RO FILTERS

[Reefdude]

WHATS WITH THE DIFFERENT STAGES IN A RO UNIT??? WHAT IS A MINIUM NUMBER OF STAGES REQUIRED IN ORDER TO GET CLEAN WATER. IM INTERESTED IN BUYING ONE AND WANNA RESEARCH BEFORE I SPEND THE MONEY. THANKS
BEN

[Tim Marvin]

Ben go to home depot and get a cheap one. Each chamber holds a different filter. Prefilter, carbon, deionization, RO, and so on. Some will have extra carbon or extra resin filters, but I have a GE in my house and it works just as good on those two tanks as the Kent Maxxima Hi-S five stage that I use on the stock tanks in the garage.

[Tim Marvin]

Looks like a pretty good price. I beleive you can get a GE from home depot for $150 with drinking water spout and reserve tank.

[Reefdude]

im just looking for one that i can hook up to this sink when I need to do a water change

[Reefdude]

what does di do and do I need a di filter???
would this work??? the bare bones version i mean?
http://www.aquaticreefsystems.com/discount_reverse_osmosis.htm

[Tim Marvin]

That would work fine. The DI just de-ionizes the water... I'm not too sure it makes much difference. Like I said I have one in the house that is just a GE from home depot and it works fine. I also get a faucet and tank for drinking water. All you really need is: pre-filter, carbon, and RO. These three make the biggest difference.

[Reefdude]

tim,
aren't nitrates and phospates ions.... so wouldnt I need a DI to pull them out of the water??? So what is it exactly that the RO membrane pulls out???

[TexasState]

For Reef tank, you'll want to get a unit that is both RO and DI. If you buy RO alone, you'll still get some phosphate in your filtered water. The DI will do the final polishing to get you very clean water. If they're throwing in a Hanna meter, that's great. Hanna meter are usually $25 to $40 normal retail.

AWI have RO/DI unit on ebay once in awhile for $130. You'll want to get a flush valve($10 extra) and a pressure gauge($6 extra I think.) You'll also want extra valve and T, so that you can devide your water source if you want. I think this same $130 Ebay unit cost $140 on their website.

You can't go wrong with http://www.aquaticreefsystems.com/ (Tell them that you're a ReefCentral.com member, and they'll give you discount.) I bought mine from AquaticReefSystems. I have some broken parts from shipping. Bryan spend money out of his own pocket to send me replacement part w/ next day Fed-ex shipping. I actually had two broken parts, so he spend his own money on next day Fed-ex twice. I told him to save some money and just snail mail it to me by the Postal Service b/c Postal Service are cheaper then next day Fed-EX. He reply back that his Customer Service doesn't work like that. He wanted to make it right to the customer.

http://airwaterice.com/ is OK too. B/c of the law requirement, I think AWI give you a Auto shut off and check valve http://www.aquaticreefsystems.com/autocheck_valve.htm in for free with their unit (normally a $25 values.

Here's a configuration of my RO/DI ( I have RO output on mine to go to a RO storage tank for drinking,) then I have my RO/DI split twice(one to go to straight to the reef tank for automatic water top-off, and the other go into a RO/DI Rubbermaid trashcan.)

http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?s=&postid=683975


You can get the faucet adapter, and turn your RO/DI off/on as needed.

http://www.aquaticreefsystems.com/faucetadaptorphoto.htm

Or you can hook it up under the sink.
http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/attachment.php?s=&postid=524556
Notice the flex hose replacing the hard copper water line. In this situation, you can turn your RO/DI on/off by using a mini Inline ball valve:

http://www.aquaticreefsystems.com/images/inlineballvalve.jpg

I use a $15 Kent Float to turn my RO/DI on and off automatically. You'll need the Auto shut off and check valve to work with the Kent Float.