Trident - flimsy, cheaply made...?

[salty150]

Have read and watched several reviews of the Trident saying that it is flimsy and cheaply made - especially the pull out drawer...

These seemed to be mostly with early adopters.

Any change on the "newest" batches?

 

[TheHarold]

I don't have any issues with my trident, or the several tridents I have set up for other people. By no means does it have a very strong or stiff outer shell, but it is more than enough to hold the needed components and perform as advertised.

It is something that stays in place on a shelf- I do not expect to have any issues with it. If it is dropped from a few feet, you may damage it.

 

[Mhart032]

I dont think so. Mine seems fine, i dont believe it was the first batch as i bought it several months after it was released. TBH for the price to test the major 3 its worth its weight in gold to me, i was able to set up and stabilise a calcium reactor in 2 days of button clicking vs pulling samples by hand.. if it came in cardboard with wires hanging out of it.. but worked id buy it still.

 

[Amado]

I purchased it and I had problems as soon as I got it.
One of the lines was out and I had to secure it.
Also the plastic material that they use is very cheap.
I keep getting a error message. The problem with my trident
It also had a clogged supply line so no water was getting Taken from my sump. I returned it for a full refund.
The trident doesn’t feel like a finished product. You
Feel like you paid $600 to be a beta tester.

 

[User1]

Are there actual owners / users or just trolls replying to these threads?

@salty150 - difficult to say if the reviews you read are related to the first, second, or later systems. My guess is that they are more or less the same. I have one of the later batches and it is fine. Is it made out of plastic? Yes, it is. The reagent drawer is interesting and if not careful it will slide out all the way. There are no stoppers on the back to prevent it nor are there rails. I guess that could be an issue but you are really only opening the drawer when replacing a reagent.

Technically we shouldn't have to open up the unit unless we are told to by support or we elect to do self maintenance. Still not sure what the maintenance is but that is the only other time I would see the need to open it. I did as one line came off the manifold but it was super simple to open, reach in, reconnect, close up, and be done. My draw line was clogged due to a marine pure block breaking down into pretty nasty small particles.

Anyway to your question is it cheaply made? Probably an opinion honestly. I don't think so and do not see how it is relevant. It is a container holding reagents so I really don't care what it is made out of. The manifold, draw line, head units drawing fluids, and measurement stuff is what matters and it seems fine.

I do hold the right to be incorrect though and this is just my opinion.

Edit: the dip in the left in the graphs is me changing TM AFR dosing over 24 hours to lights on. It made a pretty significant change to the tests and their trends oddly enough.

 

[Amado]

For me at the end of the day my $50 Hanna checker is very accurate and it takes me 5min to take a test.

I don’t have to wait to try to get reagents. For me
Having Neptune being the only place I can get reagents is also a deal breaker.

I personally have never care about magnesium.
I don’t really test calcium so I just need to know
What my alk is and for right now a $50 Hanna Checker does that for me. Reagent for the Hanna checker is $10 and I can buy them anywhere.

That’s a picture of my trident. I am not a troll I am a real user lol I connected my trident to my quarantine system
That system had nothing to cause any problems.
I know Neptune help desk will blame very thing else that causing the problem except their products.

 

[User1]

For me at the end of the day my $50 Hanna checker is very accurate and it takes me 5min to take a test.

I don’t have to wait to try to get reagents. For me
Having Neptune being the only place I can get reagents is also a deal breaker.

I personally have never care about magnesium.
I don’t really test calcium so I just need to know
What my alk is and for right now a $50 Hanna Checker does that for me. Reagent for the Hanna checker is $10 and I can buy them anywhere.

I agree. Your note about taking 5 minutes or less is also why I use the Hanna checker for Alk and Phosphates. Nyos for Nitrates. Everything else, forget it. Takes too long or unreliable. Of course this was before I picked up the trident.

I only tested that which "I" was able to feel comfortable with result wise and it being repeatable. It also had to be somewhat quick. Hanna was it. I hope their soon to be released Nitrate checker is similar. Quick and reliable. If so it will be a huge seller.

If all you care about or regularly test is Alk - then yeah. No need. On the other hand if you do want automated testing and have a Neptune Apex then the trident is a no brainer. It makes dollars and sense. If you have a different controller, no controller, then you have to see what is important to you.

