Flagg37
Guest
Did Neptune take preorders? I thought they just released it and people complained that there wasn’t enough supply.
Mindstream monitor seems to be available
- Thread starter rygh
- Start date
ofzakaria
Guest
They did not, but in my book they hooked people in investing in a full controller in hope of the trident 3 years ago....
What am trying to say here, if we compare a startup that just launched to a well established vendor I would say mindstream is not bad...at least not yet.
They are giving 6 to 8 weeks lead time anyway and I have not heard of many people saying it's taking more than 8 weeks...
They are new and I can totally believe they did not learn how to scale production yet.
On the same token, I do not believe trident is in short supply. Neptune is experienced, I believe trident have an issue and not in production. I do not think there is that many units in the field. That's one of the reasons I went mindstream path.
Now, mindstream itself can end up being sucky, but I was willing to bet on them and hope for the best ha ha.
Last edited:
Vhuang168
Guest
Tridents are being produced continuously and are shipped out on a daily basis.
Terence put up some pictures of production and a walk through of how they are produced including why so few numbers weekly in the MACNA meetup.
Yes those are actual pictures of our production area in our facility in Morgan Hill and NOT a factory in China (this was asked before).
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
ofzakaria
Guest
Any chance you have the link to the video? Would love to understand why it's taking so long for units to come out. Even on forums I see people selling more than actual reviews which lead me to believe there is a very small number out in the field...
Flagg37
Guest
I don’t think that’s accurate. I definitely don’t recall hearing about the trident 3 years ago. I also don’t think it’s fair to say people were hooked into buying the full controller. Even if it was announced 3 years ago that the trident would need the 2016 apex in order for it to work, it’s not like people bought it and then just left it in the box waiting for the trident to be released. No, if they did buy it in anticipation they used it. You make it sound like Neptune swindled people into buying equipment they didn’t want. Maybe that’s what you think, but I don’t interpret the words or actions of Neptune to be that nefarious.
Something you didn’t mention is how long the mindstream has been in production. It was announced like 8 years ago (I’m not sure it was that long ago, but it was far longer than the trident). Most people that I talked to called it vaporware, as in, it would never actually be made. I was actually surprised when it was announced that they were taking pre orders.
How do you make the claim that the trident is not actually in short supply. When I do a quick online search I cannot find any place that has them in stock at the moment (other than eBay). Do you think Neptune is storing them in their warehouse? You say that you think the trident has a problem that is not with their production. Can you elaborate on that? What kind of problem? I’m not sure how many are in the field but I’m confident there are many more tridents in the field than mindstreams.
Lastly, to recap your position, you chose to trust a startup that has taken nearly a decade from the time they announced to the time they released their product and is having supply issues over an experienced (your words) company that took 3 years (I think it was more 1/2 that) from announcement to release and is having similar supply issues.
I’m not trying to disparage mindstream; I am honestly considering it over the trident. That being said, I don’t see any valid reason not to trust Neptune whereas since I’ve not seen a single customer review of the mindstream I’m still skeptical of their product.
ofzakaria
Guest
Good points. I wasnot aware of the mindstrean until 2 months ago. Glad they released it thu.
To me I lost trust with couple of the latest products I got like atk, fmm and the flow meters.
Also the way Neptune communicated with customers did not sit well with me..
But totally see your points.
Indeed I chose to put my trust in startup at the moment because to me it looked more innovative and worth the investment. The product is novel and not a repackaged components. Kudos to them pulling it off.
I just hope am not mistaken here ha ha
Last edited:
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
I think Trident shortages are more due to the market share that the Apex has, it absolutely crushes sales numbers for all other aquarium controllers combined (at least in the US), so that means lots of customers who may want this device which means huge demands and there are limits to how many products any one company can make.
That said first I recall of this was at the 2016 MACNA when Jim Welsh brought his alkalinty monitor to show off (presumably to companies) and not to long after I believe Neptune hired him for consultation on a product (presumably the Trident) and want to say at the 2017 MACNA (So September 2017) it was announced. So yeah it was first announced 2 years ago, wasn't released 2 years ago mind you but that's when they announced it.
That said first I recall of this was at the 2016 MACNA when Jim Welsh brought his alkalinty monitor to show off (presumably to companies) and not to long after I believe Neptune hired him for consultation on a product (presumably the Trident) and want to say at the 2017 MACNA (So September 2017) it was announced. So yeah it was first announced 2 years ago, wasn't released 2 years ago mind you but that's when they announced it.
ofzakaria
Guest
Yeh maybe,
It will be against most data around but sure, we can speculate that the this miss of the delay is actually a hit....
