This past weekend we had the pleasure of making a visit to Austin Texas where we visited with Roger Vitko of Tunze USA, a ReefBuilders sponsor. Roger let us take a peek at some new and upcoming products as well as the American-made Tunze R.O. unit. It is only recently that Tunze began to build full sized Reverse Osmosis units right here in the U.S. and aside from the black color of the housings, the reusable 20 micron sediment prefilter is a very welcome novel addition to the water purification device. Instead of using a disposable sediment prefilter the Tunze R.O. is loaded with a 5 micron carbon block followed by a 0.5 micron carbon block which will not only trap particles smaller than 20 microns, but the extra carbon block should also add some extra security to chlorine-sensitive reverse osmosis membranes. The reusable 20 micron sediment prefilter comes standard with every 50 gpd R.O. unit but it is also available separately. For just a buck over the nominal retail price of a typical disposable 5 micron sediment prefilter you can get the reusable prefilter from the Tunze parts store for only $11. This add-on can either greatly reduce the replacement rate of your sediment cartridges or eliminate them altogether if you consider the 5 micron/0.5 micron carbon block strategy that is standard on the Tunze R.O. Huge thanks to Roger and Tunze USA for the hospitality and as expected, follow the break for many more shots of this interesting new device.
