A New Venture

[BMS]

Hey all,
Recently I've been entertaining the idea of trying my hand at SPS corals. The last time I was involved with reef aquariums of any type was circa 2005, and it's mind blowing how far the hobby / industry has come since then. At that time, I was working for a popular aquarium fish publishing company and had recently put myself through college by servicing aquariums. In those days, however, mostly all of the reef tanks that I was involved with consisted of soft corals, mushrooms, and zooanthids. The handful of SPS corals that I cared for were the easier types (i.e., Porites, Montipora, and Hydnophora etc...).

Fast forward some 16 years and here I am, and here I've been lurking, admiring all of the insanely awesome reef builds and what folks are accomplishing these days with SPS corals. To give you a brief "blast form the past" moment, I remember when coco carbon from Thiel AquaTech was brand new! Yes, I'm old......sorta......

At any rate, while not new to the "hobby" I'm surely quite outdated and very, very rusty. That said, I'd like my first step....or first headlong plunge....to be one in the right direction. So I haven't fully decided on an aquarium size just yet, but I have decided that my first logical step would be one of several common themes in reefkeeping ----- an RO/DI unit.

I'm blessed with pretty good water right out of the tap, but of course it's not perfect---especially for the high demands of a reef aquarium. I do, however, maintain a large number of various cichlids and plan in using the wastewater from the RO/DI unit for their aquariums so I have no intentions of really "wasting" the waste water so to speak.

So, as a first question, what are some thoughts on this RO / DI unit?

Spectrapure MaxCap Performance Plus 100 GPD RODI

MaxCap® Performance Plus OVERVIEW: SpectraPure's new MaxCap® Performance Plus™ 5-Stage Ultra-High-Efficiency Reverse Osmosis / Deionization system is designed to deliver ultrapure water (18.2 megohms) with very low amounts of waste water and significantly reduced operating costs. Designed with...

www.aquariumspecialty.com

Thank you kindly in advance for any information / suggestions you can offer.

Cheers!!
---Brian

 

[jradishness]

So, as a first question, what are some thoughts on this RO / DI unit?

Spectrapure MaxCap Performance Plus 100 GPD RODI

MaxCap® Performance Plus OVERVIEW: SpectraPure's new MaxCap® Performance Plus™ 5-Stage Ultra-High-Efficiency Reverse Osmosis / Deionization system is designed to deliver ultrapure water (18.2 megohms) with very low amounts of waste water and significantly reduced operating costs. Designed with...

www.aquariumspecialty.com

Welcome to R2R!!!

While I don’t use that Spectrapure unit (I use the BRS 7-stage), there are many people on this forum who do use that unit and swear by it. I’m pretty sure it’s just as modular and expandable as the rest.

Good luck with the build!!!

 

[BMS]

Welcome to R2R!!!

While I don’t use that Spectrapure unit (I use the BRS 7-stage), there are many people on this forum who do use that unit and swear by it. I’m pretty sure it’s just as modular and expandable as the rest.

Good luck with the build!!!

Hi jradishness, and thanks for the warm welcome!

How do you like the BRS 7-stage unit? I'm not totally sold on the Spectrapure unit I highlighted above, and am very much just considering a basic 4-stage unit. I can actually use the wastewater for my cichlid breeding projects that I have going, but something keeps telling me that more stages are better. Any thoughts?

Thanks again!
Cheers,
--Brian

 

[jradishness]

I like the seven stage because I like being able to change the different DI beds separately. I run through a lot more anion than cation. It’s honestly probably overkill, but I prefer the added security of always knowing I’m starting with essentially perfect water for mixing salt.

I’d stick with one of these two brands though, as the rest seem to use proprietary and sometimes difficult to find replacement filters. With either of these, as long as you can find media, you’re good.

 

[mdb_talon]

No experience with that unit, but for $600 it better make you breakfast also. Personally i prefer and use a cheap $150 unit. It is less efficient but i use the wastewater in the yard/garden for all but the winter anyway so not too concerned about efficiency. With a couple exceptions all the brands pretty much use the same canisters (standard 10" prefilters, standard ro, and variations of a refillable DI). So as long as you stay away from those that dont it just comes down to how much you value things like automatic flush and those bells and whistles.

 

[BMS]

I like the seven stage because I like being able to change the different DI beds separately. I run through a lot more anion than cation. It’s honestly probably overkill, but I prefer the added security of always knowing I’m starting with essentially perfect water for mixing salt.

I’d stick with one of these two brands though, as the rest seem to use proprietary and sometimes difficult to find replacement filters. With either of these, as long as you can find media, you’re good.

Thanks for your great info, very helpful!

I have both well water and city water, and would like to change the source for the RO unit between both, so maybe the 7-stage unit would be better for me.

I'd like to support BRS, so now I'm leaning toward one of their units. Decisions!!

No experience with that unit, but for $600 it better make you breakfast also. Personally i prefer and use a cheap $150 unit. It is less efficient but i use the wastewater in the yard/garden for all but the winter anyway so not too concerned about efficiency. With a couple exceptions all the brands pretty much use the same canisters (standard 10" prefilters, standard ro, and variations of a refillable DI). So as long as you stay away from those that dont it just comes down to how much you value things like automatic flush and those bells and whistles.

LOL......I know, right!? I admit that I had a bit of sticker shock when I saw the price tag.

I'm with you on the waste water. I have a use for as much as could ever generate. Between my cichlid obsession and my tomatoes I'm sure I would use every drop!

I really am thinking more and more that a unit from BRS is the way to go.

 

[Viva'sReef]

Maybe I'm just a creature of habit but I've always stuck with Spectrapure for my RO/DI needs for the last 20 years of reefkeeping. Not doubting the BRS stuff, I buy from them regularly so it's not a knock on their unit at all. Spectrapure just deals in water purification for the most part so their customer service for anything water related is top notch when you need help or questions answered.