Last edited:
Neptune has been an amazing resource for the reefing community. I’ve been reefing for almost as long as Neptune has been around, and I believe that the hobby is a lot better with their contributions. Not only direct contributions with products, but also by driving the competition to improve, and by supporting reefing communities like ours.
New tech like this isn’t inherently winner-take-all, having competition drives quality/features up while driving price down, so I’m thankful there are choices.
I would love for BAR to be able to have a behind-the-scenes tour at Neptune in Morgan Hill, hopefully to include the production lines. I think that would be very interesting for a lot of us, and also great for Neptune PR and customer loyalty.
ofzakaria
Guest
Totally agree. Controllers changed this hobby.
I been in the hobby since before Neptune and remember how I felt when I added my first reef keeper ha ha. Then DA started fading away and apex took over. Did an awesome job and filled the gap.
Now we have apex, ghl, sense hydros coming out..etc
vendors and or new products make the next vendors and product stronger. They learn from past mistakes and missed opportunities....
Competition is good and keep vendors on their toes not to take customer loyalty for granted.
Industry is evolving fast and all is good for the customers...good time to be a reefer
Last edited:
Vhuang168
Guest
I don't know if anyone has uploaded the video yet.
Most users are not on forums or social media. What you see online represents a very small percentage of users. This applies across almost all brands, products and industries.
ofzakaria
Guest
Will try to look it up. I was not aware Neptune build in house and always thought you they built in china, except maybe for low volume products where it's not worth running it in a mass production enviroment ..I thought neptune mainly do assembly in house. Would be fun to watch their production line for sure.
As for forums you might be right, though I would expect forum users are more involved in the hobby compared to someone who do not use the forums...thanks for clarifying.
ofzakaria
Guest
Btw the only truly all in house production equipments vendors I know of are royal exclusive, ghl and abyzz. There are some absolutely impressive videos online about their production lines..treat to watch.
Ghl build everything in house including SMT line which is very expensive for those who know how complex SMT and reflow lines are..
Ofcourse am sure there are others. These are the ones I know about..
Will try to find these videos and post..its really fun to watch
Ghl build everything in house including SMT line which is very expensive for those who know how complex SMT and reflow lines are..
Ofcourse am sure there are others. These are the ones I know about..
Will try to find these videos and post..its really fun to watch
Last edited:
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Yeah and look how expensive Abyzz is too 
Fricking pump cost more than my whole tank
Fricking pump cost more than my whole tank
ofzakaria
Guest
Ha ha ha so true. They do give 10 years warranty thu...10 years...how else can they give such warranty if it was not such quality.Yeah and look how expensive Abyzz is too
That being said I never use abyzz I use red dragons which is half of the cost and have as good quality. All my pumps and skimmers are royal execlusive.
I purchased vectra that died on me by year 2..in the big scheme of things have I went red dragon right away I would have saved money.red dragon was like 200$ more than the vectra.....the story of reefing ha ha
Last edited:
Chromis
Supporting Member
Well, my Mindstream order is past the 9-week mark and I’m getting suspicious they don’t intend to fulfill the majority of orders before shutting down altogether. They are still quoting 6-8week lead time on their site and are only limiting to 3 units per order (weird since they cannot ship their existing orders). Instead of charging at shipment time, they charge your card 100% up front, and when you ask for a delivery update they promise 10% off “at shipment time” instead of just charging back 10% right away. Very suspicious to me... what do you think?
ofzakaria
Guest
Yeh that's frustrating to say the least. They are fulfilling orders thats for sure,just very slow..
I also think if you cancel the order they should and will honor it and just cancel. So at this point I would say decide what you want and just go with it. They must be ok if you cancelled
Liz, since you’re nervous, just cancel your order. You can always reorder in a couple months once they’ve shipped a bunch of units and there are some more reviews out. Since they are obviously falling behind on orders, having a few people whose orders are late cancel would probably be a relief for them anyway.
rygh
Guest
My wild guess:
They used the pre-order cash to help pay for the first round of manufacturing.
There is some unexpected fix/workaround/calibration that has to be done by hand that is slowing down shipments.
Which means:
You should get one ... eventually.
They will totally panic if everyone wants a refund, since the money has been spent.
They used the pre-order cash to help pay for the first round of manufacturing.
There is some unexpected fix/workaround/calibration that has to be done by hand that is slowing down shipments.
Which means:
You should get one ... eventually.
They will totally panic if everyone wants a refund, since the money has been spent.