My Trident Review

[LobsterOfJustice]

and there’s no yearly maintenance fee unlike Trident.

Trident does not have a yearly maintenance fee. It has suggested maintenance estimated at 18-24 months. If you think Reefbot or any of the other alkalinity monitors don’t require preventative maintenance over 2 years you are going to be disappointed. Anything with moving parts, let alone a complicated automatic titration unit, will require maintenance to keep it running in best condition.

Your option here is to choose a unit that is up front about their maintenance needs and conveniently sells the parts needed in a kit, or to deal with support troubleshooting your unit when it starts giving wonky readings and hopefully doesn’t crash your tank in the process.

 

[rkpetersen]

There’s a better alternative for Trident...it’s called ReefBot. It just got released. It uses the available liquid test kits like Salifert, API, Red Sea, etc... I saw the videos online and it looks really good. No risk of crystallization, because there are magnetic stirrers for each bottles and it is self cleaning between test. It has has an app that will store your data in the cloud. Sells for 899 for the initial release and there’s no yearly maintenance fee unlike Trident. It’s nice to see how this machine does the test in action!
I got myself one

I would get one, except that most of the kits it uses currently are of mediocre quality.
It doesn't matter how good the bot is, if the test itself is poor, the results will still be poor.
Also doesn't offer the smooth integration with Apex dosing control that the Trident does.
But, I do like this device, and want it to succeed. I may even wind up getting one myself at some point.

 

[reyesozaeta]

The thing with the ReefBot is that you can literally watch it rinse its test chamber using RO water. It even rinses it’s needle every time after it extracts solutions on different individual bottles. That’s what I like about it. How does Trident rinse? It’s a mystery-because you can’t see it. It doesn’t even rinse itself by judging on the amount of its liquid waste. I own and love my apex unit. But changed my mind about the Trident when I saw the ReefBot. If you don’t trust Salifert, Geismann, API, Red Sea, tropic Marin, pool master?...etc, etc....then this isn’t the right automation for you. If you rather choose a testing unit that needs to run 8 times a day (who does that???) using their own proprietary blend of testing solutions, which apparently gives different results on each and every test, then go for trident. If there’s no consistency on your results when using the same reagents then the problem is the tester! That’s what you get with Trident. What are you gonna do? Calculate the average?? Please...ReefBot however uses your own preferred testing reagents and performs tests on your command, or can be scheduled once a day, once week, once a month, and yes.. even 8 times a day. ReefBot company claims they will be adding more compatible test kits and it’s just a matter of software download/update via internet. The way the machine moves looks like an old bubble jet printer. It’s just fun to watch

Apex has a good customer service which is proven and tested. However when i try to order Trident thru my LFS for the first batch the company gave my LFS a hard time to acquire a few units because Apex is apparently demanding minimum number of units like 50 or 100 as commitment. Sounds like “hostage” sale. I guess it was a blessing in disguise for me that I didn’t get one from the first batch. I would probably be feeling bad and frustrated as well based on the reviews I’ve read and first hand info from someone I know who got one. I will be finding a way to return or resell it (on eBay) lol.

I’m looking forward to get my ReefBot in a couple of weeks! Happy Reefing

 

[mitch91175]

The thing with the ReefBot is that you can literally watch it rinse its test chamber using RO water. It even rinses it’s needle every time after it extracts solutions on different individual bottles. That’s what I like about it. How does Trident rinse? It’s a mystery-because you can’t see it. It doesn’t even rinse itself by judging on the amount of its liquid waste. I own and love my apex unit. But changed my mind about the Trident when I saw the ReefBot. If you don’t trust Salifert, Geismann, API, Red Sea, tropic Marin, pool master?...etc, etc....then this isn’t the right automation for you. If you rather choose a testing unit that needs to run 8 times a day (who does that???) using their own proprietary blend of testing solutions, which apparently gives different results on each and every test, then go for trident. If there’s no consistency on your results when using the same reagents then the problem is the tester! That’s what you get with Trident. What are you gonna do? Calculate the average?? Please...ReefBot however uses your own preferred testing reagents and performs tests on your command, or can be scheduled once a day, once week, once a month, and yes.. even 8 times a day. ReefBot company claims they will be adding more compatible test kits and it’s just a matter of software download/update via internet. The way the machine moves looks like an old bubble jet printer. It’s just fun to watch

Apex has a good customer service which is proven and tested. However when i try to order Trident thru my LFS for the first batch the company gave my LFS a hard time to acquire a few units because Apex is apparently demanding minimum number of units like 50 or 100 as commitment. Sounds like “hostage” sale. I guess it was a blessing in disguise for me that I didn’t get one from the first batch. I would probably be feeling bad and frustrated as well based on the reviews I’ve read and first hand info from someone I know who got one. I will be finding a way to return or resell it (on eBay) lol.

