Why so many Neptune Tridents for Sale?

[User1]

I bet.
I'm sure they are working on their secret lights, and might take them another year or 2 before that gets released.

Maybe Ecotech Marine is working on one that will test/monitor what lacks on the Trident ;Bookworm

Doubt it. Companies can have multiple projects in development and in parallel to one another. Has nothing to do with SKY. Heck most people don't even know what it is yet be it a light or a module or XYZ.

What is lacking in the Trident?

 

[jda]

How does an average person know his tank is solid? Dosing, coral growth, CO2 / Kalk running low, all good reasons for a probe or testing.
Someone said he can tell when a fish dies by watching ORP....although he sells the stuff

This is probably another conversation for another time, but I just look and see my co2 bubbling and effluent effluenting in my CaRx then I can just test for dKh once a week.. two minutes with Salifert. No need to test for anything else as long as the CaRx is working and the alk is around 7.0.

Even if you can tell that a fish died with ORP going down, what would you do about it? If nothing, then why have it? It is true, you can sometimes tell of a die off, but not always. I had a ORP monitor a few decades ago and spent a few weekends reading and understanding exactly the balance that the force needs between the dark and light side - OPR is complicated if you really dig in. Then I figured out that they were just numbers that I would do nothing about, so who cares in the end?

Again, do not take anything that I say on this to mean anything since I never used one, but if the average person did not know that their tank was solid, how would they know if they can trust a trident, or other piece of hardware? Don't you kinda have to know some stuff to know some stuff?

I talked to one of my friends who is selling his trident about something else and asked... he said that it works as advertised, just that he doesn't need what is offers and is looking to sell it before it is worthless when the next hot thing or new model comes out. He feels like it is another butt to wipe and without being useful, it has to go. Said that he can send me a graph that shows what he already knows... usage goes up as stuff grows and he will have to turn his CaRx up in a few months to compensate.

 

[User1]

I think a big portion of it is people not wanting to send them into Neptune for maintenance. Sell your year old one and buy another one and probably avoid the downtime for roughly the same price, no?

This makes no sense. We still do not know what the maintenance schedule is. We know there are some options they are working on such as:

1. Hobbyist kit - do it on our own
2. Send in, return
3. Standby unit which is something along the lines of send in/receive without maintenance delay, or deposit, receive, ship yours back, etc

@Thales probably has the longest running unit besides the primary creator and hasn't sent in for maintenance yet. Still works amazingly well the last I heard.

Problem with Trident for me is four things:

a) ongoing reagent cost is a lot more than regular test reagents and the benefits are not proven at this point
b) 18 month or so maintenance
c) the cost is really high for something that currently takes me maybe ten minutes a week total, checking my alk 3-4 times a week.
d) I simply do not want to be that dependent on technology

Out of the problems you listed only C and D are really applicable. Reagent cost is going to be the same regardless of automated platform. Alktronic, reefbot, Trident, GHL Ion, former MS discs. Automated testing is going to require some form of probe, reference fluid, reagent, disc, or test kit. D gets back to it not being needed or necessary but then again neither are skimmers or a slew of other things hobbyist buy.

It comes down to what the hobbyist designs into their system and their day to day routine. Which gets sort of to my point and the TL; DR reply:

The Trident is just another tool. It isn't required for a successful tank. However, it does make testing tasks easier and more consistent while also adding in a way to tighten up parameters by additional dosing control.

 

[Potatohead]

I didn't realize there was no maintenance schedule yet... When it came out they had mentioned there would be one. So it is odd to me they haven't figured that out because the timeline of when the maintenance should be done would seem to have arrived for the early adopters?

 

[User1]

I didn't realize there was no maintenance schedule yet... When it came out they had mentioned there would be one. So it is odd to me they haven't figured that out because the timeline of when the maintenance should be done would seem to have arrived for the early adopters?

They did say there would be one. They just haven't come out with it. A few live streams they mentioned they are working on it and what it would look like. Options are being worked on is what we know. I'm sure C19 isn't helping any especially since they are located in California and we are the poster child for a population that refuses to listen or do the right thing but that is another subject and I digress.

So yes. There was talk of a "scheduled maintenance". However it hasn't been announced in any detail. Only some options they are tossing around and what it may look like. One reason we do not know more about SKY is directly related to the Trident, pre release information, and things like the maintenance schedule or launch date overseas and issues that got in the way to delay it

 

[Billldg]

I want to know where all these Tridents are being sold, I need another one!!!

 

[User1]

I want to know where all these Tridents are being sold, I need another one!!!

I often wonder myself...

