Trident vs Alkatronic vs KH Director vs kh guardian

[chefjpaul]

I wish my cat had thumbs, he'd be tasting the dkh hanna egg several times per day.

 

[mitch91175]

I wish my cat had thumbs, he'd be tasting the dkh hanna egg several times per day.

You know what I find extremely shocking is that Hanna or Salifert didn't come to market with their own automated tester for the hobby.

Also, @Ohashimz and I are getting together to get a KHG added into testing mix. Going to be awesome comparing the Alkatronic, KHG, and Trident dKH measurements. Will report back here once everything is received and setup.

I am just going to run the KHG for around 3 months and send it back over to him. If I could get my hands on a KH Director, I'd add it to the fold as well and report back here to everyone. At least then people looking will have some idea from someone that doesn't have anything to gain out of any of this but knowledge and even if I did have something to gain, I'd still be just as critical with presenting the findings.

 

[Silver14SS]

Mitch in his lab

Thanks again for doing this comparison!

 

[siggy]

Definitely right now for my situation the Alkatronic. Closer measurements to my Hanna and I can measure as much as I want to with limited expense.

Trident measurements are consistent but not right based on multiple measurements. But sure someone will ask what’s right?

I know my dKH is right with multiple test sources. Only one different is the Trident. Nothing catastrophic but not the same.

 

[Silver14SS]

 

[road_runner]

You know what I find extremely shocking is that Hanna or Salifert didn't come to market with their own automated tester for the hobby.

Also, @Ohashimz and I are getting together to get a KHG added into testing mix. Going to be awesome comparing the Alkatronic, KHG, and Trident dKH measurements. Will report back here once everything is received and setup.

I am just going to run the KHG for around 3 months and send it back over to him. If I could get my hands on a KH Director, I'd add it to the fold as well and report back here to everyone. At least then people looking will have some idea from someone that doesn't have anything to gain out of any of this but knowledge and even if I did have something to gain, I'd still be just as critical with presenting the findings.

Give me time I might send you a khd as well ha ha ha

 

[mitch91175]

Mitch in his lab

Thanks again for doing this comparison!

Now a lab sounds bad to the bone, lol.

I can only wish. But hey running them on the same display should be telling pretty quickly.

 

[Silver14SS]

Now a lab sounds bad to the bone, lol.

I can only wish. But hey running them on the same display should be telling pretty quickly.

Yes, as close to an apples to apples comparison as we'll probably get!

 

[siggy]

Yes, as close to an apples to apples comparison as we'll probably get!

It would be nice to see all lined up in the same Salt Water vat and then raise and lower ALK threw artificial means.

 

[Water Dog]

Hey @mitch91175 - when you get the reagent empty notifications for your Trident and do a swap out of the reagents, can you please note the day (as in how many days you get from each bottle of reagent) and measure the volume of leftover reagent? I’m trying to decide on going with either a KHD or Trident at this point and recurring costs are definitely a sticking point for me.

On one of the other threads discussing Trident reagent amounts leftover, it looks like people are getting about 25 days out of Reagent A (Alk) with about 80 - 100 ml of leftover reagent out of a 300 ml reagent bottle. I do understand that this will vary depending on tank Alk levels as these are titration tests. However, the OP of that reagent thread just got notification of empty Reagents B & C after only 45 days, a far cry from the advertised 2 months / 60 days when running at the minimum of 4/2/2 and though he didn’t measure how much was leftover in B & C, he did mention that they felt almost empty.

I do appreciate your detailed analysis of both the Alkatronic and now the Trident. For my own selfish purposes and curiosity, we gotta get a KHD in your hands for testing!

 

[mitch91175]

Hey @mitch91175 - when you get the reagent empty notifications for your Trident and do a swap out of the reagents, can you please note the day (as in how many days you get from each bottle of reagent) and measure the volume of leftover reagent? I’m trying to decide on going with either a KHD or Trident at this point and recurring costs are definitely a sticking point for me.

On one of the other threads discussing Trident reagent amounts leftover, it looks like people are getting about 25 days out of Reagent A (Alk) with about 80 - 100 ml of leftover reagent out of a 300 ml reagent bottle. I do understand that this will vary depending on tank Alk levels as these are titration tests. However, the OP of that reagent thread just got notification of empty Reagents B & C after only 45 days, a far cry the advertised 2 months / 60 days when running at the minimum of 4/2/2 and though he didn’t measure how much was leftover in B & C, he did mention that they felt almost empty.

I do appreciate your detailed analysis of both the Alkatronic and now the Trident. For my own selfish purposes and curiosity, we gotta get a KHD in your hands for testing!

Will do. I also am refraining from running multiple curiosity test, lol.

 

[road_runner]

Will do. I also am refraining from running multiple curiosity test, lol.

Agreed. I would focuse now on the core functions.

 

[Entz]

Trident measurements are consistent but not right based on multiple measurements. But sure someone will ask what’s right?

I know my dKH is right with multiple test sources. Only one different is the Trident. Nothing catastrophic but not the same.

I am super interested in seeing the KHG results.

