Trident Owners Have you Mixed your Reagents and tried it?

[Asonitez]

Maybe its the hoarder in me- I typically run a higher ALK 9ish and with my trident I have gone through about 4 refills so far. What I find though is that when my reagent says its time to replace then typically I have close to 1/3 of the reagent still left in the ALK bottle and a good amount in B/C as well.

I have been hoarding the remaining reagent and adding them and have close to 2 refills for each reagent with close to 3 for ALK alone.

I have been tempted to try this new reagent and test it against my known parameters and even the trident calibration solution. Just wondering if anyone has tried it before.

 

[ca1ore]

I have been doing the same thing. I now have a full alk reagent, but not yet full B or C. I am going to use the alk bottle next time a switch is indicated to see if it is usable or not.

 

[scubaX]

If there it too much left over in the alk bottle , I have been running the refill task with the same bottle and wait till it runs off .

 

[Brasileiro561]

@ca1ore @Asonitez did you guys ever did run the left over reagents? what was the outcome?

 

[Adele]

I would like to know as well. I accidentally “contaminated” a new bottle by dumping the leftovers into it before seeing the instructions to not do this on my first refill.

 

[Waters]

I think they don't want you to do this because the lose out on your money for the new reagents lol. I can 't see why mixing different bottles of ALK would cause any incorrect readings but who knows.

 

[haitian_reefer]

following

 

[Brasileiro561]

Well I did and Still do mix alk. But only from the same batch. The first bottle goes into the second of that 2 months supply and never had any problems. But those guys made a whole new bottle from multiple batch. I’m going to save up and make a new alk bottle and see what happens. Test it against the Hanna or even Icp test.

 

[homer1475]

While I don't own a trident, I wonder if the reagent isn't like the Hanna reagent, and it degrades over time?

 

[Brasileiro561]

Neptune says it has 1 year shelf live. I don’t mind buying reagent. The problem is. My Ca and Mg will not last 2 months. 1 month and 2 weeks max. Sometimes little less. If it actually lasted 2 months as advertised then I would be happy and toss the whole thing

 

[homer1475]

They mention 1 year, but is that opened or unopened?

 

[Brasileiro561]

Unopened. But if it doesn’t work out all I have to do is swap for a new bottle. Either way the old bottle was trash.

 

[User1]

I think there are a coupe things to remember regarding the reagents:

1. They have lot numbers and when boxed matched. When you open your next box look at both A reagents.

2. Neptune adds extra reagents to the bottle. I have read this a couple times and they do this to factor in maintenance and/or things required to do its job / tasks / setup. In short - we are going to have left over reagents as a by product and it may not always be the same.

3. Reagents have a estimated, by Neptune, 1 year shelf life. Unopened, boxed, stored in cool dry place. That is today based on the data they have. We all know more data is coming in regarding reagent use, testing numbers from users, and regent manufacturing and storing in general.

4. Manual test kits - Hanna, Red Sea, any other. Do you mix left over reagents or powders together? No. Also, do you use them past the expiration date? No. At least you shouldn't. When people post questions asking for help what is the first two things people ask when trying to help? What are your parameters and is your test kit expired...

My stance is this - trying to mix, and reuse, left over reagent is a bad idea and not worth the hassle. In fact, I treat it similar to dye and their lot numbers. If you have ever laid tile in your home do you mix boxes you purchased throughout the year or do you buy the proper amount at one time? You buy it all at the same time due to the potential color differences due to dye. This is also true for bakers when they decorate a cake or we mix paint, concrete color, etc.

Lastly - trident uses reagents. Fact of life. I don't see this as a money grab and while not really focused on here it frustrates me when people try and play that card. If it was a money grab then for darn sure the 6 month kit wouldn't be sold for what it is compared to the 2 month kit.

I just toss my left over reagents.

