What a plumber told me.

[seafan]

I called in my plumber yesterday to add an adapter to my faucet near my aquarium. He noticed the big bulky RO unit I have under the sink, and he told me, you don't want one of those. He said that 99% of what is filtered in an RO unit is filtered in the first stage and by adding more stages it will just mean more maintenance. Well I was shocked, I bought this expensive 5-stage unit to filter my aquarium water and he says it is unnecessary. I thought about it and it makes sense if the particles and chemicals don't get through the first stage, what are the other four there for? He actually demonstrated that filtered water from my RO unit has a TDS of 2. While water from a single stage has a TDS of 3. I don't know what to say, but I'm still keeping my unit until I know that it is safe. What do you think?

P.S The single stage Unit is called *Eagle Spring*.

 

[MarineFlake]

You should test for other things if you want to prove a point..silicates, phos, etc. I would find it hard to believe the first stage, which is essentially a simple cloth/fiber filter, would cover everything. In fact, I suspect it catches very little of other things we try to avoid as well. Your specs should show .5 micron or so carbon filter. How could a simple cloth/fiber filter catch particles that small?

My thoughts,
GL

 

[seafan]

No it is a carbon filter, a one stage carbon/sediment filter.

 

[seafan]

It has a 5 micron filter which is good, but you can get a 1 micron filter for other RO units. Click here to see details of the one stage unit. (requires winword). All in all it is probably fine to get a two stage RO unit, or to go all out and get the five stage.