RODI Recommendation.

I'm moving soon, and not taking my current RODI unit with me. I know a lot of people on here swear by Spectrapure, but I live in Canada so the extra cost of shipping (they use UPS to ship, and I will be killed on brokerage fees alone) makes them cost prohibitive for me.

I'm looking at other brands that are available on a Canadian on-line aquarium store, and I'm wondering if anyone has any experience or recommendations on the following brands:

Aqua FX Barracuda 4 Stage Reverse Osmosis/Deionization Filter - 100 GPD

Kent Marine Maxxima Hi-S RO/DI (Reverse Osmosis/Deionization) Filter - 60 GPD

Vertex Puratek Reverse Osmosis/Deionization (RO/DI) Filter - 100GPD

Those are the three main options I am considering from that site. I'm open to other brands as well. I do have the option of having a unit purchased in the US shipped to a mail receiving service in Niagara Falls NY, and then picking it up myself. There's just obviously more inconvenience associated with that.

 

The only one close to the same league as the Spectrapure units is the Kent and it is overpriced and much lower GPD.
The Vertex are very shoddy and receive a lot of quality complaints and the Aqua FX might be worth looking at if and only if they do not use the Dow Filmtec 100 GPD membrane. If its a GE membrane its OK but the 100 GPD Dow is only 90% efficient compared to 96-98% for the GE 100 or the 75 GPD Dow.
Have you talked to Spectrapure to see if they have a dealer network in Canada? I guarantee it will be worth the wait of extra cost. They are the only manufacturer or vendor that bench tests their RO membranes and mixes all their own DI resins for reef specific duty. It really makes a difference.

 

Thanks for the input. I e-mailed Spectrapure, and they seem great to deal with.

If they are that much better than anyone else, I'll go with them. I just wanted to get a sense of the quality difference before I made shipping arrangements.

 

I know nothing of their quality but I had to say that your avatar pic is epic! Maybe I should make a Sharks sweater like that when we get knocked out of the playoffs this year.

What Year is that sweater? I don't remember the home colors having the bands on the bottom of the torso.

 

I'm not sure what year it is to be honest. Just another variation on the shirt so that they can squeeze even more dollars out of the hockey loving public. LOL

 

I have a Coralife 50GPD system right now, just measured with a TDS meter yesterday and I'm getting 99% efficiency right now out of my system.

 

Is that 99% after RO or after RO/DI? It should be 96-98% with RO only and 99.99% or better with RO/DI. Any RO/DI system should get you 0 indicated TDS at least fora little while. the true measure of quality is when the RO membrane exceeds 99% rejection or removal efficiency and stays that way for years.
Most people neglect to test their RO only efficiency and thats a critical number you need to determine how well the system is working, how long your DI resin is going to last and what condition the membrane is in. Without testing the RO only you may just be throwing DI resin away propping up a poorly perfroming membrane. You need to know tap water TDS, RO only TDS and RO/DI TDS. If you have multiple DI cartridges you need to know what each is producing seperately.
Using my system as an example my tap TDS is 820, the RO only TDS is 5.2 last I checked. Thats 99.365% rejection or removal efficiency with RO only. Both DI cartridges read 0 TDS so overall efficiency is somewhere over 99.99% since I cannot even get a TDS down in the tenths with my COM-100 handheld. Last time I borrowed a benchtop resistivity meter is was like 18.2 megaohms resistivity which is about as pure as it gets.

 

AZdesertRat...what do you think of the aquaticlife power units

AquaticLife LLC | Premium Marine Aquarium Products

 

After some issues with my Coralife Pro lighting fixture relating to overall build quality, I'm a bit leery of that brand.

 

The Aquaticlife units are similar to the Vertex and will not last long in higher than normal TDS or hard waters. You cannot cut the waste ratio or brine line below 3:1 or 4:1 and have any membrane life unless you do as Spectrapure has done with the UHE which uses DI water to flush and pickle or store the membrane. I would say the Aquaticlife is more thought out than the Vertex but everything being concealed concerns me. Water and electricity are not a good mix even with DC power and having the pump down in the bottom of the enclosure, even with a leak alarm is a potential hazard. What if you are not home to hear or see the alarm an water gets into the pump? Hopefully its on a GFCI circuit and it trips but what if it isn't? I prefer the pump and solenoids up top where I can see them and water drips down not up on to the pump, controller or power supply.
I also have other concerns like what brand and micron ranges are the filters and membrane? I do see the power unit uses a 1 micron prefilte rbut thats all I see. I use a 0.2 micron absolute rated prefilter on my powered unit along with a 0.5 micron Chlorine Guzzler carbon block and the vendor tells me so. No secrets no surprises.