Trident NP testing frequency

[daanvb]

I was thinking of testing every other day and splitting 3a and B in half, then mixing the second halves after 60 days to stretch the shelf life to 120 days. Sounds like a good plan in my head Any arguments against this?

 

[mmorrison55]

Older thread, but wondering if anyone has verified the shelf life is 60 days. Curious what people’s test results have been who have modified the daily testing of the NP.

 

[Dr. Reef]

Shelf life unopened is 1 year even after the best use by date.
So if the best sell by is Jan 2025 and the box/bottles remains unopened they are still good till jan 2026.
Once the bottles are opened they need to be used in 60 days.

This info is directly from BRS to us.

 

[mmorrison55]

Thanks… but curious if anyone has modified the daily testing to extend the reagents and logged their results past 60 days to see if they actually were degraded or still accurate.

 

[Dr. Reef]

NP does only 1 test per day by default, which ends up using the entire bottles in 60 days. I am not sure how less you wanna go. Maybe 2 or 3 test per week? Pretty sure the reagent will last longer than 60 days and maybe even stretch to 75-80 days.
In my personal experience as reagent gets old (closer to 50-60 days) the results are not as accurate as it was put in on first 30 days or so.
So its all subjective to conditons/temp etc

 

[mmorrison55]

NP does only 1 test per day by default, which ends up using the entire bottles in 60 days. I am not sure how less you wanna go. Maybe 2 or 3 test per week? Pretty sure the reagent will last longer than 60 days and maybe even stretch to 75-80 days.
In my personal experience as reagent gets old (closer to 50-60 days) the results are not as accurate as it was put in on first 30 days or so.
So its all subjective to conditons/temp etc

Appreciate the feedback.

That’s exactly my point or intention, is to test 2-3 times per week vs daily, and if the reagent would then last 3-4 months vs 2, then bonus right?

I mean, who manually test nitrates and phosphates daily today? Maybe those who have a new tank, but once established, im betting the majority of us test weekly or maybe a few a times a month at most.

I like the idea of automating it and running more frequent tests to tracks trends and alert for potential issues, but forcing daily testing that requires dropping $30 a month in reagent for these two tests seems excessive.

if someone, and im sure there are a few here at reef2reef that do, were to automate testing via trident and trident np, and also do regular icp testing, and other maintenance upkeep, then yiu may be spending equivalent to a car or mortgage payment in upkeep.

So im lo9ing to make my reefing easier, but also stretch my $ a bit if possible.

 

[Dr. Reef]

I think you can stretched it to 90 days, with 2-3 testing per week, I do not see any issue with reagent expiring. But maybe few other concerns, with one being not as accurtate result as initially put in and I am not even sure if thats due to the cuvett being stained over time and yes it goes from clear to blue tainted. and someone told me that Neptune is recommending running bleach water through the system every so often to clean it up.
I always manually took it apart and cleaned it.
By the way we are a vendor and we are using 4 Trident NPs in our warehouse currently, from the time NP came out, so a lot of history.
Only other issue with less testing I can see and have faced in past is water drying and causing salt crytals in the lines and clogging them.

These are all my personal experiences and remarks, I never tested the reagent past 60 days so maybe someone that has done it may be able to tell us the true experience.

 

[areefer01]

and someone told me that Neptune is recommending running bleach water through the system every so often to clean it up.

This is a bit misleading so let me clarify it if you don't mind.

There is a cleaning task but it is only recommended when the the Trident NP status changes from idle to NEEDS CLEANING. It is not recommended at any other time. You must also use unscented, regular, bleach. Not the spill proof or thick stuff. Just straight regular bleach. Paul covers this in the cleaning task video.

The cleaning message is relates to nutrient levels. Higher nitrate or phosphates typically trigger it. I was part of the NSI testing for the NP so have a lot of reagents through mine with nitrates as high as 65 ppm and phosphates of 2.1 ppm. The cleaning task is 2 parts and easy to do. I saved a NP's calibration bottle, rinsed it out, and use that to store the bleach for cleaning. I just grab a sharpie and write bleach, NP cleaning only.

Edit: I am not saying you are wrong btw - just wanted to clarify the recommending part and the task.

Only other issue with less testing I can see and have faced in past is water drying and causing salt crytals in the lines and clogging them.

I personally see no reason to lower the testing schedule. It is part of the Trident ACM / NP's requirement and how Neptune has it set up. A box of NP reagents lasts anywhere from 55 to 60 days depending on nutrient levels. As you pointed out reducing it could cause other issues. What I would recommend instead is to send Neptune a email and request them to offer 6 month kits like they do with the Trident ACM to lower the cost per test.

Hope your day is well.

 

[Dr. Reef]

This is a bit misleading so let me clarify it if you don't mind.

There is a cleaning task but it is only recommended when the the Trident NP status changes from idle to NEEDS CLEANING. It is not recommended at any other time. You must also use unscented, regular, bleach. Not the spill proof or thick stuff. Just straight regular bleach. Paul covers this in the cleaning task video.

The cleaning message is relates to nutrient levels. Higher nitrate or phosphates typically trigger it. I was part of the NSI testing for the NP so have a lot of reagents through mine with nitrates as high as 65 ppm and phosphates of 2.1 ppm. The cleaning task is 2 parts and easy to do. I saved a NP's calibration bottle, rinsed it out, and use that to store the bleach for cleaning. I just grab a sharpie and write bleach, NP cleaning only.

Edit: I am not saying you are wrong btw - just wanted to clarify the recommending part and the task.



I personally see no reason to lower the testing schedule. It is part of the Trident ACM / NP's requirement and how Neptune has it set up. A box of NP reagents lasts anywhere from 55 to 60 days depending on nutrient levels. As you pointed out reducing it could cause other issues. What I would recommend instead is to send Neptune a email and request them to offer 6 month kits like they do with the Trident ACM to lower the cost per test.

Hope your day is well.

Thank you for clarifying, as I mentioned before someone had told me that. I personally just opened the trident and cleaned the cuvette with bleach water.
Also we have 4 NPs running in our warehouse and we run them 1 time per day like it's supposed to.
I was answering and sharing my experience that if you were to cut the testing lower than once a day, I believe you might run into a problem of clogged tubes due to drying of water and reagents etc.