Apex Trident Pros and Cons

[ofzakaria]

Yeah I can see that happening. Setup has not been intuitive, but I think the functionality will be worth it. I need to spend some time learning it

Same here, I hot khd, used it for one day and took it offline. Performance is good, but not being able to dump test back to sump killed it for me.
Ghl doses are dope thu..best in market for me.
They improved their sw bte. Now one app do it all including the initial setup.

 

[max_nano]

Same here, I hot khd, used it for one day and took it offline. Performance is good, but not being able to dump test back to sump killed it for me.
Ghl doses are dope thu..best in market for me.
They improved their sw bte. Now one app do it all including the initial setup.

For testing and dosing is the khg pro required or just the khg. Also interesting side note, it looks like marine depot purchased the first search result for kh guardian despite not selling them. It must have been a cheap search to buy 1st result.

 

[ofzakaria]

For testing and dosing is the khg pro required or just the khg. Also interesting side note, it looks like marine depot purchased the first search result for kh guardian despite not selling them. It must have been a cheap search to buy 1st result.

Now they sell only the pro, basically they are selling the pro for the same price as the test only khg.
To buy you either buy directly from their website, or install go to their fb, their north America distributor very active there. His name is alex, they are based on Texas i believe. Super responsive and nice. If you like I can pm you their email.
I think they are selling it at 450 or so, it comes with 1 or 2 reagent packets. Each packet last you 2 months of testing.

 

[Scott Sweet]

Same here, I hot khd, used it for one day and took it offline. Performance is good, but not being able to dump test back to sump killed it for me.
Ghl doses are dope thu..best in market for me.
They improved their sw bte. Now one app do it all including the initial setup.

Yes...I have seen variants of it. My issue is the graphing and being able to do so from my iphone. It took them nearly a year to get this software out. I don't know if Apple released it yet, but as of about a month ago, it still was not released by Apple. I also tried upgrading my dosers to the latest f/w and the wifi wouldn't work for some reason. I spent several hours trying different variants. In the end, I went back to the previous f/w and it just worked. Given there is really only Vinny for support in the USA, it is really frustrating because he can be slow to respond if he is busy. Matthias, the owner, has "his" way he thinks we should all think...and well...most just don't think like him LOL. I think he is making good products...but he doesn't "listen" to his customer...he tells.... In the end, people make their choices...

 

[ofzakaria]

Yes...I have seen variants of it. My issue is the graphing and being able to do so from my iphone. It took them nearly a year to get this software out. I don't know if Apple released it yet, but as of about a month ago, it still was not released by Apple. I also tried upgrading my dosers to the latest f/w and the wifi wouldn't work for some reason. I spent several hours trying different variants. In the end, I went back to the previous f/w and it just worked. Given there is really only Vinny for support in the USA, it is really frustrating because he can be slow to respond if he is busy. Matthias, the owner, has "his" way he thinks we should all think...and well...most just don't think like him LOL. I think he is making good products...but he doesn't "listen" to his customer...he tells.... In the end, people make their choices...

Lol agreed, Matthias is funny and strongly opinionated ha ha. Honestly I have had ugly encounters with most companies reps and "execs" most think they know it all and have ugly attitude if you are not a fanboy ha ha.
I never follow one company only. I follow products. Each company have some shitty products and some good ones. That's why my builds have mixture of good products rather than just one brand.
Controller and doser ghl won in my book ( owned apex and reefkeeper before)
Kh tester khg
Pumps and skimmers royal exclusive
Power heads, vortechs
Lights radions or hydras..
...

 

[Scott Sweet]

Since this thread is about the Trident...here is what I hear...whether it is true or not...I can't say from personal experience...but I am mentioning some of the reasons I do not have one.

1. Easy to use and easy to see what is going on for the top 3 values.
2. Can be used for just monitoring or control if you choose. Can only control CA, Alk and Mg. Not clear how to set things up if you are using other versions of 2, 3, 4 part dosing regiments where dosing equal parts of each at any one dosing time. I use Core7. Can be really expensive and complicated to set up a 4 part by using the 2 DOS units. $600 for just the dosers in my situation.
3. Good product..but a bit quirky and temperamental. I am unsure how effective or the ability to calibrate the unit based on where you place it relative to the water source. The instructions say you cannot use a longer or shorter line of the in and out lines. All the other systems I have seen, you calibrate each to ensure accuracy...you also test that periodically.
4. Expensive to run overall...the cost of the reagents, annual tuneup, etc. - especially having to run the tests you may not really care about testing all the time...is a waste of money. I only test Ca once a week. Mg...once a month maybe.
5. Right now...availability of reagents...you are solely dependent on Apex for these reagents.
6. You must have an Apex..can't be standalone. If you lose the Apex...you lose the tests. If you want the Trident, you have to buy the Apex...that is expensive.

Personally, I have intentionally not used all systems controlled by Apex for redundancy. I have had my Apex fail in less than one year. My ATO, water change, alk testing/dosing, light schedule are not dependent on Apex. It is a pain dealing with different systems, but it does provide protection of a failure of some sort.

 

[ofzakaria]

Since this thread is about the Trident...here is what I hear...whether it is true or not...I can't say from personal experience...but I am mentioning some of the reasons I do not have one.

