Thinking about a Neptune Trident -- What's everyone's experience?

[isaacalves]

As work becomes more time consuming I'd like to keep up with my daily testing but maybe an automated tester might be best to keep up with parameters. I need honest reviews of reefers who have relied on this Neptune Trident.

Are used ones worth the money savings?

Thank you,
Isaac

 

[pledosophy]

I have two in my garage that are not hooked up. They are that great.

Was awesome when it worked. That was not long.

 

[isaacalves]

I have two in my garage that are not hooked up. They are that great.

Was awesome when it worked. That was not long.

What actually happened? Did they just stop reading properly or was there mechanical failures?

 

[mchain275]

In my experience, it's useful for monitoring trends, but I have very little confidence in the veracity of the numbers it outputs. The numbers converge with reality for a short time after a calibration when you replace the reagents, but fall out of alignment pretty quickly. That said, the device is very helpful to monitor alkalinity consumption, as increased or decreased readings are indicative of a change, which is a good prompt to adjust dosing.

That's useful, of course, but my unit is very finicky and sometimes fails to calibrate or reports a failed test or other error pretty frequently. At this point, I only use it to monitor alkalinity because it can't successfully perform a calcium test, which prevents it from attempting a magnesium test. I've owned it for a few years at this point; I've sent it in for thorough maintenance one time (you have to pay for the service and shipping both ways) and I've successfully addressed one issue with tech support assistance. Sadly, that's about par for reef equipment.

Overall, three stars out of five from me. I support further development of the tech and did so with my purchase.

 

[Deleted member 20245]

I have 3
- 450gal: semi-working, alk is +3dKH (must be me being cheap and bought ABC reagent vs Neptune's)
- 150gal: unplugged, was clogged and I never bothered fixing it (one of these days...)
- in the garage: used as spare parts!

Well, unless the Maven is much better, it's been somewhat of a challenge for me. The Trident NP was doing great for a year now (closely matching Hanna & ICP); but I recently discovered this week that it's leaking and the results are spitting out zero's.

So... it's peace of mind and I just watch for trend vs absolute values. I double-check and re-adjust via Hanna... more than I care to admit!

btw: from my experience, it was mostly due to clogged tubing from detritus buildout. I use a Dewalt air compressor to clear the lines...

 

[isaacalves]

My worry was that it would turn out to be an added maintenance task in itself that would lead to more anxiety than it's worth.

So far...based on the responses above that may be the case.

 

[k.tran]

Have you looked into the Aquawiz? No reagent testing, been toying around with the idea but would like to see one in person first.

 

[drexel]

I think they missed the mark on testing what's important. You really only need to test alk, N & P with any regularity. Alk being most important. I think test alk once a day and nutrients once a week is more than enough. Hand test calcium and mag maybe once a month, but they rarely need much altering, especially mag. If I had the extra money, I would just get the aquawiz, because there are no reagents to use. Just my two pennies.

 

[Deleted member 20245]

My worry was that it would turn out to be an added maintenance task in itself that would lead to more anxiety than it's worth.

So far...based on the responses above that may be the case.

Yup and testing takes awhile so likely chew up hours easily trying to wait for the re-test. I’ve recalibrated this morning so hope it will stick.

But wait — now my NP is showing all zeros for the first time. I can’t wait to get home from work to tinker with this…lol (not)

 

[Deleted member 20245]

I think they missed the mark on testing what's important. You really only need to test alk, N & P with any regularity. Alk being most important. I think test alk once a day and nutrients once a week is more than enough. Hand test calcium and mag maybe once a month, but they rarely need much altering, especially mag. If I had the extra money, I would just get the aquawiz, because there are no reagents to use. Just my two pennies.

That’s why you’ll need both the Trident & NP. They’ll get to milk you twice in reagents, a subscription model.

I would love to see how the Aquawiz does but it’s only for Alk right? I would need Alk, Ca, NO3, and PO4.

