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Neptune Trident NP and new DOS!

IOnceWasLegend said:
Several reasons:
  • A vocal segment of customers have been asking for it, very loudly, for literal years
  • Public perception of Neptune is (generally) that they've more or less stagnated; contrast this with Hydros and others making a concerted effort to innovate and do new things
  • One school of marketing points to the idea that, to get someone to switch from their current solution/tool, you need to both provide a better solution and make them think that staying with their current solution is more painful than switching. If you pitch NO3/PO4 as painful, and Neptune doesn't have NO3/PO4, it's an easy case for Hydros (and others) to make to get them to switch. Just having NO3/PO4 testing could be a significant market advantage
  • Cost is not the end-all be-all, especially for people in hobbies with members that have disproportionately high amounts of disposable income. If someone already has all the other Neptune pieces, knows how they work, and has everything set up how they like it, the monetary cost may be more than worth it to avoid having to learn/integrate an entirely new system
  • Viewpoints on the importance of NO3 and PO4 vary and, as we're still learning things, aren't set in stone. Some people will buy this tool simply to be better safe than sorry
  • Some people are just innovators/early adopters and the technology (as well as trying it out before everyone else does) is the point
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None of these points convince me personally, as they do not address the substance of the issue which is what the actual problem is. Do I need to test them daily? If yes, maybe then I need this. Am I too lazy to test them weekly and have unlimited funds? BRS suggested recently to test nitrates once a month only (not saying they are right). So not sure if I would buy this for two reasons: is the maintenance of this device taking me more time than hand testing these rather simple-to-test parameters, and how reliable are these weekly test results, how many mistakes can I make with calibration etc.

From a corporate marketing perspective, they make sense for sure, and if people asked for this then there will be a big enough market. I challenge the desire to need this is the issue.
 
Alexander1312 said:
From a corporate marketing perspective, they make sense for sure, and if people asked for this then there will be a big enough market. I challenge the desire to need this is the issue.
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I wrote it from a corp marketing perspective and answering the question about 'business need'. I don't think there's a PRACTICAL need for a device that tests NO3/PO4 so frequently, but...when has 'what customers need' ever gotten in the way of 'what customers want'? :)
 
Marketing isn’t doing the job they need to be doing. Trident should have always be marketed first, as a device to help prevent/detect failures that lead to tank crashes, and second to making your testing life easier. The second should be a bonus.

Phosphate/Nitrate testing would be great for those that are running lower nutrients (e.g., zeovit), dosing nitrate, dosing lanthanum chloride, running biopellets, running algae scrubbers/fuges or doing some carbon dosing. If a pump fails or a light fails on a fuge/scrubber, or an auto feeder breaks and dumps too much or too little food - basically anything fails for one of those situations, you’ll be notified hopefully sooner than later and you can correct the problem before a big crash happens. That’s always the argument for testing something daily that doesn’t really need to be.
 
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IOnceWasLegend said:
I wrote it from a corp marketing perspective and answering the question about 'business need'. I don't think there's a PRACTICAL need for a device that tests NO3/PO4 so frequently, but...when has 'what customers need' ever gotten in the way of 'what customers want'? :)
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I could see a need with a device that tested 2x a week perhaps.

What would be interesting.. is to see how my carbon dosing is doing throughout the day in conjunction with my otherwise heavy feeding schedule- but it’s a nice to know not a need to have..
 
JustinBolton said:
I find half way through a B-C reagent my Ca often spikes to 500+, most of the time I calibrate unless its a 3 packs (all the same reagent)
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That is a bit odd. Happens occasionally on my trident that it does that but rare.
How long have you had it? If over 6 months have you cleaned out the optical sensor chamber?
 
L/B Block said:
That is a bit odd. Happens occasionally on my trident that it does that but rare.
How long have you had it? If over 6 months have you cleaned out the optical sensor chamber?
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Ive had it since first release, all 3 ive owned (via swap out) have calcium issues, ive tried everything, its just a hobby grade toy that needs a lot of finesse, Alk is great, but due to past experienced I would be very hesitant to try a NP.
 
L/B Block said:
That is a bit odd. Happens occasionally on my trident that it does that but rare.
How long have you had it? If over 6 months have you cleaned out the optical sensor chamber?
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Mine does this, too. I clean the optical sensor chamber every few months. I've had it happen a few times when the B and C reagent volume starts getting low, but Ca generally starts trending up ~50% of the way through my reagent bottle.
 
IOnceWasLegend said:
Mine does this, too. I clean the optical sensor chamber every few months. I've had it happen a few times when the B and C reagent volume starts getting low, but Ca generally starts trending up ~50% of the way through my reagent bottle.
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yup around 50% is when I see it also, supper annoying.
 
JustinBolton said:
Ive had it since first release, all 3 ive owned (via swap out) have calcium issues, ive tried everything, its just a hobby grade toy that needs a lot of finesse, Alk is great, but due to past experienced I would be very hesitant to try a NP.
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I really only trust it for alk as ca is generally tied together as I am using all for reef -BUT now curious to see if CA really does float up at 50% or less.
 
ashburn2k said:
gonna fire up my 3d printer to print a housing to host both :D
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I’m printing up two of these, one for the original and one for the NP. The files are floating around. If you come up with a more compact single version let me know!

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IOnceWasLegend said:
You mean what Neptune should've done in the first place? :p
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They have a billion Tridents in place, so would have to sell both combined units and solo units which would drive up costs. They already have the design from the original trident, so they save a bunch of money by repurposing it. Having two units also means you don't lose all the testing/control if one borks, as well as not forcing the user to test 5 things if they don't want to. I don't really care about the Ca and Mg results (thought they have been helpful when trying to determine if a salinity issue was really happening) and would have been totally happy with just an Alk version.
I am not sure that this tester is really needed by the hobby at large, except to automate and make consistent a test that is a real PITA - nitrate. That said, I am not sold on the utility of testing nitrate and phosphate regularly anyway, but lots of folks think it is critical, so they will sell a ton of these. I do think we will find some really interesting info from the NP, just like we did from the original trident.
 
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