You don't strictly need ECC RAM to run ZFS any more than you do when running other filesystems, the issues that comes with a bad stick of RAM will just become m

You don't strictly need ECC RAM to run ZFS any more than you do when running other filesystems, the issues that comes with a bad stick of RAM will just become more obvious which is not a bad thing. It's just assumed that if you run ZFS you do care about getting the same data out that you put in, so it's highly recommended. Bottom line is, ZFS without ECC isn't worse than other filesystems without ECC.