Trident ACM experiment is now over.

[Ziggy17]

So I’ve had it for about a year and a half now, and I can honestly say it’s not worth the money. It drifts insanely quick off the calibration numbers, making it pointless. Countless times, I’ve calibrated it, run a sample test immediately after with the calibration solution, seems to be fine, and within 24-48, the ALK is a full PPM off and calcium drifts to 30-40 and magnesium, well I don’t care but at least 100ppm drift…. I double check the ALK with Hanna, and Calcium and Magnesium with Salifert and ICP. Salifert seems to be as close as I can get to ICP with C&M, but mag I add 50 to the Salifert test and that gets me consistently to the ICP number.

I do the maintenance and have serviced the unit as per Neptune, but it still does what it does…. And at $1k CAD, it’s a lot of money to invest for garbage results.

So I don’t think the Trident is going on the new build. I can better use the room for more useful equipment.

Anyone else have the same experience?

 

[smitten with ocean life]

wow. when i first knew about the trident, i planned on getting one. but then i started reading about how difficult they are to maintain and all the problems. im so glad i didnt bother

 

[areefer01]

Anyone else have the same experience?

No, opposite here. Both Trident ACM and NP work well for me.

Neither are needed but they do provide a quality of life improvement by removing the need to do manual testing. Waiting for Neptune to release the NP's 6 month reagent kits...

 

[RoanokeReef]

My ACM and NP work great for me. However, if I use the calibration fluid it seems to be off, so I calibrate to my tank water.

 

[docscorals]

For the most part, my 3 ACMs seem to be staying on track. They are off around 20-30 compared to me Red Sea calcium test, about 0.5 to my Hanna all checker, and 100 or so to mag. All of these are close to the margins of error for the tests.
However, recently one of the has started to seriously drift on calcium. I noticed my calcium levels so starting to climb over a few days even though I hadn’t dosed. So I started testing every couple of days with my Red Sea kit, and it was off by nearly 70 points consistently for almost a week. So I went and bought an API kit (it’s what my LFS had in stock on a Sunday) and it showed the same result. Used both for another week and the ACM is still about 70 ppm high.

It didn’t start until I changed the reagents, so I wonder if I got a bad batch. I submitted a ticket to Neptune Systems and they already replied and asked for some more info. Hopefully this gets fixed!

 

[areefer01]

It didn’t start until I changed the reagents, so I wonder if I got a bad batch. I submitted a ticket to Neptune Systems and they already replied and asked for some more info. Hopefully this gets fixed!

Anything is possible. The question though is what reagents are you using? Second question, you noted Ca drifting after replacing reagents - did you calibrate the ACM after reagent(s) swap? Typically they recommend calibrating after swapping all reagents and that they have run for about 48 hours.

 

[docscorals]

I am using the trident reagents and yes, I recalibrated after swapping the reagents.

 

[docscorals]

I am using the trident reagents and yes, I recalibrated after swapping the reagents. It is only one of them and only calcium that seems to be drifting on that one unit. When I noticed it, I checked Alk, Calcium, and Mag on all three tanks with ACMs. That’s why I believe it might be the reagent, but we’ll see. Overall, I am satisfied with them. Things happen and I am impressed with their support response so far.

 

[Waters]

I have used and use several ACMs and don't have any issues at all. I don't think I would set up another tank without one. I have wanted to try the NP but am still reading a lot of negative reviews about it so I am staying away for now.

 

[lakai]

They are great but need replacing every few years.