I’m looking forward to get my ReefBot in a couple of weeks! Happy Reefing

Can you post up any links to some of those reviews you mention. I am not really seeing much info about it really. Don't know if that is good or bad, lol. I do not have a Trident and like to make educated decisions and am considering getting one so do tell. I understand the testing requirements and all that stuff. I am more referring to actual testing functionality. Is it consistent or not.

Seems like the longer they are out-of-stock I am wavering, but still considering.

 

[TheHarold]

Can you post up any links to some of those reviews you mention. I am not really seeing much info about it really. Don't know if that is good or bad, lol. I do not have a Trident and like to make educated decisions and am considering getting one so do tell. I understand the testing requirements and all that stuff. I am more referring to actual testing functionality. Is it consistent or not.

Seems like the longer they are out-of-stock I am wavering, but still considering.

I got mine today and it was spot in with my (verified) Hanna checker. Hanna said 8.5, trident said 8.52.

It is a bit loud when testing. But the fact that it tests 120 times before needing reagent is amazing. And as someone who primarily grows acropora, I do see a potential benefit to testing multiple times per day.

 

[mitch91175]

I got mine today and it was spot in with my (verified) Hanna checker. Hanna said 8.5, trident said 8.52.

It is a bit loud when testing. But the fact that it tests 120 times before needing reagent is amazing. And as someone who primarily grows acropora, I do see a potential benefit to testing multiple times per day.

Oh I know the benefit of testing multiple times a day and love being able to do it. I am currently testing every hour (dKH), :D. Some may ask why. I do it because I can. I am running kalk and a CalRx. Growing out my tank now.

Something that I think a lot of people are mistaking is that by having an automatic tester that suddenly they will be able to keep this or that coral. No device will ever replace experience, but they will help for sure.

 

[rkpetersen]

Oh I know the benefit of testing multiple times a day and love being able to do it.

The enhanced stability is great, and you can also discover interesting (or unpleasant) things if you scrutinize the graphs.
The most obvious being the typical drop in alk level during and slightly after the daytime photoperiod.

Here's something I noted the other day.
The spike in the middle is from a measly 5% water change. But the salt does have a higher alk than my tanks.
Also notice how the alk level is then slightly higher than before the water change, after it all equilibrates.
I would never have noticed any of this with my normal manual testing.
Even though the change is quite small, it might be time to try another salt.

 

[mitch91175]

The enhanced stability is great, and you can also discover interesting (or unpleasant) things if you scrutinize the graphs.
The most obvious being the typical drop in alk level during and slightly after the daytime photoperiod.

Here's something I noted the other day.
The spike in the middle is from a measly 5% water change. But the salt does have a higher alk than my tanks.
Also notice how the alk level is then slightly higher than before the water change, after it all equilibrates.
I would never have noticed any of this with my normal manual testing.
Even though the change is quite small, it might be time to try another salt.

Or decide if you want to just raise your dKH to match your salt mix.

 

[ca1ore]

Or decide that it may be prudent not to do anything .... I think more data is generally a good thing as long as you act judiciously, particularly if there’s nothing observably wrong with your tank.

 

[Pygmey]

Here is that sheet. I was making one deciding on my future actions

Just FYI the Alkatronic gives you one dosing head with the unit and the Dosetronic I believe had 5 heads.. So you would need 3 DOS units for the APEX to meet that.. I have the Dosetronic and am buying a trident to test. I have two systems.

 

[mitch91175]

Just FYI the Alkatronic gives you one dosing head with the unit and the Dosetronic I believe had 5 heads.. So you would need 3 DOS units for the APEX to meet that.. I have the Dosetronic and am buying a trident to test. I have two systems.

Yeah definitely aware of that. I have an Alkatronic. I originally had 3 in there but someone complained about it so I took them out and left the single DOS.

 

[TheHarold]

One heads up:

The water input tube is VERY light. If any bubbles get on it, it lifts up the tube to the waterline and sucks air. Leads to erroneous readings- like calcium mod 200 from mid 400. I’ll be printing an accessory to keep it down.

