I'm going to keep it as real as I can and unbiased. Let me say that I own a Neptune Apex, DOS, and of course a Trident. I've been a Neptune product user since about 2000 give or take going back to their original controller with X10 relays. Having said that let me say what I typically do when these threads come up.
You have an existing controller product. Doesn't matter which one, you have one. It happens to be an Apex so financially it makes sense to look at their offering first. Thus the Trident. Trident requires a Apex so you are already invested into the ecosystem and would only be out the unit entry point of $599.00. Throw down another $100.00 for a 6 month reagent supply (depending on testing cycle) you are into automating three key elements for about $700 - $770 depending on tax. There is plenty of information on the internet, regardless of forum, that supports it works as advertised. Anyone on this forum, or others, that say reagents are bad, ION probes or discs are good, is noise. They all have their own place and Neptune went a different route for whatever reason they thought made sense. My point is this. You have an Apex already - this is your starting point. Please note I said "starting" because you have some homework to do.
GHL. Their product should be out sometime this month or in March. I do not know the exact date but they have been taking pre-orders with a $500 dollar deposit. I do not know if it requires the GHL controller (my homework nugget above) but depending on if it does, does not, this could be an alternative. Let us say it requires controller + automation system then go back to my opening paragraph and your current controller choice. It would cost you more to enter GHL's automated testing and wouldn't make sense(to me dollars and sense). Unless you wanted to change controllers. If that is something on your mind then it probably is an option. Also if it is a stand alone and meets your requirements (again, your homework) then it may run the same price, or more, than the Trident and you are off and running (again, if standalone). There are a few people on this forum that I know are interested but waiting to see how long the probes last (more homework) and replace calibration fluid.
Reef bot. Again, do not own one. Have read some great things about it. Tropic Marine is modifying one of their test kits for it because of its popularity. I personally think that is cool. I am not really going to say much more about it because it really wasn't something I've looked at other than reading some posts here and there due to curiosity. It seems to me if you buy the kits everyone recommends and stay with those it works pretty well. Again, I do not own one.
There may be a few other players coming to market sometime in the future but if your timeline is in the next two months then these are you only options. I wouldn't wait for a Trident 2.0 because this one isn't even a year old - at least I don't think. As I said above I can only speak for the Trident and it works for me and made since because I was already invested in their ecosystem. I've compared manually, ICP (ATI's), and Trident all at the same time (water sample) and numbers are within their respected margin of error.
If you have some time hit up GHL's thread and read up a bit. Compare. List what you want to do, what you have, and make a choice. There is a reason why these two companies are where they are. Best of luck whatever you choose.
