Ro\di

[Modemagic]

Who has an RO or RO\DI unit in their home??? What brand is it,etc.? I'm looking to purchase one in the near future because I'm lazy and carrying 5 gallon jugs from the LFS does not fall into my lazy ways.

I checked out The Filter Guys, which are quality units from everything I have heard and read, but I don't need anything quite that powerful. Something along the lines of 35gpd would work perfectly.

 

[nielsen2773]

ro/di

ro/di

i bought mine from airwaterandice.com very nice unit and nice priced to check out their web site

 

[jtesdall]

I bought my Kent Hi-S at Fosters and Smith about 10 years ago and it has always worked great.

One of the mederators at reefcentral (Melev) also sells them on his tank site for $169. If nothing else it is nice to see his tank and DIY acrylic projects.
melevsreef dot com/ro_di.html

 

[Modemagic]

I did find this unit on sale:

http://www.purelyh2o.com/product.php?productid=16210&cat=249&page=1

Seems like a good unit. Full RO\DI and comes with a TDS meter as well. Thoughts anyone?

 

[Covey]

Purely has really crumbing service just go read there feedback in there forum.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/f...stpost&sortorder=desc&daysprune=100&x=17&y=11

Person I ordered from them once a minor easy order. They took like 4 days to ship it and played phone tag with them and when that didn't work I posted my issues in the forum. Real quick response then but I got a sobby phone call about saying what I said wasn't far. Boo-hoo charge me put the stuff in a box and ship it that day SIMPLE. There small they take a ton of orders they can't quickily fill and then offer poor service to the customer. Oh yeah getting flamed by Purely RC locals is a really a treat too.

That and there DI resin lasted like 3 weeks.

I never order from them again

On the other hand I order my RO/DI unit from The Filter Guys and have since order 3 other time and the have always done me right. They ship quick, answer there phone, and know what there talking about.

The filter system is really all about the media and my The Filter Guys RO/DI media is top notch. My prefilters are 10 months old now and still working great and I haven't changed the resin in 4 months. You can try one of the cheaper E-bay unit but it really doesn't save you any money if you buy new media every 3 months.

Get the the Ocean wave with the full size DI and pick up a TDS meter if you can.
http://www.thefilterguys.biz/ro_di_systems.htm

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

We are a little biased when it comes to recommending RODI vendors ...

Anyway - I'll encourage you to consider a higher gpd rating on the system you buy. considering the extra convenience of having more water sooner when you need it, and the negligible price difference between units of different capacity - go for the 75 gpd system.

Russ

 

[faylor]

i bought mine from buckeye. Was cost effective and they were cool about working with me to help me with whatever questions i had. Took em three days to get it to iowa. However i cannot comment on the preformance as of yet because ts still int eh box. I havent had time to hook er up.

 

[Modemagic]

Is there a difference between the ones you buy off the internet from 'fish stores' and the ones you buy at the local hardware store?

 

[Buckeye Hydro]

Systems at hardware stores are configured to produce RO water - for drinking. So you're unlikely to see things on these systems like clear housings, pressure gauge, thermometer, small micron prefilters, one or multiple DI stages, high capacity carbon blocks, catalytic GAC for those with chloramines, etc.

Because they are configured to produce drinking water, typically they have very low capacity RO membranes (e.g., 12 gpd or 24 gpd).

One of the other differences, and perhaps maybe just as important: when's the last time you saw someone from your local Ace Hardware on this board? If you we're to tell a salesman from Home Depot that you needed a float for your sump, or that you were concerned about tds creep, or that you needed a tds meter, or that you seemed to go through DI resin too fast - do you think they could help you?

Russ

 

[iaJim]

Got mine from The Filter Guys. Great product, and great service. I don't see how you could go wrong there. I'm sure others sell great products as well.

 

[calebjk]

i am very interested in the difference between hardware store ro/di vs fish fish store ro/di. i would like to see some accurate unbiased data on the subject.
i am inclined in believe that companies see all the money going into the reef hobby and take the opportunity to throw a couple things onto a common product, then tell us we need those things and we should spend 4x more to buy their product.

