Carmie, I actually thought about building one myself, I'm getting pretty darn good at the whole acrylic
DIY thing, but when I explained the project to my wife, she actually made me promise that I would buy one instead of build one, in the off-hand chance the thing might fail and put a few (more) gallons of saltwater on my floor. (You see, this has happened a few times since the inception of the prop system, and I think my wife nearly pulled the plug on the venture the last time such a thing happened.)
As far as brands go, I have been looking mostly at the Korralin and the Knop. Each has its pros and cons but they seem to be extremely well regarded by enthusiasts I have a lot of respect for. We'll be chatting about brands, they will tell me what a good make/model is, and then I'll say something like "how does THAT compare to the Korralin 1502?" And then they say something like... "welllll, yeah, that's not even in the same league, it's a much nicer unit."
Honestly, with the reactor, I don't know what makes one better than the other. Probably quality of materials and quality of manufacturing. For example, in theory, the Coralife probably works very much the same, but the plastic is cheaper and thinner, and the production quality is such that I have read about seams leaking frequently. But hey - it's cheap.
About the only difference I can discern from my untrained eye is some have single chambers and others have duals. And from talking to people who own both, it kinda sounds like a coke vs. pepsi argument to me. Both have advantages and disadvantages. But I can't discern any major difference between the two that would make me choose one over the other, aside from price.
