Trident FAQ

[MnFish1]

NO offense to Neptune - its a great marketing strategy. People want an Alk montitor - but - make them pay for Ca and Mg reagents - as well as a device that can do all 3. Though only one is needed at the frequency its needed (and I think its a vas overestimate) - which justifies the price of the reagents. I tests Alk once/week. I test Ca once/month and Mg 1/ 3months - never. But everyone wants the ALK - LOL. but an Alk tester - the Ca and Mg are useless IMHO. Heresy alert

 

[MnFish1]

@SawCJack00 Sure the Alkatronic would do great. I was just looking for more in terms of a return for my money. If the Trident does come in around $500-600 plus $40 per 2 months testing, I feel the return on my purchase would pay itself off faster with the trident.

As for my tank--- I feel I run a pretty tight ship and test alk daily @MnFish1 but I am primarily acro heavy. If I can alleviate myself from testing daily that would be great plus I can have a better understanding of my alk/ca/mag consumption--- It really just comes down to your own needs. If you dont need or want a trident then that may work for you but I feel that it will help with the stability and understanding of my reef which I have invested heavily in. To each his own...

IMHO - there is no need to test daily. These organisms have evolved to live in multiple conditions.

 

[kkiel02]

Didn’t Terence say it was 10¢ a test? For that amount I don’t mind the extra tests running. I work in the maintenance field so the more data you can give me on my equipment the happier I am. I’m sure everyone looking at this thread knows there are many ways to run a successful reef.

 

[smartwater101]

I looked into the reefbot but I think the cost of the Trident and the reagents will pay for itself in time & energy (I hope). From what I understand, The Trident will test Alk, CA, and mag while the reefbot will do the same but you will need to purchase individual tests kits to supply the reefbot. The other alternative would be the KH director but that will only monitor and maintain Alk. the way I see it:

Reefbot - Maybe more costly to run over time and will not filter information into your Apex ( guessing here) but you can also run various tests outside of the big 3
KH Director - Only manages KH but does a pretty good job from the reviews I have read ( $800)
Trident - Testing big three with 2 months worth of standard testing @ $40 (4 alk tests a day and CA and Mag 2x a day)

I have no problem being a guinea pig and testing the trident out for myself--- others on the forum have said they may not rely on it right away. Most likely I will not automate any sort of dosing through Apex because of the tests on the trident. I will more than likely have it just "report" its findings which will allow me to make a more informed decision on dosing. Plus, I will be running a calcium reactor with it so that may prove to be my only option since it is a dastaco and i cannot run it nonstop as it is oversized for my current system.

Keep posting yall!!! lets get to 2k!!!

Not sure why you think reefbot would be more expensive over time. The cost of reagents, for 3 test kits, would be negligible.

We're talking about a 300-400$ price difference between a box that does 8 tests and the other box that only does 3.

Accuracy (and build quality) are going to be the major factor for people deciding between the two options. If Trident doesn't have an obvious consistency/accuracy benefit over the reefbot, it going to be a hard sell for most.

I guess we'll have to wait and see, but 500-600 seems mighty extreme for 3 tests. 400 seems much more reasonable.


Edit: 40$ for trident reagent? Is that for all 3 tests?

 

[ryboy707]

IMHO - there is no need to test daily. These organisms have evolved to live in multiple conditions.

Then don’t buy it period. Do you really think you whining about how “unnecessary” daily testing is will make Neptune totally revamp the whole trident concept??

 

[smartwater101]

Then don’t buy it period. Do you really think you whining about how “unnecessary” daily testing is will make Neptune totally revamp the whole trident concept??

He wasn't whining he was bringing up a reasonable point.

 

[ryboy707]

He wasn't whining he was bringing up a reasonable point.

Ok, I apologize, I probably shouldn’t have said whining, that was rude and condescending. But my point is as long as the trident delivers as advertised I, for one, will be satisfied. I don’t see the “reasonable point” of saying daily testing is unnecessary. So was the point to say the trident is useless and unnecessary?

 

[infinityends]

IMHO - there is no need to test daily. These organisms have evolved to live in multiple conditions.

I think this is sort of missing the point of the products goals though. Yes, corals can thrive in a range of environments, but they like stability in that environment. No one is saying you can’t be successful without a trident. You don’t have to buy one since it is made for at least one or two daily tests if you only want to test weekly/bi-weekly/monthly.

However, the benefits to frequent automated testing can be seen even if you go back to videos from MACNA 2016. Jim Welsh with his original automated alk tester was testing alk hourly and was able to see his corals cease uptake of alk for multiple hours due to a minor environmental change. I didn’t rewatch the video but I believe it was a response to adding some new frags to the system or something like that.

