Is trident worth it??

[allof fish]

So I recently got an apex and have it all hooked up with all my equipment and so far I love it especially when I’m gone which is a decent amount worth the investment so far. I also have a dos set up just haven’t had a chance to calibrate it and use it yet but will run 2 part thru it. My question is is getting a trident worth it to test when I’m not around when is frequent. Tank is only about 4 months old mainly a bunch of lps and some zoas with 2 sps. Looking to start getting into a bunch of acros next few months and know water parameters need to be top notch, especially when I can’t test super frequently. I feel like the 700$ is a huge investment but with after Acros I’ll have around 1500-2 k in corals along with everything else invested. It is worth it? Or to just manual test when I can? Parameters have been fairly stable since I started. Thanks for help

 

[JamesZ.]

My own opinion from exp. WORTH EVERY PENNY !
Keep your probes clean, and its reads about 95% accurate.
Only gripe - My salinity (like many others) died after about 2 years, and it is very expensive to replace.

 

[zheka757]

I'd say depends, if you have tank with low demands, and dont have to dose alk, cal, and mag. Id say no you dont need one. Reagents will cost you $100+ every 6 months.
Stocked reef tank with lots with heavy demands, lots more things to go wrong. So automated testing is not a bad idea for this case.

 

[areefer01]

So I recently got an apex and have it all hooked up with all my equipment and so far I love it especially when I’m gone which is a decent amount worth the investment so far. I also have a dos set up just haven’t had a chance to calibrate it and use it yet but will run 2 part thru it. My question is is getting a trident worth it to test when I’m not around when is frequent. Tank is only about 4 months old mainly a bunch of lps and some zoas with 2 sps. Looking to start getting into a bunch of acros next few months and know water parameters need to be top notch, especially when I can’t test super frequently. I feel like the 700$ is a huge investment but with after Acros I’ll have around 1500-2 k in corals along with everything else invested. It is worth it? Or to just manual test when I can? Parameters have been fairly stable since I started. Thanks for help

We have run successful tanks without any form of automated testing for many a year now so no, not required at all.

You asked is it worth it. That is a question only you can answer as in my opinion it is more of a quality of life feature. You mentioned a new display so one could argue there is little need of it today but down the road maybe.

Buying the 6 month Neptune reagent boxes brings the cost per test to about $0.17 USD which is pretty darn cheap in my opinion.

 

[allof fish]

I feel like at the moment 700$ is a little too much but as I get into acros when consistency is key I may change my thought. I’m trying to plan it out because I know acros and more sps is soon to come. I have about 30 frags 90% LPs and dose pretty regularly and will more with the DOS. I do like the feature that it can change the amount dosing automatically if the numbers are out of range which is very convenient. I just don’t have the ability to test super often right now about once twice a week so in the future with that being said I can see how many people see it worth the investment

 

[vabben]

My tank is SPS dominated and I believe the Trident is 100% worth it. I was recently on vacation, due no dog, kids, the wife and I, the PH raised and the Alk consumption went up. My Trident/Apex was able to give me a warning that my Alk was dropping and I was able to up my dosing while not being home.

I do see people complain about the reagent availability, but I use ABC reagents and have never had an issue. I plan to purchase the Trident NP, just waiting to see if ABC releases reagents for this tester in the future.

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley]

I do not think automated controllers are worth it to me. I do not want such a system making decisions for my tank.

 

[areefer01]

I do not think automated controllers are worth it to me. I do not want such a system making decisions for my tank.

They don't make decisions by default. You have to set it up if device supported. I am only speaking to the Trident and not for every other brand. It does not take away from your point though.

 

[allof fish]

Seems split between loving the automation and wanting control. For me I just don’t have the ability to test so frequently and be able to make those changes only when testing. Might be soemthing I’ll keep looking into for future. I don’t think it’s needed now but I understand the points. The thing is when I’m gone or just don’t have ability to test and I can’t change it all on the app that is a huge bonus and maybe be worth it especially when corals and fish are thousands

 

[ReeferDog]

Getting accurate test values whether you are home or not, is a plus, being able to accurately make adjustments to dosing based on those values is another thing. In my experience, one can only change dosing amounts remotely if you are using the Neptune DOS hardware. Because other dosers like EcoTech Versa’s aren’t WiFi compatible, the best you can do with them (if hooked up to an EB-832 power bar) is turn them on or off remotely.

I agree with Randy that I don’t know if I can trust any automation to make dosing decisions for me based on test values.

 

[areefer01]

Getting accurate test values whether you are home or not, is a plus, being able to accurately make adjustments to dosing based on those values is another thing. In my experience, one can only change dosing amounts remotely if you are using the Neptune DOS hardware. Because other dosers like EcoTech Versa’s aren’t WiFi compatible, the best you can do with them (if hooked up to an EB-832 power bar) is turn them on or off remotely.

Bold is incorrect. The Neptune Trident ACM allows something called Trident controlled dosing. It does require the Neptune Systems DOS to work. I've used it before when I was using 2 part and it worked perfectly fine.

Get Started guide below for reference.

https://help.neptunesystems.com/getstarted/trident/tridentdos/

 

[BriansBrain]

I’ve had mine for over two years and I definitely appreciate having it. Sure it has occasional hiccups with operations but it’s been fairly reliable (knock on wood), accurate, and convenient. I cross reference the three parameters manually every week or two and it’s always close enough.

If you’re running a softie or lps dominate tank, I don’t think it’s necessary. If you’re running predominantly Acropora/sps I think it’s worth having to graph trends and discrepancies. I personally do not enjoy manually testing every few days.

 

[Ironic_Water]

I think for the Trident it depends on you personally.

I'm someone who often ignores my tank, and I don't do testing like I should. That often leads to alkalinity crashes and the like.

If you're like me, not testing like you should, the Trident has been awesome. I've only had it for a few months and it already showed my alkalinity was diving, allowing me to correct dosage before it became an issue.

If you're lazy, and have a lot of corals invested in your tank, I'd say bite the bullet. The trending it provides is awesome.

If you're diligent on testing, than no, I'd say it's not worth the money.

 

[obanarama]

I absolutely love my Trident ACM. As a tech nerd the numbers and graphs are just fantastic and have really helped me stabilized the tank - I can't imagine going a week between testing now - knowing what I know know about the swings that can happen quickly.

 

[D-Nak]

The Trident is great until it stops working. And apparently this happens A LOT (the Neptune Facebook group is flooded with complaints). I'm on my third one and have contacted Neptune support numerous times--now they want to do a live chat with me to try to fix the issue and I simply don't have time for it anymore. I'm considering going back to Hanna checkers.

 

[tzabor10]

Had mine for two years. After 4 replacements and service swaps. It still doesn’t work. I don’t trust any numbers it gives me. I consider it a giant flush of money.

 

[areefer01]

Opposite camp here. Trident ACM since launch. Done both self service and cross ship. In my experience it has worked extremely well. I use Neptune reagents. Trident NP I was part of the internal testing and as with the ACM the NP is working well.

As to the actual question of "is it worth it" it really depends on the hobbyist and what it is they are hoping to accomplish. In my use case, for both units, it is more of a data collection thing which saves me some time. All that is needed now, in my opinion, is for Neptune to provide a 6 month reagent kit for the NP.

Note: using a test kit such as Hanna for Alk, Nitrate, and Phosphate is pretty easy to do and can be knocked out within 7 minutes or the time it takes the Nitrate result timer to show. Just being honest it isn't like testing these three are difficult just that the Tridents save me time and holds the data.