 

[fishybizzness]

Regularly in the marketplace forum

 

[Dilan Patel]

Here are my thoughts: When I was in the market for an automatic tester the alkatronic and reefbot were my options. I ended up going with the reefbot (#3**) as it was able to test alk, calc, no3 and po4 which is what I valued. I tested 3x a week and it worked great for the first 2 years of ownership. Had few hiccups along the way but were usually fixed easily. Maintenance was every 2 weeks to fill reagent bottles and empty waste and fill rodi. But this year it has been TERRIBLE. I have 0 trust in the unit due to a number of reasons I will not get into. My point being I needed a new automatic tester and I wanted more features.

When I first heard of the trident I thought I NEVER would buy it. I didn't like that I couldn't reduce number of tests below 4x a day, the upfront cost, reagent scarcity and having to upgrade my classic apex to the newest version. But I ended up making the decision of buying the neptune dos and love it! I love the fact I can manipulate settings anywhere in the world based on test results which is great since im away from my tanks for months at a time.

After weighing out the differences between the trident and the reefbot it was a clear choice. The cost of reagent, needles, syringes, vials for the reefbot were high...the rough numbers I had was for 3x testing a week + maintenance I was spending around $350 a year. if I wanted to follow the tridents testing schedule it would cost me a tad bit more than 4k!!! The trident on the other hand has either a yearly cost of $300 if buying 2 month reagents or $200 if buying 6months. I was lucky and got my 6 month reagents (I ended up buying 2 tridents lol so glad I did) on sale for thanksgiving bringing the yearly cost lower than expected as well as the initial upgrade to the new system and trident cost. And than I believe its 18ish months a maintenance would need to be done for about $100 done by me or a bit more sent in.

With this all taken into account I waited until Thanksgiving and bought 2 tridents, 2 apex el and 1 dos (for my other tank) all on sale + 6 month reagents + needle guides( thanks to previous owner recommendations I have been running the trident for 1 month now and just changed the reagent A yesterday took no more than 2 mins to follow the direction on fusion even with quite a few margs under my belt lol. I got at least a month if not more and measured the remaining ml which was less than 30 in the bottle when changed out! I have been also running the controlled dosing and love it.. Keeps levels really well.

I know this is a long post and a lot is rambling but I thoroughly enjoy the units and I am so glad I bought them and it integrates flawlessly into the apex family. I love the fact that I only have to lay my hands on the trident 1x a month as well as controlled dosing! The amount of test remaining and fluid remaing charts seem to be accurate! Some people may not like the fact the trident leaves a little extra reagent but that is done by design and im glad Neptune did that. I hope this message helps people understand why i found it useful

 

[mehaffydr]

i bought the Trident just after the initial release and would not give it up. I see a lot saying its easy to do manual testing but for me that means that you have to be home and I travel for work at least once a month and to be able to loo at everything on my phone is priceless. I have never run out of reagent but I also don't wait until the last minute to order so that has not been an issue for me and I find the cost very reasonable compared to the money we spend in this hobby. I just wish it would test Phosphate and Nitrate. I will buy that version as soon as it comes out.

 

[User1]

I have never run out of reagent but I also don't wait until the last minute to order so that has not been an issue

This is pretty much true for me as well. I've never ran out of reagents since I have owned it. During the height of the pandemic the 6 month kits became unavailable. Even during that time I never ran out. No different than the gas in ones car. I've never run out but then again I do not wait until I'm running on fumes or bingo...

 

[rtparty]

I love the fact that I said Manuel dose and no one told me about my spelling error. True friends here or people laughing behind my back.hahahahahaha

Sorry, Manual dosing!

Just figured you had Manuel dosing for you

 

[LowDime]

For what it worth, you can configure Trident to test however many times you want and at whatever time. I only have it to test alk once and combine once every day.

i am going to have to get with you and have you help me set mine up when i get it so it only tests one time a day like that

 

[ReefBeta]

i am going to have to get with you and have you help me set mine up when i get it so it only tests one time a day like that

Trident is simply controlled as couple outputs like other Apex output. It's only a matter of finding those output, then you can program it however you like the same as programming a light. These need to be done on a browser.

First need to determine the Trident's module number. Go to the Modules page. For me, it's 6.


Then go to edit any outlet of a powerbar, you will get to the Output Configuration page, with url of something like https://apexfusion.com/apex/<id>/config/outputs/2_1. (Local Apex works too, don't have to be fusion)
The last part is Module_OutletNumber. For Trident, the Trident test (combine test), is the 3 output. The alk test is the 4 output. So for example, when I go to https://apexfusion.com/apex/<id>/config/outputs/6_3, it is the one that control combine test. You will see some OSC code there, reflecting your selected schedule. Now simply change it using normal Apex code, just turn on that output for 1 minute to kick off the test. This is what I have.