On top of the ease of eliminating manual testing, the point is that the real time active data can show a level of insight to the health and activity of corals that was previously unavailable especially once you factor in the added margin of error caused by a human involved in water parameter testing.

Is all of the information you get from automated testing going to be critical and actionable? Definitely not, ideally it is mostly boring with minor fluctuations. But we all know that stability is key to keeping corals successfully, and having the ability to keep key parameters from fluctuating significantly unbeknownst to the reef keeper between weekly tests (if they aren’t lazy and sick of testing and therefore testing more sporadically). Sure a sharp spike or dive in alk will eventually be apparent in the corals. But automatic alerts if a significant change occurs could prevent the spike/dip from reaching a point where corals are noticeably impacted.

So while no it is absolutely not needed by everyone to test daily to keep a successful tank, there are definitely reasons that it is something worth while for the industry/hobby to explore. Especially if you expand past hobbyists and start to think of the impact something like this could have on improving growth rates of aquaculture corals, or eliminating variables from alk swings in scientific research, or cost savings for an LFS paying an employee $10-15+/hr to test water parameters in multiple reef and frag systems once or more each week.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

For $900 and only one element...

Yes but it's the only element that matters. CA and MG will be in line if ALK is good and you are dosing in a balanced manner, plus I actually can look at my results of my one element tester now, while you are only hoping that the 3 element tester will be released someday...

 

[Thales]

yeah - 900$ and the only element thats important. Lets check the Mg every 20 minutes - LOL - if I had a product that did that people would laugh. I wonder why people dont laugh at a product that wants to test Mg every couple hours...... You can go figure - I dont care...

Why are you standing up straw men?

 

[Terence]

At this point I don’t get why some people come here to this thread and burn calories discussing the merits of the basis around which the The Trident was designed - and then do so with false assumptions and inaccurate information regarding other products.

This thread’s purpose was simply to provide a place where frequently asked questions about the Trident are answered to the best of my (and NSI members) abilities.

If some want to hash out the this-one vs that-one, I kindly suggest you do it in another thread. And maybe I might even join that conversation there.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Guys
This is a thread to discuss the Neptune Trident as a product, its facts and abilities and capabilities. For which much is not available due to its availability in market yet and only source being Neptune and NSI members.
If you like to buy or compare Trident to another product please start your own comparison thread.
Leave this thread for facts regarding Trident only. Thank you

BTW @Terence you wouldnt be able to tell us when Version 2 Trident (Nitrate, Phosphate, Potassium) is coming out?

 

[siggy]

At this point I don’t get why some people come here to this thread and burn calories discussing the merits of the basis around which the The Trident was designed - and then do so with false assumptions and inaccurate information regarding other products.

The Natives are getting restless. Until Neptune Revels his Trident they will beat drums, dance around the fire and sacrifice virgins.

 

[MJNTWise]

We are getting closer to the 2k mark

 

[CNDReef]

For $900 and only one element...

But doesn’t the trident need a 2016 apex that also costs $700???

 

[hart24601]

You're forgetting the Alkatronic which has been proven for 2 years now. I run an Alkatronic, and it controls my DaStaCo CA RX. It's the perfect combo in my opinion, and it actually is available

I also went with the alkatronic and it's been running perfectly for months however I also like the trident and more of these type of units on the market the better, however for my purposes the alkatronic just was a better fit but all these systems will hopefully save a lot of tanks. I twice now forgot to hit 'esc' when adjusting my dosing and essentially shut the unit off which the automated testing showed me quickly before I had any issues.

 

[1Blazer]

GHL currently has the ION Director in the workings that will complement the KH Director.

Interesting! Havent heard of that development- Do they have a launch date?

 

[1Blazer]

But doesn’t the trident need a 2016 apex that also costs $700???

@CNDReef Good point- I already have one so it wasnt a though but you are right --- $1200 to $1300 for initial cost is quite the premium. I would never run a tank without one now--- geez this hobby is expensive!

 

[Terence]

Interesting! Havent heard of that development- Do they have a launch date?

Do they have an FAQ thread like this one where you can ask these (and other hard) questions of the manufacturer? If so, that’s likely the best place to ask that. If not, start one!

 

[Terence]

But doesn’t the trident need a 2016 apex that also costs $700???

No. It requires an Apex that you can get for $500. Sometimes a little less. Then, you have something that is maybe a couple of hundred more, controls thirteen independent aquarium devices, has power monitoring, temperature monitoring, pH monitoring, alk testing, Ca testing, Mg testing, six switch inputs, and can be expanded to many other functions.