Trident FAQ (official)

[TheHarold]

We issued a firmware update today: 5.05_5B19. Make sure to update to that and the Trident before completing the calibration. If it shows no update is available, then reboot your Apex and wait a couple minutes. Full information regarding the firmware update can be found here

“We”?

Are you from Neptune Systems? Shouldn’t you have a badge?

 

[kschweer]

“We”?

Are you from Neptune Systems? Shouldn’t you have a badge?

He is and he does.

 

[Caravanshaka]

Ran the software update remotely yesterday afternoon. Then I updated the Trident firmware (again, remotely). Last night, I ran the calibration. Simple and painless.

After running the calibration, I did notice that the Apex Fusion logged a pretty high Ca - it was 468 on the graph. I think that coincided with the calibration test. At that point, the tile read 425, which was the calibration solution. As of this morning, my Ca was reading 418. This is about what I would expect.

I should have taken some screen shots of Trident tile before and after the calibration. However, from memory, the only reading that changed much was Ca. It was reading closer to 385-390 before the calibration and is 418 after. That's a long way of saying that the calibration from Neptune was very accurate for Alk and Mg from the factory.

I continue to be very happy with the Trident.

I had a similar experience. Alk was reading 7.3, calcium 350, mag 1350 before calibration. After a few days of running, I did the calibration, and things settled back in line with what I would have expected based on my other testing. Alk 7.8, calcium 430, mag 1350. It goes to show that the factory calibration was way off for my install, but if head-height plays into things I can understand the variance as my Trident is about 3 feet above the tank water line intake.

 

[cperry7467]

Be careful when you do the calibration and don't screw it up... I think I messed mine up so I contacted support to get more calibration solution and apparently they aren't selling it right now. People started buying it up so they pulled it from the store. Support told me the calibration looks ok but the results are not very close to my other test kits. Fairly confident my results are not accurate right now but I can't recalibrate without the solution. I'm tempted to calibrate it with tank water and base the numbers off what my other test kits show currently.

 

[Caravanshaka]

Be careful when you do the calibration and don't screw it up... I think I messed mine up so I contacted support to get more calibration solution and apparently they aren't selling it right now. People started buying it up so they pulled it from the store. Support told me the calibration looks ok but the results are not very close to my other test kits. Fairly confident my results are not accurate right now but I can't recalibrate without the solution. I'm tempted to calibrate it with tank water and base the numbers off what my other test kits show currently.

If the software had a "calibration anomaly" and yours didn't seem to calibrate correctly, they should send you some calibration solution free of charge to ensure your Trident is working correctly regardless of their software glitch.

 

[smartwater101]

Be careful when you do the calibration and don't screw it up... I think I messed mine up so I contacted support to get more calibration solution and apparently they aren't selling it right now. People started buying it up so they pulled it from the store. Support told me the calibration looks ok but the results are not very close to my other test kits. Fairly confident my results are not accurate right now but I can't recalibrate without the solution. I'm tempted to calibrate it with tank water and base the numbers off what my other test kits show currently.

This seems strange. Surely the included bottle would support more than one calibration?? Either way, owners should have the ability to get more via support...

 

[cperry7467]

If the software had a "calibration anomaly" and yours didn't seem to calibrate correctly, they should send you some calibration solution free of charge to ensure your Trident is working correctly regardless of their software glitch.

In all fairness it was my screw up that caused the calibration issue. I don't mind paying for it but I was told it's not available to buy right now. They said they'd follow up with me in a couple days to see how it was going. Maybe since they are short on calibration solution they are taking some extra steps to limit when they send some out to only what they feel is necessary. Sucks for me but oh well.

 

[cperry7467]

This seems strange. Surely the included bottle would support more than one calibration?? Either way, owners should have the ability to get more via support...

It was 1 for me and then it was empty. I thought the same and went to calibrate a 2nd time since I thought it was off and got a test a error only to find out the solution was gone. I figured it would be a few calibrations but I guess with priming a 5ft line plus testing it's a fair amount used.

 

[Caravanshaka]

It was 1 for me and then it was empty. I thought the same and went to calibrate a 2nd time since I thought it was off and got a test a error only to find out the solution was gone. I figured it would be a few calibrations but I guess with priming a 5ft line plus testing it's a fair amount used.

My calibration took 90 mins (even though the task said 40-70 mins). That said, I still had 1/3-1/2 the bottle filled when complete. The issue with the solution is that once it is open, it can only be used within 8 hours and still be guaranteed to have those parameters.

