Does the fuel in your area have a reputation for having problems? Water, particles, contaminants, etc?
The reason I ask is that despite all the discussions on boating forums about fuel filtration and special setups and so on, the vast majority of boaters seem to go along for decades with basic two-stage filtration, a primary and secondary, with zero, zip, nada problems. I know a fair number of boaters in our marina now and none of them are running anything other than the "normal" filter setup.
Now the fuel in our marina, and I gather in most of them in this region, is very good. There's a high turnover of fuel so it doesn't sit around very long, the fuel docks all have newish tanks due to the tightening restrictions on underground fuel tanks in this area that has caused many of them, including our supplier, to install new tanks. Given the huge number of boaters in this region, I'm sure there are some who have experienced fuel problems. But of all the causes of breakdowns, tows, etc. I've heard or read about, none of them quoted bad fuel as being the cause. I mean bad fuel from the pump.
A boat with a ton of gunk built up in its tanks that manages to get into the lines and clog things is another matter, of course. But if one's tanks are in good shape, engine stoppage due to bad fuel seems to be a non-issue in this area.
So unless your area has problems with bad fuel from the pump, or your boat has old fuel tanks or tanks in which fuel sat for a few years or has managed to get a lot of gunc and crud and water in the tanks, I would think the standard primary-secondary filter setup would work as well for you as it does for most everyone else.
The Algae-X unit you have does nothing, so the boat has been operating with whatever primary-secondary filter setup it's got now. There's nothing wrong with extra protection, but since there are enough expenses associated with owning a boat already, adding another one that may not be needed might be worth re-thinking.
-- Edited by Marin on Monday 13th of September 2010 02:25:21 PM