The problem is, if accuracy is called in question then you cannot trust it and if you cannot trust it what is the point. That is why I made the trends comment. My Apex salinity probe is never accurate outside of the calibration, I cannot look at fusion and see what my salinity is, I can only look at trends. Oh it dropped by .75 is my ATO ok? If the Trident is going to end up in the same boat and drift all over the place then it doesn't do anyone any good. Especially over time as it obviously cannot even calculate how much actual reagent its using properly (To the point they leave 33%). Its only going to tell me what my DKH swing is not what my tank is actually running and even that swing might not be correct... Testing 16x a day just to make sure its not having a reasonable average is going to get expensive fast. Not to mention automatically adjusting your tank.. that is scary. If the trident thinks your at 7.5 and you want you tank at 8.5 and it keeps reading low its gonna nuke something..

 

[mitch91175]

I am super interested in seeing the KHG results.

The problem is, if accuracy is called in question then you cannot trust it and if you cannot trust it what is the point. That is why I made the trends comment. My Apex salinity probe is never accurate outside of the calibration, I cannot look at fusion and see what my salinity is, I can only look at trends. Oh it dropped by .75 is my ATO ok? If the Trident is going to end up in the same boat and drift all over the place then it doesn't do anyone any good. Especially over time as it obviously cannot even calculate how much actual reagent its using properly (To the point they leave 33%). Its only going to tell me what my DKH swing is not what my tank is actually running and even that swing might not be correct... Testing 16x a day just to make sure its not having a reasonable average is going to get expensive fast. Not to mention automatically adjusting your tank.. that is scary. If the trident thinks your at 7.5 and you want you tank at 8.5 and it keeps reading low its gonna nuke something..

Yeah total agree with what you are saying. Right now it's definitely early into the comparison, but I will say that the dKH readings on the Trident seem to be 0.6dKH different than the Hanna and Alkatronic (6% difference).

I wholeheartedly trust my Alkatronic to dose alkalinity if necessary.

 

[road_runner]

I am super interested in seeing the KHG results.

The problem is, if accuracy is called in question then you cannot trust it and if you cannot trust it what is the point. That is why I made the trends comment. My Apex salinity probe is never accurate outside of the calibration, I cannot look at fusion and see what my salinity is, I can only look at trends. Oh it dropped by .75 is my ATO ok? If the Trident is going to end up in the same boat and drift all over the place then it doesn't do anyone any good. Especially over time as it obviously cannot even calculate how much actual reagent its using properly (To the point they leave 33%). Its only going to tell me what my DKH swing is not what my tank is actually running and even that swing might not be correct... Testing 16x a day just to make sure its not having a reasonable average is going to get expensive fast. Not to mention automatically adjusting your tank.. that is scary. If the trident thinks your at 7.5 and you want you tank at 8.5 and it keeps reading low its gonna nuke something..

Love my khg's..

 

[road_runner]

Yeah total agree with what you are saying. Right now it's definitely early into the comparison, but I will say that the dKH readings on the Trident seem to be 0.6dKH different than the Hanna and Alkatronic (6% difference).

I wholeheartedly trust my Alkatronic to dose alkalinity if necessary.

For a brand new unit that's high to me.
People can fall in the trap of: this is not much for aquarium.
Indeed but if it's that at first how much would it be later on?
Also if you add this margin from the tester, to the margin from your dosing method(depend on the doser or dosing method you use), it can adds up to a problematic ratio depend on the type of system you run.

Time will tell.

 

[leepink23]

Hey @mitch91175 - when you get the reagent empty notifications for your Trident and do a swap out of the reagents, can you please note the day (as in how many days you get from each bottle of reagent) and measure the volume of leftover reagent? I’m trying to decide on going with either a KHD or Trident at this point and recurring costs are definitely a sticking point for me.

On one of the other threads discussing Trident reagent amounts leftover, it looks like people are getting about 25 days out of Reagent A (Alk) with about 80 - 100 ml of leftover reagent out of a 300 ml reagent bottle. I do understand that this will vary depending on tank Alk levels as these are titration tests. However, the OP of that reagent thread just got notification of empty Reagents B & C after only 45 days, a far cry from the advertised 2 months / 60 days when running at the minimum of 4/2/2 and though he didn’t measure how much was leftover in B & C, he did mention that they felt almost empty.

I do appreciate your detailed analysis of both the Alkatronic and now the Trident. For my own selfish purposes and curiosity, we gotta get a KHD in your hands for testing!

I recently saw a link for 15% off all ghl products through next week. My biggest concern on the khd was the high waste volume and salinity.

 

[vangvace]

I recently saw a link for 15% off all ghl products through next week. My biggest concern on the khd was the high waste volume and salinity.

I am planning a CaRx so I was thinking of using the 4th pump on the khd to replace the water removed from the test with fresh salt water.

 

[road_runner]

I recently saw a link for 15% off all ghl products through next week. My biggest concern on the khd was the high waste volume and salinity.

Yup I saw it on their facebook and posted the link on the forum. 15% is a good deal.i do not have the problem of water waste on the khg. Although the first year I used to take waste out not back to aquaroum out of being paranoid till I did an ICP on the tested water it came perfectly normal.
I remember the first year, when I was taking wate out, I used to pump my salinity tiny bit up so it compensate. But I realized based on the testing frequency, it was not that big of a deal. Khg take small quantity for the testing.
Also once you have trust in the unit you actually test less. I used to test every 4 hours while when I started I did lile every hour ha ja

 

[CNDReef]

It’s like mini water changes lol