Reef nutrition

Conisering Apex and Trident.

Matthew Meyer

Matthew Meyer

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My tank is about 1.5 years old now. I find myself lacking on diligent alk and Ca testing. I have had a few big swings due to user error during testing and calibrating my equipment. I am just too tired to do my chore when I come home from work at the hospital (No breaks/lunch).

Do those who use trident recommend? I have looked at BAR forums about calibration and troubleshooting trident and it just looks like more potential work.

Thoughts? Is it overall less work ?

Thanks
 
I'd say it's overall less work. It gives trends, I calibrate every time I swap out reagent (every two months or so), and it's way less work than manual testing
 
L/B Block said:
I also 2nd the trident. Concur with @Chromis that it reduces the amount of work and I do the same where I calibrate every couple
Of months.
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No, I wish I had used all the time I spent troubleshooting Apex and Tridents to design my own version that didn’t suck. They can be useful if you travel a lot, provided you have a person who can be there to fix whatever problems arise. The Trident created as many disasters as it MIGHT have prevented. I had four, and threw away one after Neptune support told me the PCB was shot and it was out of warranty. Turned out one power plug pin was corroded and it could have been fixed. Seeing trends was interesting, and can help you develop your intuition, but not necessary. Also, the premise that you need stable alk is BS. You need stable effective alk, which means alk is high when pH is lower and vice versa. And don’t get me started on the salinity probes :)
 
I think it’s way less work and more reliable to have Apex/Trident. I can’t imagine going back to having a tank without them. At least anything other than a softie or invert/fish tank.

People don’t post every time it works well.
 
Matthew Meyer said:
My tank is about 1.5 years old now. I find myself lacking on diligent alk and Ca testing. I have had a few big swings due to user error during testing and calibrating my equipment. I am just too tired to do my chore when I come home from work at the hospital (No breaks/lunch).

Do those who use trident recommend? I have looked at BAR forums about calibration and troubleshooting trident and it just looks like more potential work.

Thoughts? Is it overall less work ?

Thanks
Click to expand...
Adding on to my earlier comment:

The biggest pain I've had with the Trident was when I was stupid, didn't do the shut down process, and had to flush the tubing manually. The second was figuring out that one of the PCBs wasn't seated properly.

Looking at it this way: I've spent far less time in the past 1.5-2 years with the Trident - even factoring in all the above headaches - than I would have doing even inconsistent manual testing. I do not trust myself to regularly test, particularly since comfort breeds complacency.

I have a post I wrote up a while ago detailing the pros and cons of Apex/Trident versus GHL. Automatic testing (at hobbyist -grade prices, at least) is difficult, and I'd describe the Trident as similar to democracy: the worst system, except for all the others.

If your swings have caused issues in the tank, and they could have been prevented by earlier knowledge, I'd advocate automated testing. If you're going to go automated, I'd advocate Trident.

Of course, take all this with a grain of salt because I'm very much in the camp of "automate everything I possibly can to minimize hassle and maximize time spent looking at the pretty fishes and corals".
 
I use mine and while there are some mechanical issues I have had that requires flushing of tubes, I have had an overall very good experience with mine.
 
Just keep the receipt! I did have one major malfunction that warranted returning the unit to Neptune. Otherwise it has been fine thus far.

The shutdown procedure is a pain though in that it can’t be down remotely unlike other other modules
 
I can 100% recommend the Apex and 50% recommend the Trident.

I've had probably 4 or 5 Tridents and eventually they've all have some annoying issues. In particular I have beef with the consistency of readings.
I've gone through bouts of everything being fine for months - then magically CA reads 80 pts lower out of nowhere (even when the bottle isn't low).

Recently I changed Reagent A (alk) as it was nearly empty and my ALK readings jumped from being a steady 8.2 for a long while to 9.1 ... I calibrate before each new Reagent, so which one was "right" the 8.2 or the 9.1? Two different Hanna checkers w/ new a new bottle of reagent said neither LOL. They both also said the Trident calibration liquid had the wrong ALK reading on the label - so I have no idea if the Hanna's are correct either. LOL

So ya - the Trident is good but, honestly, I have no clue if/when it's accurate. Its great for trends - but then again - when you get a massive jump do you just move on to using with the new number?

The above applies to Neptune and ABC reagent. I've found neither of them get the consistency/predictability I desire.
 
Thank you for all your input. I'll probably keep trying 2part and hanna testing until black friday and then pull the trigger. I want to spend less time testing and have more stability.
 
JVU said:
I think it’s way less work and more reliable to have Apex/Trident. I can’t imagine going back to having a tank without them. At least anything other than a softie or invert/fish tank.

People don’t post every time it works well.
Click to expand...

For sure, the loudest mouths are the complaints.
 
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