Trident FAQ (official)

[TTNuge]

Hello Trident Community,
I got my trident about a week ago!
With that being said for the most part 2 out of 3 chemicals are working fine.
The chemical that I am having a hard time matching is my Alk.
I waited 72 hours prior to doing the initial trident initialization with the white container.
I did a check and all chemicals were on except my alk. I used my Hanna checker it is reading 7.9 while my trident is reading 7.21.
This is a large difference, any advice on how to fix this? Don't want to bleach my acros especially my homewrecker

Hanna lists:

• Precision: ±0.3 dKH ±5% of reading

You're not far off depending

 

[UCF Alum]

Hello Trident Community,
I got my trident about a week ago!
With that being said for the most part 2 out of 3 chemicals are working fine.
The chemical that I am having a hard time matching is my Alk.
I waited 72 hours prior to doing the initial trident initialization with the white container.
I did a check and all chemicals were on except my alk. I used my Hanna checker it is reading 7.9 while my trident is reading 7.21.
This is a large difference, any advice on how to fix this? Don't want to bleach my acros especially my homewrecker

One thing I did was not change a thing in my tank once I got mine. Regardless of the results. If everything is doing good at this time, no need for a change regardless if your alk is 7.2 or 7.9. I got it more for the consistency factor and my acros.

You could always test your fresh mixed saltwater and compare you alk results to that with the Hanna checker to see its its closer

 

[rkpetersen]

Trident users that have changed there fluids out already. I just logged into fusion and noticed my alkalinity testing reagant says its empty but my trident says 8% with 10 tests left. Did anyone else find that they needed to change it out early? I'm going to change it out tonight but just wondered if that was the norm when it got to the last little bit?

The current Trident programming advises replacing each reagent while there is still a significant amount of liquid left in the bottle.
The rationale for this apparently is that there is an increased chance of erroneous testing, related to drawing up sediment, air bubbles, etc.
However many users are willing to risk it and prefer to run the bottles til empty. I suggested this approach early on during beta testing.
Go to Configure Trident and Reset the bottle that's giving you the Empty message.
Now the Trident will think it has a new full bottle and carry on as before.
Within a few days, depending on how much testing you do, you will get an error message when it draws up the last fluid that it can get.
At this point, you can do the Reagent Replacement Task.
Or you can just replace the bottle after it's done a couple more days of tests, but before it errors out.
In either case, a recalibration after reagent change is always a good idea.

 

[joelk835]

Thanks that info was very helpful

 

[surlytx]

Hello Trident Community,
I got my trident about a week ago!
With that being said for the most part 2 out of 3 chemicals are working fine.
The chemical that I am having a hard time matching is my Alk.
I waited 72 hours prior to doing the initial trident initialization with the white container.
I did a check and all chemicals were on except my alk. I used my Hanna checker it is reading 7.9 while my trident is reading 7.21.
This is a large difference, any advice on how to fix this? Don't want to bleach my acros especially my homewrecker

I found the same large difference between Trident and Hanna on Alk after calibration. I tested the calibration fluid with the Hanna and lo and behold, the Hanna was high by .7! Now, I'm working to slow raise the alk in my tank and I will take Trident results as more accurate. As a note, I had check calibration on the Hanna about 30 days ago. Crazy stuff.

 

[blazeby]

Similar story here, my Hanna was off by approx 0.5

I found the same large difference between Trident and Hanna on Alk after calibration. I tested the calibration fluid with the Hanna and lo and behold, the Hanna was high by .7! Now, I'm working to slow raise the alk in my tank and I will take Trident results as more accurate. As a note, I had check calibration on the Hanna about 30 days ago. Crazy stuff.

 

[Clownreef]

Any plans to release more units??

 

[ca1ore]

I found the same large difference between Trident and Hanna on Alk after calibration. I tested the calibration fluid with the Hanna and lo and behold, the Hanna was high by .7! Now, I'm working to slow raise the alk in my tank and I will take Trident results as more accurate. As a note, I had check calibration on the Hanna about 30 days ago. Crazy stuff.

