Tap vs RO water

I have been throwing around the idea of buying RODI unit. I have looked at several online. I also found a 50 gallon per day Coralife RO unit at a lfs on sale for 100 bucks. Ive got a couple of questions. First my water straight from the tap with salt mix and dechlor added measures .15-.25ppm phosphates. Is this an unacceptable amount? Second I have been looking at an RODI unit on Ebay. It is really cheap compared to other units Ive seen. Anybody know anything about the companies selling these new RODI units on Ebay? Thanks

 

I would not recommend tap water. Phosphates you want to be 0 because they cause algae issues. Also, there could be dissolved minerals in the water that you are unaware of. I am not sure about the RO/DI units on ebay but spectrapure has good deals on units and they are running a 2010 blowout sale until 12/31/10. spectrapure.com

 

Not even close to acceptable. Something like 0.05ppm might be acceptable.

There's really no comparison between tap v. RODI. The debate was long ago; the results are proven.

I wouldn't buy an eBay unit, unless you're willing to immediately replace all the filters with high quality filters, as a unit is only as good as the filters which are in it.

Like most things in this hobby, pay a little more now, and you'll pay a little less in the end.

 

The Coralife 50 gallon per day RO unit I mentioned....would this be a good unit to buy? It was marked $180 regularly down to $100.

 

I had the 24gpd version of that CoraLife unit (which, BTW, isn't RODI; it's RO only), and it was a piece of garbage.

I upgraded to a Spectrapure MaxCap, and I love it. Over 350 gallons so far thorough the unit, and still the resin is good (longer lasting than other resins, by a long way).

The eBay units are even worse than the Coralife. Be warned.

 

I have a 4 stage unit from BulkReefSupply. I get 0 ppm and the prices are nice.

 

SpectraPure is having a holiday sale: Untitled Document

I have their 90gpd model, love it, easy & efficient.

 

Just purchased this one Friday...
Aquarium Water | Reverse Osmosis | RODI Water | ReefKeeper Water | Typhoon 5 stage RODI Reefkeeper 75 GPD

I know a couple people that are using it, as well as businesses, and they love it!

 

Thats not a bad price at all on that unit. 50 more dollars than the coralife unit i was looking at. Are there any reviews I can look at on the net? The others people are posting on here are way more. I am poor!

 

DO NOT even consider tap water, its a sure recipe for disaster, especially if you have phosphates present. Your water utility probably adds sodium hexametaphosphate or other orthophosphates for corrosion control in the water distribution system.

The Spectrapure RO/DI units are the best money can buy. No other vendor bench tests their RO membranes, custom blends all their DI resins based on thousands of hours of testing or uses absolute rated filters instead of the less expensive nominal rated filters. It really makes a difference.
With RO/DI you get what you pay for and the Coralife units are low quality mass produce units that receive lots of well deserved complaints.

The Typhoon is OK, I used to own a Typhhoon III myself but they do not compare with the CSP-DI or MaxCap units. My Typhoon got me 150 gallons of 0 TDS water per DI cartridge, the MaxCap that replaced it got 830 gallons out of the very first DI cartridge and its been over 1000 gallons per DI ever since, no comparison. Look athe the long term operating cost as well as or instead of the initial purchase price as you will own it for a long time.