Neither of which are related to its build quality. The unit works be it one bought today, few months back, or @Thales who has probably the longest running Trident out His words via another thread but hey - I'm a believer

See - we can agree

 

[Dave Cureton]

I love mine for it's functionality. I don't particularly care for the cheapo plastic the exterior is made of, same thing as the "newer" Apex and EB832. Would I recommend to others? Yes.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I purchased it and I had problems as soon as I got it.
One of the lines was out and I had to secure it.
Also the plastic material that they use is very cheap.
I keep getting a error message. The problem with my trident
It also had a clogged supply line so no water was getting Taken from my sump. I returned it for a full refund.
The trident doesn’t feel like a finished product. You
Feel like you paid $600 to be a beta tester.

I’m thinking your in the very few who feel this way. Trident sits on a shelf and is touched 1x a month. Why would it need to be made from steel or anything stronger ? Also your clogged line was probably user error because it sucked something up from your sump.

 

[Mhart032]

If your not happy with the Trident, Don't even think about opening the alkatronic, to see the raspberry pi it runs off of, I use both for redundancy. i prefer the Trident.

 

[Amado]

I’m thinking your in the very few who feel this way. Trident sits on a shelf and is touched 1x a month. Why would it need to be made from steel or anything stronger ? Also your clogged line was probably user error because it sucked something up from your sump.

Like I said I know people (Neptune’s help desk) would say that. I connected the trident to my quarantine tank . No fish/ no corals just a sump and a return pump. I know a lot of people that will be ok with the bad build. I am not if I am paying for a premium product I am expecting that. I have had Neptune products for years. I have replace my eb832 twice my original black 8 port
Power strip is still running. If you are happy with the build of the trident then good for you. For me that product is subpar and I am not interested in buying it.

 

[DSEKULA]

Auctual user here,
Just got mine a week ago plus a day or two. I probably have a little different perspective than most as I build and maintain water treatment systems professionally. The trident is relatively cheap compared to the equipment I'm used to dealing with it's only $600 where a similar system I'd use for work would run a couple grand . When I opened the box to set up the first thing I did was disconnect the lines and blow air through everything, because when you store tiny lines like that in warm weather they stick together. When I did this I noticed one of the lines was kinked, reached in and straighten it.. to me this part was all common sense that I'd do for any equipment I was installing but I assume most people wouldn't think to do this and probably get some errors with lines clogged etc. From there I followed set up and everything worked as expected. The housing is cheap plastic, it's just a housing that holds all the components though so at 600 that's probably where they cut costs. All the little pumps seem like their accurate, I've tested a bit compared to my Hana alk, red sea ca an mg, and Hach ca mg. None of the tests are spot on compared to each other but nothing seems off, the trident is within a consistent margin of error when compared so that's what matters to me. The housing while on the cheap side does it's job holding everything in a small footprint, I wouldn't place it somewhere that it would get abused but generally don't put any of my equipment through unnecessary abuse.

 

[infinite0180]

I just got mine 2 weeks ago. I love it. Seems well built to me. No issues with it so far. I got to the point where manual testing was the lowest priority, i figured this would help and i feel like it already has!

 

[((FORDTECH))]

Like I said I know people (Neptune’s help desk) would say that. I connected the trident to my quarantine tank . No fish/ no corals just a sump and a return pump. I know a lot of people that will be ok with the bad build. I am not if I am paying for a premium product I am expecting that. I have had Neptune products for years. I have replace my eb832 twice my original black 8 port
Power strip is still running. If you are happy with the build of the trident then good for you. For me that product is subpar and I am not interested in buying it.

So you’re saying you connected your trident to a quarantine tank that had nothing in it for what was the point then? Seems like a useless situation to use it in anyways of course you were disappointed. $600 to make sure my quarantine tank alk calcium and magnesium are good is definitely not worth it

 

[Amado]

So you’re saying you connected your trident to a quarantine tank that had nothing in it for what was the point then? Seems like a useless situation to use it in anyways of course you were disappointed

If your not happy with the Trident, Don't even think about opening the alkatronic, to see the raspberry pi it runs off of, I use both for redundancy. i prefer the Trident.

No my plan was to connect it to my system 210 display 3 50 gallon frag tanks and about 100 sump.
But As soon as I had problems I opened up a ticket with Neptune. I knew they would blame it on my sump or skimmer. They would say I had air bubbles in the line.
So I moved the trident to my quarantine system that has nothing and still it wasn’t working.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

No my plan was to connect it to my system 210 display 3 50 gallon frag tanks and about 100 sump.
But As soon as I had problems I opened up a ticket with Neptune. I knew they would blame it on my sump or skimmer. They would say I had air bubbles in the line.
So I moved the trident to my quarantine system that has nothing and still it wasn’t working.