 

[waverz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9970150#post9970150 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by calebjk
i am very interested in the difference between hardware store ro/di vs fish fish store ro/di. i would like to see some accurate unbiased data on the subject.
i am inclined in believe that companies see all the money going into the reef hobby and take the opportunity to throw a couple things onto a common product, then tell us we need those things and we should spend 4x more to buy their product.

First i would like to see the RODI unit that costs 1/4 of what a regular "reef system" unit costs. I think the guy from Buckeye just explained the biggest differences. Sure you dont "need" all that stuff but then again you "could" just use tap water......i know from experience, in this hobby and most others, you always get what you pay for. If you want to go cheap on one of the most important things your reef tank needs (which is water) go right ahead. I highly doubt there are too many drinking systems that produce 0 TDS water and have all the nice features the others have.

Just my $0.02

 

[calebjk]

so wavers, what research or experiments have you done to come to that conclusion?

 

[Atticus]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9972950#post9972950 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by calebjk
so wavers, what research or experiments have you done to come to that conclusion?

I too agree that Buckeye has explained this situation well. To get consistant 0 TDS water, you need a TDS meter ( in line is nice). To check the status of your filters visually the clear housings are nice. The carbon filter does not need to be clear, but for an extra $10 I like mine... If you want to have an efficient running system that wastes as little water as possible, temp is important to guage and a booster pump is nice if you can afford it.

The hardware store units are designed to produce pottable/ mildly palletable water not the 0 TDS high volume water we use. Our RO system water is so clean it actually tastes dry... House units use carbon polishing filters and allow some TDS pass through to make the water more palletable. House units are also typically rated for 15-25gpd. A good reef system typically is 75gpd and you are looking at 5 gallons every 11/2 - 2 hours at near optimum operation. I know I am not willing to wait 5-6 hours for one 5 gallon jug to fill. Especially not when I could have spent a few extra bucks for the better RO membrane.

In all honesty when I was looking at RO units I looked at upgrading the hardware store version and it is much cheaper to buy it right the first time.

If you want to know my research and background I personally researched units for 6 months before buying my RO/DI unit 7 years ago. I have used many different cartridge combinations and gotten supplies from many of the online vendors. My "experiments" are testing TDS constantly, contacting my local water supply office to get official readings to better choose my cartridges when I found I was dealing with high chloramine content, charting the life of my RO membrane and filters, constantly checking the output of the unit and successfully keeping a 90 reef and 13 clownfish breeding tanks. In other words I ran through approximately 100 gallons of water per week. I also have a Bachelors of Science with special focus on microbiology. If you have any further questions I would be happy to answer them, but I do ask that you phrase your further posts a little more politely. Everyone in this forum has been nothing but friendly and informative. Lets try to keep it that way. Thank you.

 

[matt the fiddler]

the 75 gpd has the best rejection ratio, the cleanest water, and thus the smallest drain on your di beads..
I got an ebay unit, then refilled it after 2 years from the filter guys.

get a big di unit, if you can afford, get 2

 

[calebjk]

Atticus, thank you very much for your post. you have convinced me that you have experimented with an open mind, and throughly done your research.
i am sorry for not taking the time to word my question in a more polite manner. the question would have still been the same though. the "you get what you pay for" line doesn't cut it with me. very much of the stuff in the reef market is drastically overpriced, and while the quality may be good, in my mind it still works out that you get less than what you pay for because you are paying way to much.

wavers, sorry to direct my frustration on the subject at you. the only frustration i have toward you is just trying to figure out what your avatar is.

i really have more to say on the subject of overpriced goods and the fact that people buy them anyway. and i am a business owner, and my customers are businesses. But i will stop my nonsensical talking, i've already taken this thread way off subject.

once again, i apologize for my rudeness.

 

[matt the fiddler]

Oh yea.. 2 more cents..


if you can soften the water before the ro unit.. [i may be wrong on ions] but- the replaced sodium ion is easier for the ro unit to strip off thus better quality, and longer life to your unit...

you also do not need the final carbon stage in the unit, like most 6 stage+ drinking systems have, unless you plan to drink the water.... so dont' buy one with that included.

 

[waverz]

When i bought my unit, i didn't do much for research, i just asked here because people have already tried the "harware store" brands and didnt have good results. Im not gonna disagree with you that there are alot of products that are over priced just because they are "reef freindly" but as far as RO units go I personally don't think that is the case.

