Inline TDS meters are not as accurate nor can they be used portable so you are stuck with two monitoring points. A good handheld is worth its weight in gold.
Filters Direct is Water General on ebay and thats exactly what you get, a mediocre ebay quality system suited for drinking water and not a true reef quality system with low micron filters, a tested RO membrane and a 20 oz vertical DI filte rfilled with fresh reef specific DI resin. You really do get what you pay for with RO/DI and cheap is not where you want to be.
I don't work for any RO vendor or manufacturer but I have owned many units over the last 20 years and am a water treatment professional with 37 years experience so have more than a little experience with all of the components and manufacturers on the market. I have personally helped many many other reefers completely rebuild Filters Direct units so they do what they are supposed to which should not have to happen. There is no comparison, just look at each components description yourself and make up your own mind.
Inline TDS meters are not as accurate nor can they be used portable so you are stuck with two monitoring points. A good handheld is worth its weight in gold.
Filters Direct is Water General on ebay and thats exactly what you get, a mediocre ebay quality system suited for drinking water and not a true reef quality system with low micron filters, a tested RO membrane and a 20 oz vertical DI filte rfilled with fresh reef specific DI resin. You really do get what you pay for with RO/DI and cheap is not where you want to be.
I don't work for any RO vendor or manufacturer but I have owned many units over the last 20 years and am a water treatment professional with 37 years experience so have more than a little experience with all of the components and manufacturers on the market. I have personally helped many many other reefers completely rebuild Filters Direct units so they do what they are supposed to which should not have to happen. There is no comparison, just look at each components description yourself and make up your own mind.
Even though AZ and I differ on the most superior unit, he knows his sh** and his feedback is always quality...
Even though AZ and I differ on the most superior unit, he knows his sh** and his feedback is always quality...
I agree he does give solid advice.Although water general is not the only ro on ebay spectrapure ro systems | eBay
I have had no issues with the filters or equipment from filter direct and am very satisfied with it
LOL
I could proobably find a Rolls Royce or Ferrari on ebay if I looked.
The point is the "Typical"ebay RO/DI systems are a far cry from reef quality systems.
Again, compare them to a quality system component by component and the differences are very obvious.
Just for startes you will not find a 0.5 micron absolute rated sediment filter on one, probably not a 1.0 micron filter even. You do not find 0.5 micron, 20,000 gallon carnon blocks on them, nor will you find a specially treated and hand tested RO membrane. Many of the ebay systems still either do not even tell you what you are getting by brand and model number or the sel you a 100 GPD Dow Filmtec 90% efficient nano filter not even a RO membrane. Msot use low efficiency, very very inexpensive horizontal hollow tubes and call them DI filters as oppsoed to a real reef system that uses the industry standard 10" vertical canister with a refillable 20 oz cartridge inside.
Most ebay systems do not come with an inline pessure gauge nor do they use the more efficient capillary tube flow restrictors. Many still use the old style compression fittings rather than the much better speed fittings. The differences go on and on and Like I say, pull up the specs on a good name brand RO/DI and one of the many ebay varieties and you really egin to see the differences.
The key to the whole issue is water quality and cost of ownership. With the ebay system you may pay a little less up front but the long term cost is more while with a better system, the initial cost may be a little more but it saves you in the long run with extended filter and membrane life. Sort of a pay me now or pay me later sitation. I keep my tools, and an RO/DI to me is a fine tool, for years so I choose to invest in a good one that lasts a lifetime and returns my investment over and over.
I never slamed your brand guy.Relax alittle. evryone knows you like the spectrapure line. Personaly I really don't know why I try to add anything in a thread that has to do with R/O's becuse your going to write a novel about how evrything s#$ks but spectrapure.I've been reefing for 23 years( and yes I know you;ve been a water guy for 37 years) and the truth is we use to keep nice tanks with just plain old tap water in the old day's.Everyone has the right to an opinon,even if it's diffrent then yours.I keep a zero tds just fine with my unapproved RO tho.Larry hope ya like the new RO guy !!
I never slamed your brand guy.Relax alittle. evryone knows you like the spectrapure line. Personaly I really don't know why I try to add anything in a thread that has to do with R/O's becuse your going to write a novel about how evrything s#$ks but spectrapure.I've been reefing for 23 years( and yes I know you;ve been a water guy for 37 years) and the truth is we use to keep nice tanks with just plain old tap water in the old day's.Everyone has the right to an opinon,even if it's diffrent then yours.I keep a zero tds just fine with my unapproved RO tho.Larry hope ya like the new RO guy !!
AZ is a seasoned vet in this category..no doubt he has found what he prefers, and we can respect that. I can also respect the fact that there are many others companies putting together units that deliver the same results. This topic can go on for days...
End of the day, buy what YOU want with the knowledge you get, monitor, gauge, replace.
We prefer AquaFX, others prefer SpectraPure and so on...
I have learned alot from AZ and have used it to better my knowledge for sales, in return, makes the consumer better off.
I still stand behind my company...but value his knowledge.
The reason I believe in Spectrapure products is 9 years of testing in my own home has proven to me, they are not all the same, nor do they produce the same results. I have owned several other name brand systems and was fortunate enough to be able to test them side by side with the MaxCap and there really are significant differences. The differences amount to a huge cost savings and better water quality.
The biggest difference I have found is in the DI life, it is amazing. Compared to my old Typhoon III, which is an above average system itself and very popular, the DI life with no other changes whatsoever was 5.5 times greater on the very first DI cartridge that came with the Spectrapuer system and 6.7 times one the next several cartridges. I even tried different brands of DI resins from Resin Depot and other trusted sources in the Typhoon and it made little difference.
I have yet to replace a Spectrapure RO membrane in any of my 3 systems and with the Watts Premier, AWI and H2o Splash systems I get 18 months to 36 months maximum when using their suggested replacement filters, again no other changes and the same source water.
What these amount to are significant cost savings to the end user, no hype, no bogus claims and no BS, just money in your pocket. Higher quality, lower micron filters filter better making the components downstream last longer and work better, saving you money in the process. Its really as simple as that and it works.
I will continue to run systems side by side for comparison, its a fun project and helps me to understand why some things work better than others.
AZ is the one who influenced me to go with the Sprectrapure DI resin and his claims are accurate. I get far more volume from that resin than I did with others available.
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Originally Posted by AZDesertRat
Hi my name is Larry and I'm a coral addict! 