Why would you do that? If you were successful with the level before, leave it be. My hanna alk kit read around 10 ….. Trident says 9.2. Nothing to do.

 

[slojmn]

I received my Trident earlier this week. I set it up and ran my Trident for 72+ hours. I got rock steady readings along side my Alkatronic and Hannah. All three within .06 of each other on every test. Today I did the calibration test. I put in correct values that were on the bottle. A few hours later the Trident ran an Alk test and numbers were way off. I went from rock solid 8.41-8.46 readings for three days to 7.86. That is a big dip. Alkatronic ran a test about an hour later and I got a reading of 8.47, in line with what all three tests have shown for three days. Anyone else experience a drop in alk readings after a calibration of the Trident?

 

[BigKid4788]

What was the calibration fluid Alk?

 

[slojmn]

According to the calibration fluid bottle the calibration instructions had me input these values, alk 8.2, Cal 470, may 1450. Then the Trident did its calibration thing for quite a while. Those values showed up on my tile until the next alk test when I got that big drop reading 7.86 for alk value.

 

[Caravanshaka]

Run your Alkatronic using the calibration solution and see if it comes up with 8.2...I’d bet it doesn’t. I found out my Alkatronic was ~0.4dkh off when I got the trident and did this.

 

[slojmn]

Run your Alkatronic using the calibration solution and see if it comes up with 8.2...I’d bet it doesn’t. I found out my Alkatronic was ~0.4dkh off when I got the trident and did this.

Good idea. I'll run it with the calibration fluid and see what I get. I guess the issue for me is more about the last 3 days with pretty rock solid numbers and then I run the calibration and the alk dips by that much. I was under the impression that the Trident was calibrated at purchase but I know things can change.

 

[cperry7467]

Good idea. I'll run it with the calibration fluid and see what I get. I guess the issue for me is more about the last 3 days with pretty rock solid numbers and then I run the calibration and the alk dips by that much. I was under the impression that the Trident was calibrated at purchase but I know things can change.

After you calibrated and moved the sample line back to the tank did you prime the sample line? Maybe prime it again just in case it didn't take and retest?

 

[slojmn]

Well, that didn't work, lol. I don't really get how to use the calibration fluid with the Alkatronic. I guess it would have purged the amount in the vial and then drawn from the calibration bottle but I hit prime line A, total mistake. I suppose I can try next time I calibrate. In the meantime, I'm just going to see how things play out in the next few days.

 

[Caravanshaka]

My calcium was 100ppm off from the factory calibration. I would trust the post calibration numbers more than the factory calibration.

 

[mitch91175]

I received my Trident earlier this week. I set it up and ran my Trident for 72+ hours. I got rock steady readings along side my Alkatronic and Hannah. All three within .06 of each other on every test. Today I did the calibration test. I put in correct values that were on the bottle. A few hours later the Trident ran an Alk test and numbers were way off. I went from rock solid 8.41-8.46 readings for three days to 7.86. That is a big dip. Alkatronic ran a test about an hour later and I got a reading of 8.47, in line with what all three tests have shown for three days. Anyone else experience a drop in alk readings after a calibration of the Trident?

Mine did the exact same thing.

 

[slojmn]

After you calibrated and moved the sample line back to the tank did you prime the sample line? Maybe prime it again just in case it didn't take and retest?

I did not prime the line after calibration. I'll see what the next couple of test show and if they continue to be low I'll prime the line.

 

[slojmn]

Mine did the exact same thing.

What did you do...just go with it?

 

[mitch91175]

What did you do...just go with it?

Yeah, just not messing with it.. Also realized quickly that with my calcium reactor, no need to test calcium/magnesium everyday (knew before but good to verify).

Only reason I could see testing magnesium/calcium as frequently as the lowest measurements allowed is really if you are dosing calcium/magnesium. I think as a calcium reactor user, measuring NO3/PO4 are definitely more important than Ca/Mg if running a SPS dominant tank.