Gotta say that tip for that e-bay seller is A++, especially because the shipping is free and there is no duty (that is where e-bay can get ya). I hope he will still be selling in a year or so when I have enough money to set up a bigger system.....maybe I will ask for this for my birthday :).

I have another question for anyone who is following this...
GlobalDesigns let me know about the water here in calgary and told me that all I need is a RO unit. Is there such a thing as a simple/cheap "1 stage" RO unit that would work well but be inexpensive?

How would something like this work...
http://www.bigalsonline.com/Fish_Hi-...tml?tc=default
I am just trying to research all my options before I add water to my system.

You could use that, it's essentially a DI unit. You can also recharge them (really messy). Your water is pretty high in TDS, so you'd have to recharge more often than say, me, but it would work. But, that price is already half way to the ebay one....

ebay price on that particular RO system is alot cheaper than their web site price. nearly 50% when taking the the free shipping into consideration.

I have my eyes on those RO system for awhile, and just couldn't spend that kinda of money on water purification. Even though I should have buy few less coral and get the RO first, but, new corals are more exciting.

Looks like I will get installing a RO in a week or so.

The thing with RO is it's like insurance. Sure, maybe tap water is fine. Here in victoria, we're about 7 TDS, really good water. My LFS uses tap water and his corals are nice. But...what if that changes one day? Something contaminates the water, broken main and sludge creeps in and you do a water change and kill all your corals. It can happen. One year in Kelowna, their water was discovered to be contaminated with agriculture runoff, and everyone had to boil water for a month. What if you did your water change then? If I somehow got copper in my water and lost coral, that's thousands of dollars lost. Sure, maybe unlikely, but with everything we work so hard to maintain, do you want to risk it over a hundred bucks?? I know i don't. I bought my unit for a couple hundred bucks 10 years ago, and I figure I got more than my money's worth from it.

Car washes and smaller drug stores often have cheap RO water for sale, seen signs around town before for $1 or $2 for 5 gallons. Not sure how good the quality is and I know car washes don't have high quality RO water but I'm thinking it's way better than the alternative.

With these 7 stage Ro/Di units can you disconnect 1 or 2 of the 2 di stages i am sure you dont need 3 stages of di resin working, or will it last just as long as using each one seperate? also he has 1 for $101. buy now