BTW:my avatar is a pair of P. Motoro Stingrays i used to have.....

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9973104#post9973104 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Atticus
I too agree that Buckeye has explained this situation well. To get consistant 0 TDS water, you need a TDS meter ( in line is nice). To check the status of your filters visually the clear housings are nice. The carbon filter does not need to be clear, but for an extra $10 I like mine... If you want to have an efficient running system that wastes as little water as possible, temp is important to guage and a booster pump is nice if you can afford it.

The hardware store units are designed to produce pottable/ mildly palletable water not the 0 TDS high volume water we use. Our RO system water is so clean it actually tastes dry... House units use carbon polishing filters and allow some TDS pass through to make the water more palletable. House units are also typically rated for 15-25gpd. A good reef system typically is 75gpd and you are looking at 5 gallons every 11/2 - 2 hours at near optimum operation. I know I am not willing to wait 5-6 hours for one 5 gallon jug to fill. Especially not when I could have spent a few extra bucks for the better RO membrane.

In all honesty when I was looking at RO units I looked at upgrading the hardware store version and it is much cheaper to buy it right the first time.

If you want to know my research and background I personally researched units for 6 months before buying my RO/DI unit 7 years ago. I have used many different cartridge combinations and gotten supplies from many of the online vendors. My "experiments" are testing TDS constantly, contacting my local water supply office to get official readings to better choose my cartridges when I found I was dealing with high chloramine content, charting the life of my RO membrane and filters, constantly checking the output of the unit and successfully keeping a 90 reef and 13 clownfish breeding tanks. In other words I ran through approximately 100 gallons of water per week. I also have a Bachelors of Science with special focus on microbiology. If you have any further questions I would be happy to answer them, but I do ask that you phrase your further posts a little more politely. Everyone in this forum has been nothing but friendly and informative. Lets try to keep it that way. Thank you.

 

[Atticus]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9974184#post9974184 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by calebjk
the "you get what you pay for" line doesn't cut it with me. very much of the stuff in the reef market is drastically overpriced, and while the quality may be good, in my mind it still works out that you get less than what you pay for because you are paying way to much.

This is true in many cases and in most of those cases we have found cheaper alternatives. Good examples are home made buffer and kalkwasser. There are some key items that truely do fall into the you get what you pay for realm though. Examples of this would be calcium reactors and protein skimmers. These items can be DIY, but in most cases they just are not cost effective to reproduce as the acrylic and tools needed to make them are too expensive. You could use PVC instead of the acrylic, but your quality is drastically reduced.

You also must remember that some of the price increase is meant to absorb the fact that these are hobby specific companies. Specificity can mean better quality, but it also means lower customer numbers to meet their overhead of the business. IT is a catch 22 either way...

In short, spending money in key areas of your tank can save you money in the long run. Only cut cost where you can be sure you will not be damaging you tank later. Example, low cost salt throwing off the ionic balance of your tank or low cost RO filter allowing phosphates and nitrates to leach into your tank causing a hair algae bloom and stunted coral growth or death.

 

[Covey]

Haven't been on in a few days.

I can add one more thing to the exchange. I bought the "hardware store" unit when I was just starting out with the reef. A very common unit at the big box stores so I will use it as a example as to why not to buy one.

I got it at Home Depot and it was a GE RO with a drinking water kit for $159. Again made to make drink water. Again thinking as a rookie that 12 GPD was enough. Well all the GPD ratings are under the most ideal conditions so you always get less and less as the prefilters clog. It wasn't much fun running the RO for a week straight to get ahead to do a water change. The rejection rate on the membrane was only 93% vs 98% or more on a reefkeeping RO. What that equal to in my case with my tap water that ended up with 35-20 TDS vs 4 TDS with the Dow Filmtec membrane. What that equals was the hardware store unit when thru DI resin at 5 to 10x the rate of a reefkeeper RO. That ends up being the biggest operating cost to an RO/DI system.

You get what you pay for doesn't apply in my case as when you add up the RO, the add on DI(a must for reef water), and all the extra resin I wasted a purpose built RO/DI was cheaper.

Heck The Filter Guys RO/DI I did buy was less than the hardware store RO.