Trident

[vtct]

Greetings to all and Merry Christmas! Is the Trident NP Nitrate & Phosphate Tester reliable? Thank you.

 

[Dan_P]

Greetings to all and Merry Christmas! Is the Trident NP Nitrate & Phosphate Tester reliable? Thank you.

Maybe you should retitle this post. Someone must have an opinion.

 

[Ziggy17]

If you search the forums you will find the opinions you’re looking for.

 

[painter1982]

Had mine since September. Only one week of testing was similar to Hanna and icp. Now it reads only zeros. I have a support ticket been going since November 17. Went through all the hoops and now they finally asked for my shipping info to send a new one. So, no, very unreliable in my experience.

 

[areefer01]

Actually, I'm not sure the hobbyist will. The Neptune Trident NP has various threads with the squeaky wheel getting the grease. I guess my point is that yes, you will get some information, but is it actually helpful. Simple reasoning is that who is more likely to post, someone having issues or someone who is not...

There are a few posts on this forum from early launch with members having some challenges or concerns. I don't want to say issues for no other reason that trying to compare a manual test to an automated is, well, silly. Having said that they should be somewhere close one would think and this was sort of the frustration some had. On the other hand there are those that did not experience these problems. What the ratio is between the two is difficult to determine. Thus my reply.

What is known is that Neptune has released several AOS (Neptune Apex OS) and both Trident NP and ACM (original alk, ca, mg) units with firmware updates. Meaning Neptune stayed on top of it working through concerns or reports of issues and made updates if something was found. Another major change that they did was allow the calibration to run off a series of manual test results using the tanks water similar to what can be done with the original Trident ACM. This made some hobbyist happy as that is what they prefer or do with the other kit.

Long story short Neptune has made some changes since the launch that has improved the product. Is that enough, hard to say. Most recent update was just a few weeks back and seems to be received positive feedback.

Note: I was part of the Neptune pre-release testing so have a lot of reagents through mine to include multiple firmware updates and it continues to work well. I use both manual test and the included calibration solution with similar results.

Note 2: if one chooses to use manual test results for calibration I would recommend doing so about 2 hours before the scheduled test if not 3 hours. Collect a pint of water from the sample line location and use this water to run your manual tests. Run 4 to 5 manual tests of each (nitrate and phosphate). Throw out any odd test results then average the results. These will be the numbers you plug in. I've tested with average, mean, and 95th percentile. Anyway once you have these numbers take the remaining water and put the NP's sample line in there then follow the calibration task. This is important as you are using the same water for all tests - manual and now calibration. Once done move the sample line back to the test area and you are done.

Note 3: probably the biggest note I will leave. We, hobbyist, can use the same piece of equipment and have different results. Difficult to say why that is. Maybe environment. Maybe equipment. Maybe procedure, installation. Hard to say. It is also a hobby grade piece of equipment. Doesn't mean it shouldn't provide accurate results but it is a hobby kit vs something we would use on Mars or on the space station. Point is my experience is mine - yours may be different. They should be similar though.

TL: DR - Neptune has made several AOS and Firmware updates on the NP and there are positive signs of improvement. The only negative thing I have to say about it is that I really, and I mean really, wish Neptune would release 6 month reagent kits. They have a good record with the Trident ACM so there is also that.

Hope your day is well.

 

[amarti2038]

I’d like to share my personal experience.

I’ve had the Trident NP since October 2024, and a Trident ACM since 2023. The ACM has never given me a single problem and has been working perfectly for almost two years, testing every day. Its results are always very close to my ICP tests and to my Hanna and Salifert kits. My manual tests also match ICPs very well, and I absolutely love both the ACM and my handheld testers.

With the Trident NP, it has been the complete opposite. I honestly don’t trust it. I only use it during vacations, and after going through three sets of reagents, I’ve had only one “reasonable” experience with a single set. The rest of the time, results have been wrong.

On top of that, two of the five pinch valves broke. In my opinion, that only happens due to a valve defect or software behavior. Recently, the tubing also broke. Since this happened 1 year and 2 months after purchase, it was out of warranty and I had to cover all repair costs myself.

Replacement(fyi): https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256809930594691.html
DC 12V Micro solenoid operated pinch valve Normally closed

Brand	BOSHUN
Product name:	SOLENOID VALVE
Modle	BS-0838V
Rated voltage	DC12-48V

With relatively little use, the cuvette also gets dirty very quickly and is difficult to clean. I disassembled it and spent almost an hour getting it back into an acceptable condition.

From a usability standpoint, working with the NP is hard, while the ACM is a joy to use.

Today I recalibrated the NP again, and the first measurement was reasonably close to my manual tests. Let’s see how it behaves over time. I understand that measuring nutrients is complex, but still…

What I find significant is that if you search “Trident NP” on Reef2Reef, you’ll see many people selling their units.

I really love Neptune Systems, but in my experience the NP is not as refined or stable as the ACM. You can clearly see the effort put into firmware updates, but my experience with the NP has been poor. I truly hope that after this repair, the latest firmware, and this new calibration, it will finally perform better.

I’ll post my results here as they come.

