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Worth switching to ABC Reagents? Any issues?

richiev said:
Fwiw this is basically what I do with reagents/dosing liquids. Drill out a little hole, shove the tube in there. I usually stick a bit of cotton material around the hole just to act as a bit of a buffer against evaporation.

With VOSS bottles I've installed a push connect fitting. I put a thin acrylic piping cut to length on the inside (Neptune in SJ has the piping, but Ace hardware probably does too). On the outside I usually put 2cm of hard RO tubing with one of those air hose connectors attached to that.

The acrylic tube makes sure I can get the liquid from the bottom. Quick connect makes it easy to take apart. RO tubing ensures I don't get a leak at the joint. Works well enough for me. Not really sure it's better than the ones where I've just drilled a hole and shoved the tubing in.

View attachment 48037

I don't have a Trident though.
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Yep - That's what I do too - https://www.bareefers.org/forum/thr...̶y̶-̶p̶i̶t̶-nano-mixed-reef.26438/post-425553

Turns out I had a loose tube connection. All good now :)
 
JVU said:
As I recall the the length of tubing (friction resistance) and fluid level height (gravity resistance) matter for the Trident to be (and stay) calibrated correctly. This is explicitly called out with respect to the sample tubing, and I’d assume it could be the same for the reagent tubing since they all use the same types of pumps and careful input calibration. With that in mind, tall reagent bottles where the fluid level will change a lot over time would be a concern to me.
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Interesting. As a reference I'll try and see what happens with various peristaltic pumps I have and fluid pump distance. My intuition is the effect wouldn't be significant, particularly once calibrated for, but certainly they've done their research.

I'd guess another compensation would be trying to ensure the Trident itself is low relative to the height of the reagents.
 
ashburn2k said:
i have a trident unload cheap, but it needs a new pcb board. i just gave up trying to work with it with neptune
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Neptune told me my Trident PCB power source was shot when all it needed was a new cable. If you're seeing power issues - intermittent flickering or occasional bad measurements - check if your cable has corrosion or doesn't fit well.
 
Chromis said:
Neptune told me my Trident PCB power source was shot when all it needed was a new cable. If you're seeing power issues - intermittent flickering or occasional bad measurements - check if your cable has corrosion or doesn't fit well.
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Neptune told me that my pcb (top pcb that doest the light and mixer function ) might be failed due to water damage because of leakage from the tubes.. *sighs* imagine i've replaced everything in that machine but the PCB boards. i gave up and bought another trident, and that was DOA lol
 
OK folks, the last of my Neptune reagents ran out and I have to swap in my ABC reagents.
What workflow do y'all follow?

Is it as simple as ---> Rinse out original Neptune bottles with RODI, pour in ABC reagents?
What about calibration? Turns out that the box of ABC reagents did not come with any calibration solution.

Thanks!
 
thesassyindian said:
OK folks, the last of my Neptune reagents ran out and I have to swap in my ABC reagents.
What workflow do y'all follow?

Is it as simple as ---> Rinse out original Neptune bottles with RODI, pour in ABC reagents?
What about calibration? Turns out that the box of ABC reagents did not come with any calibration solution.

Thanks!
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I buy the concentrated ones that makes gallons of the reagent. I usually rinse the reagent bottle only when I make a new solution from the concentrate.

I calibrate using tank water after testing with Salifert.
 
RandyC said:
I buy the concentrated ones that makes gallons of the reagent. I usually rinse the reagent bottle only when I make a new solution from the concentrate.

I calibrate using tank water after testing with Salifert.
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Thanks! My main goal of moving to the Trident was to not have to do manual tests (new baby takes priority).

So I might just have to buy trident calibration solution and use that as a baseline. Bummer!
 
thesassyindian said:
Thanks! My main goal of moving to the Trident was to not have to do manual tests (new baby takes priority).

So I might just have to buy trident calibration solution and use that as a baseline. Bummer!
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I’ve found that the trident/abc calibration solutions are horribly inconsistent. You only have to manually test once a month to calibrate.
 
The ABC Reagents guy says calibration against tank parameters works better and more reliably, which is why he stopped including calibration solution.

Largely because Alk is unstable so the calibration solution actual values change from what’s on the label.

You don’t have to calibrate very often and the Salifert Alk/Ca/Mg tests are easy to do once every couple months.
 
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