1. Easy to use and easy to see what is going on for the top 3 values.
2. Can be used for just monitoring or control if you choose. Can only control CA, Alk and Mg. Not clear how to set things up if you are using other versions of 2, 3, 4 part dosing regiments where dosing equal parts of each at any one dosing time. I use Core7. Can be really expensive and complicated to set up a 4 part by using the 2 DOS units. $600 for just the dosers in my situation.
3. Good product..but a bit quirky and temperamental. I am unsure how effective or the ability to calibrate the unit based on where you place it relative to the water source. The instructions say you cannot use a longer or shorter line of the in and out lines. All the other systems I have seen, you calibrate each to ensure accuracy...you also test that periodically.
4. Expensive to run overall...the cost of the reagents, annual tuneup, etc. - especially having to run the tests you may not really care about testing all the time...is a waste of money. I only test Ca once a week. Mg...once a month maybe.
5. Right now...availability of reagents...you are solely dependent on Apex for these reagents.
6. You must have an Apex..can't be standalone. If you lose the Apex...you lose the tests. If you want the Trident, you have to buy the Apex...that is expensive.

Personally, I have intentionally not used all systems controlled by Apex for redundancy. I have had my Apex fail in less than one year. My ATO, water change, alk testing/dosing, light schedule are not dependent on Apex. It is a pain dealing with different systems, but it does provide protection of a failure of some sort.

I will also add it's not clear yet what the maintenance cost and availibilitynwill be for trident when these peristaltic pumps need to be replaced like any other peristaltic pump out there. I already see shortage on all apex products on brs, hopefully supply chain will open again, but it's still to be seen what the performance will look like long term. I believe soon we will find out, it's been a year since trident is launched, I anticipate we start seeing maintenance needed on existing units and we will learn how that goes.
Same for ION director, xepta amd couple other products coming to market soon. Still unknown how these products will perform short and long term

With khd and khg the maintenance is shown to be simple and can be done in home quickly..

 

[Scott Sweet]

I will also add it's not clear yet what the maintenance cost and availibilitynwill be for trident when these peristaltic pumps need to be replaced like any other peristaltic pump out there. I already see shortage on all apex products on brs, hopefully supply chain will open again, but it's still to be seen what the performance will look like long term. I believe soon we will find out, it's been a year since trident is launched, I anticipate we start seeing maintenance needed on existing units and we will learn how that goes.
Same for ION director, xepta amd couple other products coming to market soon. Still unknown how these products will perform short and long term

With khd and khg the maintenance is shown to be simple and can be done in home quickly..

Same for Alkatronic/Dosetronic...

 

[ofzakaria]

Same for Alkatronic/Dosetronic...

How long the alktronic been out there? It's the only product I never tried and have least informations about.
Am assuming it also use peristaltic head(s), if so, what's the maintenance schedule and ease on it?

 

[Scott Sweet]

How long the alktronic been out there? It's the only product I never tried and have least informations about.
Am assuming it also use peristaltic head(s), if so, what's the maintenance schedule and ease on it?

Its been out about 2 years. The Dosetronic a little over a year. As for maintenance, you need to periodically calibrate the dosing pumps and the ph probe. Similar to the KH Director/ghl dosers. You have both bluetooth and wifi access to the alkatronic. It also has adjustment algorithms for dosing...at the overall dose level (dose for the day) and adjustment of each dose per day. It is easy to set up for 2, 3 or 4 part dosing...whatever your regiment you use. The app is very intuitive and I like the graphs it produces. When the Mastertronic comes out...it will be fully integrated in to the s/w.

The alkalinity reagent is a mild acid and can be put back in to the aquarium if desired. It is pretty inexpensive to buy given the way they sell it. Though I make my own...

 

[ofzakaria]

Its been out about 2 years. The Dosetronic a little over a year. As for maintenance, you need to periodically calibrate the dosing pumps and the ph probe. Similar to the KH Director/ghl dosers. You have both bluetooth and wifi access to the alkatronic. It also has adjustment algorithms for dosing...at the overall dose level (dose for the day) and adjustment of each dose per day. It is easy to set up for 2, 3 or 4 part dosing...whatever your regiment you use. The app is very intuitive and I like the graphs it produces. When the Mastertronic comes out...it will be fully integrated in to the s/w.

The alkalinity reagent is a mild acid and can be put back in to the aquarium if desired. It is pretty inexpensive to buy given the way they sell it. Though I make my own...

Thanks for sharing. Very similar to the khg also.
Calibrate ph once every year. Change dosing tubings every 18 to 24 months. The reagent is just rodi with specific acidity that's why you can dump it back to sump.

 

[NanoCrazed]

Argh. Encountering more trident woes again.

Unplugged the trident to clean the backside of the cuvette and reseat the sample line as salt creep was developing along the while tube (per instructions of Neptune support).

Went to plug the trident back in and it's been trying to initialize and keeps claiming no water sample for the last 24 hours, despite sucking and dumping a pint of tank sample water.

Did everything from restart, factory reset, SW update, etc. Guess it's time to open a support ticket...

This is a new replacement unit for the last one the broke. Up and running since March...

 

[NanoCrazed]

Think i figured out the problem... took a closer look and see salt creep covering the optical sensor window, hence why the Trident can't detect and confirm sample presence...