With such a large selection of RO and RO/DI systems available, it is often difficult to decipher what a hobbyist or an aquarium store needs. Here is how we help our customers pick out what they need. The biggest and most-expensive system is not always the best for every scenario.
1. RO (reverse osmosis) or RO/DI (reverse osmosis / deionization) - If you are setting up a coral reef aquarium, you definitely want the purest water possible. An RO/DI system is the one you want and need.
If you are setting up a saltwater fish-only aquarium, a brackish aquarium, a freshwater aquarium, a planted aquarium or a crystal shrimp aquarium, you will still want clean and purified water. However, 100% pure, zero tds, water is not required, so a RO system is more than sufficient. An RO system will remove approximately 95% of all the impurities from the water and works great for these applications. 
2. Chlorine or Chloramines - all of our systems will remove chlorine efficiently and effectively. However, the standard carbon filters in the RO and RO/DI systems will not remove chloramines. Chloramines is a combination of chlorine and ammonia that is great for water sanitation, but horrible for aquariums. As more and more municipalities are starting to use chloramines for water treatment, you will want to find out if your water is treated with chloramines then choose one of our systems with the Chloramine Blaster Upgrade if it is present in your water supply.
See our Chloramines article for more information!
3. Size (compact, full-size, light-commercial or larger) - we have RO and RO/DI systems that are suitable for any size aquarium or aquariums. If you have just a nano reef or a smaller aquarium less than 50 gallons, our Seahorse RO and RO/DI systems are a great match! They are compact and super affordable.
*please do note that the Seahorse RO and RO/DI systems cannot process chloramines. If you water contains chloramine, you will want to upgrade to one of our full-size systems with the Chloramine Blaster upgrade.
For medium and large size aquariums up to 1000 gallons, you will want a full-sized system. About 80% of our customers fall under this category. The Barracuda Glacial RO/DI is our #1 selling system for a very good reason. It will give you ultra-pure water at a good speed and at a great price!
For the budget-conscious, our Barebones system is great for those that want ultra-pure water without the bells and whistles.
For those that want the top-of-the-line, our Afishionado-Special systems have all the desirable gadgets and the extra filtration stages to give you the cleanest water possible.
If you have an aquarium that is larger than 1,000GPD, have several large aquariums or have a coral farm, you will want to step up to our Blue Fin or Blue Marlin RO/DI systems. These two systems are great for commercial and light-commercial applications. They produce a ton of water fast and have larger (10x4 or 20x2) cartridges and larger RO Membranes that will last much longer than a standard residential system with 10x2 cartridges.
Our 500GPD light-commercial Blue Fin and the Blue Fin PRO 7-Stage systems are perfect for coral farmers, smaller aquarium stores that do not sell water and hobbyists with very large aquariums.
The 1,000GPD Blue Marlin and Blue Marlin PRO are great for aquarium stores that do sell water, maintenance/service companies or larger-scale coral farmers.
For large aquarium stores and commercial coral farmers, we offer our LRO series of commercial systems that can produce up to 11,500GPD!
As our systems are built in-house here in Florida, we can also customize just about any system to fit your exacting needs.
4. Water Pressure - average household water pressure is typically around 60PSI. This water pressure works great for our residential RO and RO/DI systems. As water pressure is required for an RO membrane to work properly, the lower the water pressure the less efficient an RO & RO/DI system will be. If your water pressure is below 45PSI, you will want to select a system with a built-in booster pump (such as our Hammer Head or Barracuda Platinum) or add a booster pump kit or your RO or RO/DI system. For commercial systems, a booster pump is often required as the larger RO membranes require around 100PSI, or higher, to operate efficiently.
We love helping our customers with their water-filtration needs. If you have any questions or need help picking out a system that will be perfect for you, do not hesitate to give us a call at 407-599-2123 or email us at [email protected] !
At AquaFX, we offer Better Filters, Better Service!