 

[Brasileiro561]

@saf1 I understand what you saying and I’ve read all of that info in trident before. But like I stated before I don’t mind paying for reagents. The fact is. Right now I have 23% of B&C and 80% of A. So Out if 2 months I’m getting 1 1/4- 1 1/2 of a product that’s suppose to last me 2 months. ( running the minimum btw)All I’m doing is save the left over. Once I have enough I’ll swap and do a test after the REAL test. If the numbers match or get close enough to why no use it? I don’t do control dosing since I run carx so as long as i know what the number is i should be ok for 1 month

 

[User1]

@saf1 I understand what you saying and I’ve read all of that info in trident before. But like I stated before I don’t mind paying for reagents. The fact is. Right now I have 23% of B&C and 80% of A. So Out if 2 months I’m getting 1 1/4- 1 1/2 of a product that’s suppose to last me 2 months. ( running the minimum btw)All I’m doing is save the left over. Once I have enough I’ll swap and do a test after the REAL test. If the numbers match or get close enough to why no use it? I don’t do control dosing since I run carx so as long as i know what the number is i should be ok for 1 month

As to why? You are going from a known standard (unopened reagent A) to a "unknown" mix of several left over reagent A's. The new standard or reference is unknown. You really can't trust that number as a result. Or shouldn't anyway. I mean, no - we are not NASA building a rocket to break low earth orbit...but still

I also run at the lowest test settings (4/2/2) and do not believe I'm making it through the estimated reagent bottle / box life. I've never really looked at it closer. If you are seeing a pattern though maybe send a email to Neptune support with what you are seeing and see what they say?

Not trying to sway you - I'm just not sure what I personally would do with the results if I used a saved reagent blend. And me, being lazy, rely on the Trident to give me accurate results. I dislike water testing and the only checks and balance tests I do use the easy kits - I'm not going to lie . Thank you Hanna ALK and Phosphate kits.

 

[dadnjesse]

what else can you do they are out of stock everywhere

 

[ca1ore]

what else can you do they are out of stock everywhere

That's the core problem. I have two sets of unopened reagents, so nominally a four month supply, but after that I may be forced to use 'saved' reagent in the event production has not resumed by then.

 

[Brasileiro561]

They way I see it won’t hurt you. We never had trident before and things were just fine. I’ve been reefing for 9 years and everything survived before trident. I love the trident and things are definitely looking better with it. The leftover reagent will end up in the trash anyways. So why not try it out? Worst case scenario you’ll have a bad test in your graphic. All you have to do is put the new reagent in and problem solved.

 

[Waters]

I think there are a coupe things to remember regarding the reagents:

1. They have lot numbers and when boxed matched. When you open your next box look at both A reagents.

2. Neptune adds extra reagents to the bottle. I have read this a couple times and they do this to factor in maintenance and/or things required to do its job / tasks / setup. In short - we are going to have left over reagents as a by product and it may not always be the same.

3. Reagents have a estimated, by Neptune, 1 year shelf life. Unopened, boxed, stored in cool dry place. That is today based on the data they have. We all know more data is coming in regarding reagent use, testing numbers from users, and regent manufacturing and storing in general.

4. Manual test kits - Hanna, Red Sea, any other. Do you mix left over reagents or powders together? No. Also, do you use them past the expiration date? No. At least you shouldn't. When people post questions asking for help what is the first two things people ask when trying to help? What are your parameters and is your test kit expired...

My stance is this - trying to mix, and reuse, left over reagent is a bad idea and not worth the hassle. In fact, I treat it similar to dye and their lot numbers. If you have ever laid tile in your home do you mix boxes you purchased throughout the year or do you buy the proper amount at one time? You buy it all at the same time due to the potential color differences due to dye. This is also true for bakers when they decorate a cake or we mix paint, concrete color, etc.

Lastly - trident uses reagents. Fact of life. I don't see this as a money grab and while not really focused on here it frustrates me when people try and play that card. If it was a money grab then for darn sure the 6 month kit wouldn't be sold for what it is compared to the 2 month kit.

I just toss my left over reagents.

While I agree with a lot of what you are saying, I do disagree on a couple of items. The fact that they are matched lot numbers "should" have no difference on the quality or accuracy of the reagent...at least not enough to sway our aquarium grade readings. Regarding #4.....no I do not mix leftovers but that is because I never have leftovers. I use my manual test kits until the reagents are completely gone (which I am unable to do with the Trident reagents)......and yes, I do use test kits past their expiration date, as wrong as that might be lol. I think what people have a hard time with is (what seems like) a high up front cost of a reagent where a quarter of it is being thrown away, only to have to search the internet to figure out where your next month's will come from.

 

[Blammomike]

If you have left over Alk reagents, why can't you just tell the trident you put a new alk in to run the rest of the reagents out? Then just swap the empty one out again and tell the trident a new one was entered again. Is that possible?