(If I had dosing enabled, the trident wouldn’t based on those results being so drastic, it would throw an error)

 

[litenyaup]

Just FYI the Alkatronic gives you one dosing head with the unit and the Dosetronic I believe had 5 heads.. So you would need 3 DOS units for the APEX to meet that.. I have the Dosetronic and am buying a trident to test. I have two systems.

Having two separate units defeats the idea of simplicity by having an all in one system. I like the dollar break down and seems like it’s worth the trident/ apex system.

 

[CDavmd]

Trident arrived last night. I was one of those that ordered from BRS during the minutes before midnight but was later informed that inventory was wrong and I had not purchased one. Well no worse for the wear, I received notification that I would be in the next batch 1 week later.

It arrived well packaged, no obvious UPS mishandling, and no reagent leaks. The unit is a touch heavier than I thought it would be but its small and sleek. Setup was ridiculously simple- connected the two lines, open the tray, open the reagents and reseal with the units caps/siphon tubes, connect the one-link cable. I then took it down to my basement where my frag system is located, set it down next to my sump, put the draw line in my sump with the holder, put the waste line in an old 2 gallon jug and plugged the other end of the one link into my Energy bar. The Force awakened and R2D2 started making sounds.....it took about 5 minutes before the Neptune logo turned from blue to orange.

I went back upstairs to my desktop computer and fusion and hit next on the setup tile- it asked what size my waste container was, created the tiles, and started its priming thing. After a few minutes it reported "idle" so I fire off an alkalinity test. Results were about .4 dKH higher (still not calibrated) than my Hanna. I set it to run 8 tests per day for now just to break things in and went to bed.

I have to say thus far this is one of the most pleasing purchases I have made. It simply worked right out of the box and the setup was ridiculously simple. I had been worried about my Alk on this system as I have many high end SPS frags growing in it and had run into trouble with a sudden rise recently after some frags went STN.....lately I have been checking Alkalinity twice a day with my Hanna trying to narrow in on my ATI Pro dose. Its been difficult between work, etc. running the tests at the same time, so the arrival of the Trident was a godsend. I was pretty sure I had dialed in the appropriate dosage over the last couple days and the Trident has confirmed this! Thus far the dKH fluctuation has been about .2-.3

I am very happy with this purchase and can't wait to get another one for my main display tank!

Cheers everyone!

 

[TheHarold]

Trident arrived last night. I was one of those that ordered from BRS during the minutes before midnight but was later informed that inventory was wrong and I had not purchased one. Well no worse for the wear, I received notification that I would be in the next batch 1 week later.

It arrived well packaged, no obvious UPS mishandling, and no reagent leaks. The unit is a touch heavier than I thought it would be but its small and sleek. Setup was ridiculously simple- connected the two lines, open the tray, open the reagents and reseal with the units caps/siphon tubes, connect the one-link cable. I then took it down to my basement where my frag system is located, set it down next to my sump, put the draw line in my sump with the holder, put the waste line in an old 2 gallon jug and plugged the other end of the one link into my Energy bar. The Force awakened and R2D2 started making sounds.....it took about 5 minutes before the Neptune logo turned from blue to orange.

I went back upstairs to my desktop computer and fusion and hit next on the setup tile- it asked what size my waste container was, created the tiles, and started its priming thing. After a few minutes it reported "idle" so I fire off an alkalinity test. Results were about .4 dKH higher (still not calibrated) than my Hanna. I set it to run 8 tests per day for now just to break things in and went to bed.

I have to say thus far this is one of the most pleasing purchases I have made. It simply worked right out of the box and the setup was ridiculously simple. I had been worried about my Alk on this system as I have many high end SPS frags growing in it and had run into trouble with a sudden rise recently after some frags went STN.....lately I have been checking Alkalinity twice a day with my Hanna trying to narrow in on my ATI Pro dose. Its been difficult between work, etc. running the tests at the same time, so the arrival of the Trident was a godsend. I was pretty sure I had dialed in the appropriate dosage over the last couple days and the Trident has confirmed this! Thus far the dKH fluctuation has been about .2-.3

I am very happy with this purchase and can't wait to get another one for my main display tank!

Cheers everyone!

Before you are “sure” that it is reading .4 dkh TOO high... do you have the Hanna Alk Calibration vials? To make sure your checker is accurate.

 

[User1]

Trident arrived last night. I was one of those that ordered from BRS during the minutes before midnight but was later informed that inventory was wrong and I had not purchased one. Well no worse for the wear, I received notification that I would be in the next batch 1 week later.