That's it, pretty straightforward. For example, to have alk tested twice a day, but ca and mg for once a day, you will turn on Trident test once, which test all three, including alk. Then turn on alk one more time later to test for the second time.

 

[Tamberav]

You are overthinking it.

People are selling them for the same reason you can find wavemakers, lights, tanks and other stuff. People are constantly getting in and out of the hobby and COVID has hit some with hard times.

 

[rtparty]

Trident is simply controlled as couple outputs like other Apex output. It's only a matter of finding those output, then you can program it however you like the same as programming a light. These need to be done on a browser.

First need to determine the Trident's module number. Go to the Modules page. For me, it's 6.


Then go to edit any outlet of a powerbar, you will get to the Output Configuration page, with url of something like https://apexfusion.com/apex/<id>/config/outputs/2_1. (Local Apex works too, don't have to be fusion)
The last part is Module_OutletNumber. For Trident, the Trident test (combine test), is the 3 output. The alk test is the 4 output. So for example, when I go to https://apexfusion.com/apex/<id>/config/outputs/6_3, it is the one that control combine test. You will see some OSC code there, reflecting your selected schedule. Now simply change it using normal Apex code, just turn on that output for 1 minute to kick off the test. This is what I have.


That's it, pretty straightforward. For example, to have alk tested twice a day, but ca and mg for once a day, you will turn on Trident test once, which test all three, including alk. Then turn on alk one more time later to test for the second time.

Did you talk to Neptune about this at all?

I fully understand they want to sell reagents but I also believe them when they say the the tests need to run X amount per day to keep the lines clear.

I don't have a Trident so I'm just going off what everyone has said and what Neptune said. It simply could be they want to sell more reagents

 

[siggy]

Phosphates testing is a must in my system, if something is going south
It because of nutrients.

 

[User1]

Did you talk to Neptune about this at all?

I fully understand they want to sell reagents but I also believe them when they say the the tests need to run X amount per day to keep the lines clear.

I don't have a Trident so I'm just going off what everyone has said and what Neptune said. It simply could be they want to sell more reagents

Everyone needs to move away from the idea that all Neptune wants to do is sell Trident owners reagents. There is no money grab here. It is a means to an end. A necessity to do the test. Reagents also have a shelf life. Similar to the test kits that most of us use be it Red Sea, Hanna, or XYZ. They have both shelf life and expiration after opening. So does milk, so does the fuel in your lawn mower.

If Neptune wanted a money grab we would all be paying a monthly fee for Fusion access. We don't. So let us all just end the nonsense and noise about reagents. You will be replacing test kits with the Reef Bot. You would have replaced discs with the Mindstream. You will be replacing probes and reference fluid with the ION.

Automated testing comes with a price. It isn't free. Regardless of the manufacture the hobbyist chooses.

 

[bigjgmac]

I got my trident within a month or so of release day and you can pry it out of my cold dead hands. I love the trident and I wound not go back to manual testing at this point. In fact I recently sold my Hanna alkalinity and calcium checkers because I realized that I haven’t used them since I got the trident.

I absolutely don’t need to test alkalinity 4 times a day, but it doesn’t hurt to test that frequently and the reagent isn’t a huge cost. (A six month supply is $99 with free shipping at most of the retailers, so it works out to $16.50 a month).

That $16.50 a month saves me from having to do manual calcium and alkalinity tests, which for me was a big burden. For some reason I had a hard time testing as frequently as I should have and that would lead to alkalinity and calcium swings. Since I’ve gotten the Trident the apex handles my alkalinity and calcium dosing and keeps my parameters very stable. As a result my corals are much happier.

Is the Trident a necessary piece of equipment? Absolutely not. If you are the type of person who doesn’t mind doing manual tests and/or has your dosing dialed in so that your parameters are staying stable, then there might not be a big benefit to you. But if you want to stop or cut back on the manual testing, then it can definitely be worthwhile.

Right now I’m only doing manual testing for phosphates and nitrates and if Neptune introduced another version of the Trident that could test for phosphates and nitrates I would buy it in a heartbeat. I’m actually seriously considering getting a reefbot for that, but I really don’t have a place to put it near my tank.

Ditto that. I’ve had mine for three months now. Between that and my Apex the only manual tests I run ate nitrate and phosphate. My tank is MUCH more stable now.

 

[siggy]

You should be able to flush the system instead of testing 4 times a day, but hey, you will know when all the uptake accurs