Th at is very strange I guess I can understand your frustration. I work for Ford as a repair tech and will tell you I work on 1-2 cars a week that have under 100 miles on them. They are all machines and they fail. Also they fail when new. Stuff happens you happen to be the lucky winner of a bad product out The box. But this does not mean the product is bad by any means.it means the one you got had issues

 

[LiamPM]

Auctual user here,
Just got mine a week ago plus a day or two. I probably have a little different perspective than most as I build and maintain water treatment systems professionally. The trident is relatively cheap compared to the equipment I'm used to dealing with it's only $600 where a similar system I'd use for work would run a couple grand . When I opened the box to set up the first thing I did was disconnect the lines and blow air through everything, because when you store tiny lines like that in warm weather they stick together. When I did this I noticed one of the lines was kinked, reached in and straighten it.. to me this part was all common sense that I'd do for any equipment I was installing but I assume most people wouldn't think to do this and probably get some errors with lines clogged etc. From there I followed set up and everything worked as expected. The housing is cheap plastic, it's just a housing that holds all the components though so at 600 that's probably where they cut costs. All the little pumps seem like their accurate, I've tested a bit compared to my Hana alk, red sea ca an mg, and Hach ca mg. None of the tests are spot on compared to each other but nothing seems off, the trident is within a consistent margin of error when compared so that's what matters to me. The housing while on the cheap side does it's job holding everything in a small footprint, I wouldn't place it somewhere that it would get abused but generally don't put any of my equipment through unnecessary abuse.

Im in the UK so dont get Neptune products like you guys do - Way more expensive over here and about 3 years later than you. But i have seen one in action and must admit, my first impression was they dont feel or look like a premium product, so can completely understand people having that perspective. But imagine you are correct with it being its to cut costs.

Completely irrelevant, the screenshot of the dashboard - Can you not resize those tiles? One thing thats always bugged me about Apex Fusion is how poorly laid out that software looks but ive never physically used it. Every screenshot i see is of tiles that dont even stretch the width of the screen....

 

[Amado]

Im in the UK so dont get Neptune products like you guys do - Way more expensive over here and about 3 years later than you. But i have seen one in action and must admit, my first impression was they dont feel or look like a premium product, so can completely understand people having that perspective. But imagine you are correct with it being its to cut costs.

Completely irrelevant, the screenshot of the dashboard - Can you not resize those tiles? One thing thats always bugged me about Apex Fusion is how poorly laid out that software looks but ive never physically used it. Every screenshot i see is of tiles that dont even stretch the width of the screen....

If we are being honest it’s old technology.
Connecting using aquabus cables is old.
These devices should connect using wi-fi.
The software that runs apex products fusion is also old.

 

[Amado]

Th at is very strange I guess I can understand your frustration. I work for Ford as a repair tech and will tell you I work on 1-2 cars a week that have under 100 miles on them. They are all machines and they fail. Also they fail when new. Stuff happens you happen to be the lucky winner of a bad product out The box. But this does not mean the product is bad by any means.it means the one you got had issues

I understand that thing come off the line and don’t work.
I don’t buy ford so that I personally don’t have those problems. I wouldn’t consider ford to be a premium product.
When you buy a Tesla you can see the quality immediately.
The company stands by its product. Ford uses a lot of plastic parts To cut cost. Apple makes premium products when you touch an iPhone for the 1st time you could see the difference.
If you buy a Apple computer you can feel the quality over the competitors. If you have a problem they will fix it. Apple care is amazing. I Ike I said a lot of people are happy driving fords
I am not and at a high price point I would rather something with more quality. For me it’s not the fact that they have problems but more how the company reacts.
Ecotech had problems with the new lights arriving cracked. They didn’t say it was user error or blame it on fed ex. They stood by their product and returned and fixed any problem with their lights. Eco tech is more expensive it’s a premium product. When you
Touch a ecotech pump you can feel the difference
From it’s competitors immediately.

 

[GlassMunky]

If we are being honest it’s old technology.
Connecting using aquabus cables is old.
These devices should connect using wi-fi.
The software that runs apex products fusion is also old.

I’m perfectly happy with all my controller parts being hardwired together. ZERO chance of loosing connection that way.
wifi can be spotty.