 

[Logan killer]

If you do water change often with the right salt, u can ignore testing unless you need to dose with heavy calc eating coral. I had Nept, ran for half a year, was meh.... Sold it

 

[isaacalves]

If you do water change often with the right salt, u can ignore testing unless you need to dose with heavy calc eating coral. I had Nept, ran for half a year, was meh.... Sold it

I'm at a point where my SPS eat up a lot of alk/calc and trace elements. I enjoy the routine. It's literally only Alk and PO4 that I test about every other day. I was hoping the technology and engineering might have gotten better the last 6-7 yrs.

 

[weelo111]

The Aquawiz is pretty solid - no reagents and tests hourly. Been on par with my Hanna Checkers.

 

[Duckman]

Trident is good for trending alk. Mag is sometimes helpful but calcium for me because i am mostly lps. Trident can be a pain when it may functions or needs maintainence. It’s easier for me now that i printed a trident mini case for it so i could access the internals easily. But everytime it throws a major error is like a 2-3 day process because it tests so slowly

 

[mescobar]

I agree with everything said above, the Trident is good at showing you trends, but you can't take the actual numbers at face value. They fall out of calibration fairly quickly. And the reagents aren't cheap.

My unit is a couple years old, and I had to go through the process of replacing the tubes and pump head to get my failed tests errors to go away. Even now my tests only finish successfully 90% of the time. The machine is quickly turning into yet another thing to maintain. The machine is not quite either, it sounds like a printer, and tests take anywhere from 10-30mins to complete. The calc/mag tests can only be tested together and are often strongly correlated. A dip in calc, usually means an increase of mag and vice/versa, which makes me question the accuracy of the tests altogether.

I have really enjoyed my Trident when I first got it, and felt that it really made me a better reef keeper. I was able to track my numbers to more accurately dial in my daily dosing routine. But overall, I think if your diligent about testing the big parameters once a week at a regular time, you'd be just as successful.

Like others have mentioned, the AquaWiz is really enticing. Testing alk on the hour with no reagents really sounds like the dream, especially as your corals grow and demand more alk. I like the idea of automating the nitrate and phosphate tests, but think that daily test is probably an overkill. I'm okay testing N&P manually once a week for now.

 

[isaacalves]

The Aquawiz is pretty solid - no reagents and tests hourly. Been on par with my Hanna Checkers.

I've been keeping my on the AquaWiz....I've been waiting for it to break into the market a bit more before I started looking at it -- definitely not cheap. And the form factor is a bit 80's Sea Monkey container?

 

[Deleted member 20245]

^^

 

[Deleted member 20245]

The Aquawiz is pretty solid - no reagents and tests hourly. Been on par with my Hanna Checkers.

Really?!$$@ Friends don’t let friends use Trident. You’ve been holding back on us?

Do show your toy and its stats?

 

[k.tran]

I've been keeping my on the AquaWiz....I've been waiting for it to break into the market a bit more before I started looking at it -- definitely not cheap. And the form factor is a bit 80's Sea Monkey container?

It's def not pretty....

 

[Jimbo327]

Trident is decent but it does need some maintaining and uses reagents. The good part is there is ABC reagents so you is cheaper than Neptune. And it also tests calc and mag. If you already have APEX, it's nice that it is integrated into Fusion. I just monitor the trendlines and see if there is any crazy drops/spikes. I think it is a good value if you find an used one that has just been serviced. If you travel or work a lot, any kind of alk monitoring will give you a peace of mind. The Trident form factor sucks, all show very little utility. I plan to 3D print a mini housing for it.

And having trending on alk or calc changes can lead you to start looking for issues. If you suddenly see alk usage is dropping, you most likely have a problem.

Aquawiz looks good too because no reagent, but it is only alk. However, alk is probably the most important and all you need. Calc and Mag usually don't change that much and you can test it weekly. And it is pretty ugly tho. LOL. No costs were invested in the looks.