Judging by what I saw going on during the calibration. It would run through an initial test, then change the settings internally to attempt to get the results to match the calibration numbers. It would then run another test and see how much closer it got. It may continue to do this until a couple tests in a row have numbers within standard tolerances of the values in the calibration solution. I know mine was 80ppm of calcium off and 0.5 dkh off to start with, so it took longer than normal to recalibrate to correct numbers. It could be that yours was similar, and it ran out of calibration solution trying to get there.

 

[rkpetersen]

This seems strange. Surely the included bottle would support more than one calibration?? Either way, owners should have the ability to get more via support...

The calibration process typically uses around half the bottle. You might be able to squeeze a second calibration run out of one bottle.

 

[Trukingny]

Im setting up a tank in a couple weeks. When should i start running my trident on it? Once cycle is done or will there be any benefit to starting it before fish and coral go in? Dont know if any test were done with the trident on a tank from the beginning..

 

[User1]

Im setting up a tank in a couple weeks. When should i start running my trident on it? Once cycle is done or will there be any benefit to starting it before fish and coral go in? Dont know if any test were done with the trident on a tank from the beginning..

I do not own one but if I did and was in your situation I wouldn't connect it or even unbox it until the tank was post cycle and probably even a couple months after a starter coral. Unless you are merging tanks that is part of an upgrade or you are using TBS live rock I do not see anything that would consume the things it would monitor. That is just my opinion though.

 

[infinityends]

I contacted support to get more calibration solution and apparently they aren't selling it right now. People started buying it up so they pulled it from the store.

In the launch video Terrance said that calibration fluid was included with each reagent kit. Just buy your first refill of reagents and use the calibration fluid from that if you need to.

https://shop.neptunesystems.com/collections/trident/products/reagents

 

[infinityends]

I do not own one but if I did and was in your situation I wouldn't connect it or even unbox it until the tank was post cycle and probably even a couple months after a starter coral. Unless you are merging tanks that is part of an upgrade or you are using TBS live rock I do not see anything that would consume the things it would monitor. That is just my opinion though.

I agree, if you are cycling the tank you are just burning up reagents and putting wear and tear on the trident unit when you don’t really need to.

Shortly before (1-2 weeks) whenever you plan to start adding corals to the tank is when I would start monitoring. That way you can make sure parameters are in line before corals are introduced and monitor for when you reach a point that you may need to start dosing.

 

[cperry7467]

In the launch video Terrance said that calibration fluid was included with each reagent kit. Just buy your first refill of reagents and use the calibration fluid from that if you need to.

https://shop.neptunesystems.com/collections/trident/products/reagents

I considered it but since the reagents aren't sealed I figured I might hold off. I didn't want them going stale on me, not sure what the shelf life is on those. It's an option but I prefer to just buy the calibration solution.

 

[infinityends]

I considered it but since the reagents aren't sealed I figured I might hold off. I didn't want them going stale on me, not sure what the shelf life is on those. It's an option but I prefer to just buy the calibration solution.

Neptune stated that the shelf life was 1 year

 

[Caravanshaka]

I considered it but since the reagents aren't sealed I figured I might hold off. I didn't want them going stale on me, not sure what the shelf life is on those. It's an option but I prefer to just buy the calibration solution.

As said above, 1 yr shelf life unopened....about 2 months after you open each individual bottle.

The issue with going this route is that Neptune suggests recalibrating with each new set of reagents, so you would have to buy another one down the road for that set of reagents if you want to keep the precision.

Personally I think the calibration solution is what makes this tester stand out from the rest. They batch solution at certain parameters, and the trident is calibrated to known numbers. The Alkatronic on the other hand, you can calibrate the probes and the pumps, but there is no known calibration solution that you can calibrate it to and know the results you are getting are correct. You just have to hope that punching in mLs and calibrating a probe will end up with the right number...not to mention the precision of mixing your own reagent.

 

[Hitch08]

I considered it but since the reagents aren't sealed I figured I might hold off. I didn't want them going stale on me, not sure what the shelf life is on those. It's an option but I prefer to just buy the calibration solution.

It's a bit disappointing that they won't sell you just a bottle of calibration, but I'd just buy a new set of reagents with the calibration solution. Hopefully they will allow sales of just the calibration solution in the not too far future and you can pick up another one.

 

[cperry7467]

It's a bit disappointing that they won't sell you just a bottle of calibration, but I'd just buy a new set of reagents with the calibration solution. Hopefully they will allow sales of just the calibration solution in the not too far future and you can pick up another one.

My other concern is I wouldn't have calibration solution when the time comes to change reagents if I did that. It sounded like you should calibrate each time.

 

[Hitch08]

I hope to keep an extra set of reagents on hand. If you do the same, you'll always have calibration solution available. Once Neptune starts to sell just the calibration solution again, you can pick one up and you'll be good to go.