gallons at the store like i have been, ive seen a few (new) systems on ebay under $100 even under 50 (not including shipping) can anyone point me to a known good working cheap one?
Instead of arguing back and forth I am actually going to give you some unbiased advice...
First, before you buy anything, have your tap water tested for the TDS (total dissolved solids) level... any decent Marine LFS can do this for you, usually for free... make sure you bring them a water sample that came straight from your tap and that the container you put it in was not dirty or contaminated or recently cleaned with soap, things like that.
Now, the TDS reading can help determine the level of equipment you would need to achieve the desired (0 TDS) readings and the minimum you could "get away with"...
If your TDS test shows a high level of dissolved materials in your tap, then you will need to spend the money and buy a higher end unit as the cheaper ones don't have the capacity to remove all the solids nor do they have the quality to remove high amounts of solids long-term.
IMO, a "high" level TDS is anything above 250 - 300 PPM. The 800 - 1200 PPM that AZ DesertRat mentioned is really, really high... if you tried a cheap eBay type unit on his water it probably wouldn't last more than a few gallons before everything started to go downhill...
However, if you have a lower tap TDS IMO you can choose "to get away with" using a cheaper unit:
This is the unit I have... it is one of those eBay units, and it cost around $100... I have had it for about 17 months now. I changed out the prefilters after a year and the DI resin just last week, when I used it to fill my new 225 tank. It should be noted that the original resin was giving me an output TDS that had risen to 2 ppm from 0 ppm at the time; I could have left it in until the TDS went up to maybe 5 ppm, but I chose to change them out as I wanted that 0 ppm for the new tank fillup...It also should be noted that the DI cartridges on my unit were originally mounted horizontally above the RO membrane; it was a simple thing for me to reorient them to vertical as the horizontal layout of the DI is not nearly as efficient as a vertical one.
Now, my tap TDS measures around 200 - 220 ppm, depending on time of year. On this day the input tap TDS was at 202 ppm:
And here was the output TDS:
Now, for the record, I also have a handheld meter that I use to verify the numbers (it's just easier to shoot a pic of the numbers with this meter) and I have had it verified by a few local club members who checked it with their own meters as they
themselves were skeptical of the eBay unit's capacity...
I would also add that I have not had any problems with leakage or poor quality fittings, clogging filters, etc on my unit. I can't say that means all cheaper units don't have any quality issues; it just means that after 17 months mine hasn't had a single problem...
And, as far as "0 TDS being / not being 0 TDS" I think Rats point is that your "0" reading may not stay at zero for long... and I agree with that... if....IF.... you start off with a high tap TDS. In that situation you have no other choice but to go with a higher capacity unit. But my own experience has shown me that IF you have a lower tap water TDS then you certainly can choose to go with a lower budget unit and still get the desired result.
So, IMO, the most important thing is to have your water tested first...
Hope this helps.
Radioheadx14
Active member
I have a water general system and I have initial TDS of 800+ and it gets it down to about 8tds... the only thing I changed was I put a spectra pure DI filter and the built in TDS reads 0. and I changed the sediment filters to 1 micron and .5 micron
pdelcast
New member
My system from Bulk Reef Supply is OUTSTANDING.
www.bulkreefsupply.com
I don't work for them, just like their product.
www.bulkreefsupply.com
I don't work for them, just like their product.
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