It arrived well packaged, no obvious UPS mishandling, and no reagent leaks. The unit is a touch heavier than I thought it would be but its small and sleek. Setup was ridiculously simple- connected the two lines, open the tray, open the reagents and reseal with the units caps/siphon tubes, connect the one-link cable. I then took it down to my basement where my frag system is located, set it down next to my sump, put the draw line in my sump with the holder, put the waste line in an old 2 gallon jug and plugged the other end of the one link into my Energy bar. The Force awakened and R2D2 started making sounds.....it took about 5 minutes before the Neptune logo turned from blue to orange.

I went back upstairs to my desktop computer and fusion and hit next on the setup tile- it asked what size my waste container was, created the tiles, and started its priming thing. After a few minutes it reported "idle" so I fire off an alkalinity test. Results were about .4 dKH higher (still not calibrated) than my Hanna. I set it to run 8 tests per day for now just to break things in and went to bed.

I have to say thus far this is one of the most pleasing purchases I have made. It simply worked right out of the box and the setup was ridiculously simple. I had been worried about my Alk on this system as I have many high end SPS frags growing in it and had run into trouble with a sudden rise recently after some frags went STN.....lately I have been checking Alkalinity twice a day with my Hanna trying to narrow in on my ATI Pro dose. Its been difficult between work, etc. running the tests at the same time, so the arrival of the Trident was a godsend. I was pretty sure I had dialed in the appropriate dosage over the last couple days and the Trident has confirmed this! Thus far the dKH fluctuation has been about .2-.3

I am very happy with this purchase and can't wait to get another one for my main display tank!

Cheers everyone!

There is always this thing in the back of my mind about need, required, or just flat out nice to have or nerdy. With that in mind and already having the Apex ecosystem I would say your feedback would seal the deal for me. The original OP thread was solid and good unbiased feedback, as a few others, but have to say the nugged you said, "thus far this is one of the most pleasing purchases I have made...". Well, summed it up rather well for me.

Hope to get in on the next couple of batches although my tank doesn't need the product as I do not have many corals. I think it will add value regardless as we all mach towards big data and consistent numbers. Maybe they will allow less frequent tests. Maybe not. But in either case everything I'm reading so far on the product it has been positive. Only negative is around quantity upon launch but that isn't a concern of mine, for me (others I understand).

Good input, thanks.

 

[vhuang168]

Before you are “sure” that it is reading .4 dkh TOO high... do you have the Hanna Alk Calibration vials? To make sure your checker is accurate.

Bear in mind that the Hanna has +/- or 0.3 dkh or +/- 5% of reading. At an average of 9.09, that would come up to +/- 0.45 dkh.

 

[CDavmd]

Before you are “sure” that it is reading .4 dkh TOO high... do you have the Hanna Alk Calibration vials? To make sure your checker is accurate.

Like I said, the Trident is not yet calibrated and won't be for another 2 days. Until then the reading it is providing at 9ish is about .4 higher than my Hanna at 8.6. In terms of relative trends they are both paralleling each other. Once I calibrate the Trident we'll see how close they approximate each other but given the margin of error for the Hanna I think they are close enough.

There is always this thing in the back of my mind about need, required, or just flat out nice to have or nerdy. With that in mind and already having the Apex ecosystem I would say your feedback would seal the deal for me. The original OP thread was solid and good unbiased feedback, as a few others, but have to say the nugged you said, "thus far this is one of the most pleasing purchases I have made...". Well, summed it up rather well for me.

Hope to get in on the next couple of batches although my tank doesn't need the product as I do not have many corals. I think it will add value regardless as we all mach towards big data and consistent numbers. Maybe they will allow less frequent tests. Maybe not. But in either case everything I'm reading so far on the product it has been positive. Only negative is around quantity upon launch but that isn't a concern of mine, for me (others I understand).

Good input, thanks.

Thanks! Yes I will admit definitely not required or needed. I've been reefing for almost two decades and remember when.....lol
But the techno geek in me absolutely loves it, and frankly I'm exhausted testing all the time. My DT gets tested 1-2x per week, but my Frag system is a daily routine and having the Trident take over is just awesome. I hope you can get your hands on one soon.
Cheers

 

[ca1ore]

Received and setup my trident this evening. Agree that the setup is ridiculously easy. First alk test yields 8.87 versus my Hanna at 10.2. Have not calibrated the trident yet of course, and have not checked my Hanna for accuracy in a while. Within the acceptability range, precision is more important than absolute accuracy anyhow.

 

[Hallowhead]

Are you REQUIRED to test 4 times a day? Could you do one test a day? Or once a week?