ca1ore
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With a little perseverance, and a big lump of luck, I was able to purchase a trident. I had intended to wait until there was a bit more data-from-the-field; but won't power has never been my strong suit, particularly where my hobbies are concerned. Although I have sizable sunk cost in apex gear, I am quite objective in my perception of technology, and as a member of the reefing old-guard, mindful of both the benefits and pitfalls of automation. I'm also not particularly good at the mundane tasks, and tank husbandry (including doing water tests) tends to slip. Although I do use my apex, and the many attendant modules, to control certain things, it is mostly employed as a monitoring and alerting device. I have no plans to use trident to trigger anything. I have only had the trident for a couple of weeks, so cannot make any useful observations about longer-term performance or reliability. Here, then, are my initial impressions:
1. Setup was incredibly simple, even for me. I used the setup task in fusion (the first time I have used a task for anything). Videos were a tad long-winded, but more information is probably better than less. Took about 15 minutes.
2. Inside of the trident looks small and fiddly. I don't imagine replacing the inner tubes when necessary will be fun.
3. Some have reported the trident to be noisy. Perhaps there are some unit to unit variations, but I personally do not find it so. Some low level whirs and whoops, but nothing egregious to me.
4. I only really tested for alkalinity on my tank, so the initial trident results were quite a bit lower than I had been getting with my hanna checker. Which to believe? Calcium and magnesium seemed reasonable, but since I never tested for those independently, nothing to compare them to.
5. Calibrated after about 4 days. Unit was pretty close right out of the box, so the calibration didn't change much. I did use some remaining calibration solution in my hanna checker which appears to be about 0.1 high. I have had it for a while, may be time for a new one.
6. Although I appreciate the 'need' for a minimum number of daily tests, I would like to be able to adjust the time. My tank lights come on at 8 am and off at 8 pm - those times correspond the highest and lowest alk readings, and ideally I'd do the full tests then (rather than on the twelves).
7. Although it may be tempting to try to smooth alkalinity swings during the day, I worry that the 'cure will be worse than the disease'. I'll continue to use my eyes to gauge the health of my tank rather than overdiagnose …. at least for now. I run a large CaRx and futzing with that seems like a step backwards.
So my initial impressions are generally positive. Always makes me chuckle when people give enthusiastic 5-star ratings for things after two days (emperor's new clothes anyone?). I'm at 3 1/2 to 4, with an extra star down the road based on maintenance of accuracy and precision (not the same thing). I've no experience with any of the other alkalinity monitoring devices - never seriously considered any of them. One of my most important purchase criteria is that the company be financially stable and persistent. I worry a lot about buying from small, few-person operations that may go poof tomorrow.
1. Setup was incredibly simple, even for me. I used the setup task in fusion (the first time I have used a task for anything). Videos were a tad long-winded, but more information is probably better than less. Took about 15 minutes.
2. Inside of the trident looks small and fiddly. I don't imagine replacing the inner tubes when necessary will be fun.
3. Some have reported the trident to be noisy. Perhaps there are some unit to unit variations, but I personally do not find it so. Some low level whirs and whoops, but nothing egregious to me.
4. I only really tested for alkalinity on my tank, so the initial trident results were quite a bit lower than I had been getting with my hanna checker. Which to believe? Calcium and magnesium seemed reasonable, but since I never tested for those independently, nothing to compare them to.
5. Calibrated after about 4 days. Unit was pretty close right out of the box, so the calibration didn't change much. I did use some remaining calibration solution in my hanna checker which appears to be about 0.1 high. I have had it for a while, may be time for a new one.
6. Although I appreciate the 'need' for a minimum number of daily tests, I would like to be able to adjust the time. My tank lights come on at 8 am and off at 8 pm - those times correspond the highest and lowest alk readings, and ideally I'd do the full tests then (rather than on the twelves).
7. Although it may be tempting to try to smooth alkalinity swings during the day, I worry that the 'cure will be worse than the disease'. I'll continue to use my eyes to gauge the health of my tank rather than overdiagnose …. at least for now. I run a large CaRx and futzing with that seems like a step backwards.
So my initial impressions are generally positive. Always makes me chuckle when people give enthusiastic 5-star ratings for things after two days (emperor's new clothes anyone?). I'm at 3 1/2 to 4, with an extra star down the road based on maintenance of accuracy and precision (not the same thing). I've no experience with any of the other alkalinity monitoring devices - never seriously considered any of them. One of my most important purchase criteria is that the company be financially stable and persistent. I worry a lot about buying from small, few-person operations that may go poof tomorrow.