 

[bkwonnn]

It’s a horrible peace of kit. Save yourself the frustration

 

[bkwonnn]

It’s much easier to do the manual tests and not bother with the trident np. You will do less manual testing without the np because you won’t be trying to calibrate it all the time.

 

[bkwonnn]

Reagents are crazy expensive, and always out of stock. I assume because most of them are from a bad batch. It hardly ever functions properly. Then every other year you have to service it for a few hundred bucks. Every test is at least 2 dollar if you take everything in consideration, but most of the time you get some random numbers for that money. It’s by far the worst piece of reef equiptment I own. I would highly recommend just to manual test with Hannah every other week. In a healthy tank po4 and no3
Should be stable anyways.

 

[areefer01]

Reagents are crazy expensive, and always out of stock. I assume because most of them are from a bad batch. It hardly ever functions properly. Then every other year you have to service it for a few hundred bucks. Every test is at least 2 dollar if you take everything in consideration, but most of the time you get some random numbers for that money. It’s by far the worst piece of reef equiptment I own. I would highly recommend just to manual test with Hannah every other week. In a healthy tank po4 and no3
Should be stable anyways.

Your math is wrong - it is not 2 dollars per test as you noted above.

BRS NP reagent cost is $59.99 USD
2 month kit (depends on water chemistry of course)
$60.00 round up, set aside tax, shipping, / 60 tests (est) = $1.00 USD nitrate and phosphate test per day.

With regards to service, there are a couple of options self service or cross ship. Not set in stone but I recall Neptune state every 24 to 36 months. Again, would depend on water chemistry. The NP has a clean task.

I don't think it would make sense to compare nitrate and phosphate tests across the different manufactures because price varies and it would take awhile but using Hanna here is what I see.

Nitrate Hanna HI782 reagent is $26.99 USD box of 25
1 test per reagent pack
$26.99 / 25 = $1.08 each

Phosphate Hanna HI713 reagent is $18.99 box of 25
1 test per reagent pack
$18.99 / 25 = $0.76 each

1 Hanna Nitrate ($1.08) + 1 Hanna phosphate ($0.76) = $1.84 combined

Of course one could factor in the automation buy in price of the NP but just looking at the cost per test, the NP is cheaper per test. It does not negate your frustration which is fine. But setting that aside....

 

[BigDangler]

Your math is wrong - it is not 2 dollars per test as you noted above.

BRS NP reagent cost is $59.99 USD
2 month kit (depends on water chemistry of course)
$60.00 round up, set aside tax, shipping, / 60 tests (est) = $1.00 USD nitrate and phosphate test per day.

With regards to service, there are a couple of options self service or cross ship. Not set in stone but I recall Neptune state every 24 to 36 months. Again, would depend on water chemistry. The NP has a clean task.

I don't think it would make sense to compare nitrate and phosphate tests across the different manufactures because price varies and it would take awhile but using Hanna here is what I see.

Nitrate Hanna HI782 reagent is $26.99 USD box of 25
1 test per reagent pack
$26.99 / 25 = $1.08 each

Phosphate Hanna HI713 reagent is $18.99 box of 25
1 test per reagent pack
$18.99 / 25 = $0.76 each

1 Hanna Nitrate ($1.08) + 1 Hanna phosphate ($0.76) = $1.84 combined

Of course one could factor in the automation buy in price of the NP but just looking at the cost per test, the NP is cheaper per test. It does not negate your frustration which is fine. But setting that aside....

Why would ya set tax and shipping aside? You getting these things delivered free? Can I have this cheat code?

 

[Biokabe]

Why would ya set tax and shipping aside? You getting these things delivered free? Can I have this cheat code?

You'd set them aside because they're not constant and reliable costs. You can't model them consistently and fairly.

For example, if you buy the NP Reagents from Top Shelf Aquatics, they ship ground supplies free on orders $49+. The reagents kit is $59.99, so it'll always ship free from them.

For taxes, that'll depend heavily on where you are. If I were to buy that kit, I'd pay about $6 in state sales tax. If someone in Oregon bought it, they'd pay $0 in state sales tax.

And more to the point, those costs don't depend on the product itself. They depend on retailer policies or where you are physically located, neither of which is set by the manufacturer.

 

[areefer01]

Why would ya set tax and shipping aside? You getting these things delivered free? Can I have this cheat code?

Would you buy 1 box of Hanna reagents and pay shipping or would you buy the reagents and maybe something else you need? Shop wise and group.

There is your cheat code.

 

[areefer01]

You'd set them aside because they're not constant and reliable costs. You can't model them consistently and fairly.

For example, if you buy the NP Reagents from Top Shelf Aquatics, they ship ground supplies free on orders $49+. The reagents kit is $59.99, so it'll always ship free from them.

For taxes, that'll depend heavily on where you are. If I were to buy that kit, I'd pay about $6 in state sales tax. If someone in Oregon bought it, they'd pay $0 in state sales tax.

And more to the point, those costs don't depend on the product itself. They depend on retailer policies or where you are physically located, neither of which is set by the manufacturer.

Very well said - thank you. Also applies to a lot of what we buy in our hobby. It is like a mini game - but we can somewhat manage it.