Thoughts on Trident

[Dorado]

I’ve been contemplating getting a Neptune Trident for a while now and am curious what those of you who have or have had one think about them. Let’s hear the good, the bad and the ugly

 

[pa1ntbru5h]

It works when it works.. that's the best way I can put it. You can get a really good run out of it where it works flawless for months even a year without hiccups, but as soon as there's an issue expect to spend hours/days trying to fix the problem.

Main issue is clogging if you don't replace the reagents in time and it runs dry/clogs the lines

 

[bluemon]

It works when it works.. that's the best way I can put it. You can get a really good run out of it where it works flawless for months even a year without hiccups, but as soon as there's an issue expect to spend hours/days trying to fix the problem.

Main issue is clogging if you don't replace the reagents in time and it runs dry/clogs the lines

Neptune products in a nutshell.

apex when it disconnects from WiFi is the single worst nightmare. Happens sometimes after a reboot, sometimes after a software update, and is never easy to connect it back even if you have a dedicated static WiFi set up for it.

 

[Dutch_Roots]

My experience has been good. Probably a year and a half using it. Alk is usually right in line except for random one off readings. Calcium and magnesium I don’t trust very much though. Those are off a lot more when comparing to Hana testers but not by much. I reference it a lot and gives me a peace of mind if I’m away and something seems off.

I’ve been wondering if anyone has been happy with the N&P trident. Don’t track these levels as closely but would be interested if the N&P is as consistent as the regular trident.

 

[bakbay]

Trident: I have 2 and they are finicky when it comes to Ca and Mg. The alk ready is close to Hanna and usually goes berserk when running out of reagents.

NP: I’ve had it for 2 months, not bad but not good either. Will see how things go in a few months since I just ran out of reagents.

 

[Jimbo327]

The Trident is pretty accurate in my experience. It give you a good reading most of the time. It'll drift when the reagents run low. If you manually test weekly, I don't think you will really need Trident as it is really just a "nice to have". If you just want to not test manually, then yeah, it'll save you some time. It's a gadget that actually works and does what it intends to do. Although, you will have to do more maintenance and reagents refills, so that is some extra work as well for Trident.

As far as the new Trident NP, no idea. Never used it and online feedback is really hit & miss.

 

[drexel]

The only test of value for the trident is alkalinity. Calcium and magnesium never really move that much to cause an issue and they don't need to be tested that often. The trident should have been alk, N & P. Those are the only things of value (besides) trace elements to test. You only need to test Ca and mag once every couple of weeks or maybe just once a month. I personally don't test either, except when I do ICP.
Having said that, if you have an apex and want to test alk and can find a used one, why not? I don't think I would buy a new one though, but that's just me.

 

[mescobar]

apex when it disconnects from WiFi is the single worst nightmare. Happens sometimes after a reboot, sometimes after a software update, and is never easy to connect it back even if you have a dedicated static WiFi set up for it.

I haven't had any bad WiFi experiences with Neptune, although I do appreciate they at least offer an ethernet port for hardline connections (unlike some of the other popular controllers).

My experience has been good. Probably a year and a half using it. Alk is usually right in line except for random one off readings. Calcium and magnesium I don’t trust very much though. Those are off a lot more when comparing to Hana testers but not by much. I reference it a lot and gives me a peace of mind if I’m away and something seems off.

Interesting, I have had nothing but issues with calcium hanna checker, I can't trust the readings at all. If I cross reference trident, its usually with salifert test kit. I do agree with the sentiment that Trident readings tend to drift over time and require recalibration and maintenance.

My Trident is +2/3 years old (pre-owned) and my Alk tests are starting to fail about a 50% rate, every other test reports "Test A Failure". I wish the Trident was better at diagnosing WHY a failure occurred. My Ca/Mg tests look to be fine, although I should double check their accuracy to ensure there isn't a main pump issue. Right now I'm thinking I likely need to replace the valve that corresponds to the alk reagent line and/or try replacing the reagent line.

I also HATE, that there is no easy way (to the best of my knowledge) for the Trident to tell you to replace reagent before it runs out, a reminder would be nice. A test will fail, then tell you that it failed due to low reagents, really annoying.

 

[Sakudo4]

All i hear it's not worth it from many that do have it

 

[Emac909]

Like most have said it’s fine when it works but idk if the price of the unit and maintenance is worth the usage.
Expect to have to send it in for maintenance every to months or if you’re handy you can buy the rebuild kit from Neptune for around $. I had mine for a little over ys and the reading sensor went out so I tossed it. I didn’t even want to deal with Neptune customer service as I’ve had issues with there service

 

[rishma]

I personally find no reason to test magnesium or calcium regularly, I just do an ICP 1-2 times per year. I can predict calcium and magnesium consumption from the alkalinity tests. I add magnesium in proportion to my Kalk, and AFR has magnesium in it. They both have plenty of calcium.

Calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity are reliably consumed in these proportions: For each 2.8 dKH of alkalinity consumed, about 18-20 ppm calcium and 1-2 ppm magnesium are also consumed.

This is easier for me because I dose balanced supplements like AFR and Kalk. I would test calcium more often if I dosed a 3-part system like balling due to the risk of a dosing pump being off or my mix being incorrect. I never bother testing magnesium at home due to test error.

 

[Dorado]

Thanks everyone for the input. Like many of you have mentioned, I would really only be doing this for the alkalinity portion. The reason that I am more seriously considering getting one is because of the recent problem I had while going on vacation last week.

On day 4 of a 9 day vacation, the input to my Kamoer pump feeding my calcium reactor clogged even though I have a mesh bag over the intake(I know, shocking that something went wrong while on vacation). I figured that was the problem because the ph in the reactor bottomed out and the solenoid kept turning off and on. Luckily I also have a kalk stirrer running simultaneously and was able to make a pretty good educated guess and adjust my kalk output pretty successfully. I couldn’t really rely on the ph in the tank to guide me as the ph had risen significantly without the low ph of the CaRx effluent and adding even more kalk. I was stressing out the rest of the trip but much to my surprise, when I got home my alk was at 8 and everything looked great.

Even though everything turned out ok this time, I would love to be able to remotely monitor my alk as that’s one of the few parameters that I really care about. I’m just thinking about how much less worried I would have been if I could have monitored my alk. I guess I’m not so worried about the accuracy of the trident as I am the consistency of it. I would still plan on testing weekly regardless

 

[Dooly]

have you considered AquaWiz? I've been hearing great things about it and am planning on running one of one of the systems. I currently run hydros x10 for alkalinity only and it's pretty consistent.. but consistently wrong.. Just gives me a baseline so that I know my alk hasn't drifted while I'm not here..

 

[bakbay]

I have done some preliminary research on it - sounds very appealing (esp not having to deal with reagents).
https://www.aquawiz.net/home/en

Given that I’ve already “invested” into Trident, it’s not worth it to use something else. If my unit croak one day, I’ll seriously consider it.

 

[mescobar]

Ooof that Aquawiz is not cheap, it does look really nice not having to deal with reagents.

Considering picking up of of the trident maintenance kits to get me through my remaining reagents. Then possibly switching to ABC reagents for ALK only. At which point, maybe the aquawiz goes down in price or a used unit comes available lol

 

[mescobar]

Calcium, magnesium, and alkalinity are reliably consumed in these proportions: For each 2.8 dKH of alkalinity consumed, about 18-20 ppm calcium and 1-2 ppm magnesium are also consumed.

Not sure if this a generalization that could be for any/all tanks. Is this just an observation for your tank?

I would assume an SPS or Torch/Goni dominant tank would have different calcium and magnesium depletion over the same alkanity consumption. I could be entirely wrong though.

 

[rishma]

Not sure if this a generalization that could be for any/all tanks. Is this just an observation for your tank?

I would assume an SPS or Torch/Goni dominant tank would have different calcium and magnesium depletion over the same alkanity consumption. I could be entirely wrong though.

It’s a generalization for tanks with calcifying organisms. It’s just the chemistry of the calcium carbonate skeletons. Tanks with heavy coraline growth will consume toward the higher end of the magnesium range. I think there is minor substitution of potassium and strontium into calcium carbonate but it’s not enough to worry about. It’s not my own science, I learned it from articles by Randy Holmes-Farley, but it does match my experience.

There are reasons people observe (or think they observe) shifts in the balance between these ions. Test error is a big reason. Imprecision in dosing pump rates or dosing chemical concentrations can cause it too. There are other other reasons, but if you’re really interested I can find some of the articles rather just going off my memory.

Anyhow, based on all that I’ve been interested in an alkalinity only automated tester, but not the trident

 

[rishma]

The aquawiz looks good and the way they avoided reagents is clever.

I am also interested in the KH Gaurdian. People swear by them. Reagents are fairly cheap. I think they are first company to make one, and it’s been through a few revisions since originally released.

 

[pledosophy]

if you’re handy you can buy the rebuild kit from Neptune

Thank you, I have two not working and I didn't even know this existed.

 

[mescobar]

Nice I'll give the Randy Holmes-Farley articles and read, thanks for the pointer!

Also the KH Guardian looks interesting, especially at half the price of the AquaWiz. Curious to see how long it's been on the market and the long term reviews on accuracy and reliability.