FSA GT1-70DIALK - RO Unit

[s1l3nt]

Hi all,
I recently won the FSA RO unit through one of the competitions here on our forum and have promised to do a short write up/review of the product :) However, there is a bit of a delay as I had a bad start to the year health wise so have not felt like doing anything really haha. Feeling mostly better now so here is my short review of a fantastic product! :)

Here is a link to the exact model I got from FSA:
https://www.filtersystemsaustralia.com/store/index.php/reverse-osmosis-water-filter/aquarium-systems/aquarium-alkaline-drinking-water-combo-r-o-filter-system-di-resin-1-70dialk.html

Firstly, I opted to go with the GT1-70DIALK which is the normal aquarium RO filter system but comes with an included attachment for drinking water because my family doesn't like the taste of the tap water so I figured two birds with one stone! No regrets so far. 

I'll start with the drinking water section, basically the water tastes much "fresher" than the tap water. PH comes out at 7 with a TDS of about 50 from memory (been a while since i set it up and tested, sorry), compared to 7.4ph and 80-100 TDS from the tap. I didn't do any further tests beyond this, and even those were just for fun really...

Next up, the thing you actually care about! :D The aquarium RO section! 

My water to begin with is pretty good, however I wanted to have the ability to adjust pH easily and control TDS in different tanks. i.e. ~100-150TDS in my shrimp tanks, ~50-100 TDS in Dwarf Cichlid tanks, and so on. I will be doing this using Salty Shrimp GH+ minerals for now, but I do plan to use JayC's DIY re-mineralisation mix which he has posted up for us on the forum here. TDS coming out of the RO unit is always 0, with a ph of 7-7.2, gh/kh of 0 so easy to adjust up/down, etc. Airating the drum for a few hours brings the ph down to low 6, and if i drip the water through a handful of peat in a cup I can get the ph down to 5.8 while it fills up while the TDS remains < 5 with gh/kh of 0. I use the straight RO for the shrimp, and peat filtered for apistos. Both are remineralised to desired TDS using Salty Shrimp GH+.

The FSA unit is quite easy to set up, and is literally plug and play which is fantastic as I was worried about set up especially since I live in a rental property so was not keen on messing with plumbing and so on. It comes with several attachments to connect to a tap, laundry tap, outdoor tap, etc. I keep mine in the laundry as this is where my breeding rack is. It was quite easy to set up, I had to use one of the adapters to get it to connect to my faucet in the laundry properly but this was not a problem.

NOTE: There is a small bag which comes with an o ring or two (cant remember exactly) which needs to be inserted into the adapter prior to connecting to the tap. I did not see this initially and had water leaking through the connection, easy fix and my fault entirely for rushing setup (I was keen to get it going!).

My tap in the laundry has a temp of approx 24 degrees most of the time (no hot water line in there) and I get approx 10L of good RO water per hour with a waste ratio of approx 1:1 or so last time i measured it (first 2-3 uses only). At the moment i just let the waste water run down the sink but I plan to hook it up to the washing machine or something eventually so it isn't wasting so much water. Haven't had the time/ability to work this out yet though.

It is very easy to use and overall a great quality product, it is stable on its "feet" and so on. It sits on my washing machine which would move a fair bit when on, but it hasn't budged yet haha. (knock on wood i dont jynx myself now!). The taps in the above photo are set to release aquarium water but not drinking water, you cannot have both on at the same time (i assume this would cause issues as stated in the info booklet). When the blue tap is pointing in the direction of the tubing then that is the one that will release water.

NOTE: One more thing that took me a bit of time and some questioning (and youtube watching) was getting the grey plug off... There is a small circle which you must press down with one finger (finger nail really) and then pull the plug out. It is quite easy once you know how to do it, before that was not quite easy to figure out having not used RO unit before! haha. I'll get a few photos of the process if anyone needs it! Also don't forget to let all the water run out of the tubing before putting the plug back in to prevent bacteria build up in the tubing.

I have only one recommendation for FSA which is to add a little more info on the specs, etc on the website. At the moment it seems to be fairly generalised info between the different RO units which made it hard to figure out the exact details of the model, etc. Apart from that the unit is fantastic and I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants one. They are well priced and do a great job.

Thanks for reading and I hope you find the information useful! Sorry about the lack of photos but that really shows how easy it is to set up and use! 

@NoGi - Feel free to pass on my review link to the guys over at FSA :)

Edited January 18, 2016 by s1l3nt

[NoGi]

Awesome work. @Filter Systems Australia love to read about good experiences people have with their products.