Interesting that we are saying the extra decimal digit is worthy of debate.
Online dosing tools seem to have issues with that extra digit or do not support it at all, so regardless people would be rounding up or down.
The KH Director is .1 and the Trident is .o5. Until a reference fluid comes out like users have with the GHL KH Director we will not actually know the true variation of the Trident
.
I think we need to have an article on what an acceptable swing is for alkalinity Because I believe .5 is realistic, do I think my coral will care that it is .5 or .55 I do not think so
.
Users should be choosing the product that meets there needs, regardless of the brand and not be tied to any one brand due to the controller they may be running on his/her tank.
There are some stark differences between the GHL KH Director and Neptune Trident, and it hard to compare an apple to an orange as one does Alkalinity only while one does Alkalinity, Mag and Cal. Just because the Trident is doing the other two test does not automatically make it 100% better then the other product. For some it will be an added benefit and for others a hindrance as they may not want to test all three. Some would argue we should, because dosing pumps may fail or Calcium reactor may run into issues etc. and the Trident can detect those issues, but we all know Alkalinity being stable is key. It all depends on what your trying to achieve and the price to do it. For me I test all three weekly as part of my normal tank maintenance even though I monitor and adjust automatically alkalinity, CA and Mag. I still have the good old test kits and log them each and every weekend.
Sales volume is also not a indication also that a device is more successful. Just because Online Stores are not selling more GHL KH Directors then Tridents or Alkatronic does not mean anything. Both of the competitor manufactures came out 18+ months before the Trident, some sell directly, and throwing that type of jab is just asking for a debate. Both GHL, and Alkatronic have over 18 months worth of tweaking, data , sales, and real world customer use behind them. Only after 12-18 months of real world users using the Trident will we have any indication what the the final costs will be. along with stability and reliability of the product with the data and user feedback to support it.
But, we do have some real world data that we can already compare and that the cost of testing.
I have two GHL KH Directors, both running now over 18 months. I have yet to replace the probes, (Calibrate them every 6 months), one tank is being tested 12 times a day the other is 6 times. My only Consumption(AKA Cost) on both of the units is 10 bottles of 1000 ML solution at the cost of approx $300 (Bought them all on sale).
I went through 7 bottles on my one tank or 7000 ML. With daily testing on one tank 24 times a day for 3 months = 2160 Tests and 15 months at 12 test per day = 5,460 tests so a total in 18 months of 7,620 test or .027 a test or 3 cents (Round up
).
We can roughly calculate the Trident cost using the chart below that was posted in the forums, and if I am wrong using the below please let me know
Trident reagent consumption:
4/2/2 - 60 Days - Default Testing Schedule
6/3/3 - 45 Days
8/4/4 - 30 Days
12/6/6 - 20 Days
24/12/12 - 10 Days
So I would be going through every 10 days for the first three months of testing a total of 9 Kits or $396 dollars then approx 22 kits for the remaining period of time or $988 dollars. This is for a total of $1,384 .1816 per test or 18 cents per test.
Tank 2 which is my newer tank is at 6 test per day, 6570 test over the course of 18 months. I went through 3 Bottles (Really more like 2.70 but we will say 3) at a cost of $90.00 or .013 per test rounding this up to 2 cents per test.
Doing it with the Trident at 12/6/6 I would need approx 12 regent kits at the cost of $546 or .083 or 8 cents per test.
The KH Director on the one tank cost me approx $210 for the last 18 months. to run. The Trident would have cost me $1384. If the reagent consumption above are correct from the post on the Trident, I could replace the KH Director for $849 during the 18 months and still be ahead. Worst case scenario for maintenance, I have to replace all 4 dosing heads, and a PH probe. Those cost would be $75 for the PH Probe, $20 for the reference solution, $60 Dollars per Dosing Head or $240 for all 4 heads, $31.00 for new dosing caps which is a total of $366 in parts, plus the $210 on the solution = $576 worse case which is $800 less then the Trident.
Some other things I believe that can already be compared some even pointed out in this thread and others:
Trident minimal testing per day is 4 while the KH Director you can set to 1 per day
The input water sample tube length and water sample is dynamic on the KH Director
KH director does not require a controller to operate the Trident does
KH director has a reference solution so one could check the unit if they wish
I believe the Trident R2D2 noise will be more then the KH Director (Soon to see
)
GHL .1 compare to a Trident .05 (Trident reads an extra decimal digit down)
Maintenance on the KH is done by the user, unlike the Trident you ship it in.
With the KH director your dosing container is what you want it to be, the bottle or a Dosing container itself. You are not limited to liek you are on the Trident Unit, it what it comes with and fits inside the unit. Both monitor the solution amounts and both alert and notify when they run low. alerted upon if it runs low.
Trident does dynamic adjustment based on day and night alkalinity consumption, the GHL adaptive settings are throughout the day and night and do not differentiate between night and day.
Trident come with a calibration solution with each reagent package sold.
Both log the results on graphs of there respective devices, alert respectively will stop adaptive dosing if they fall out of tolerance.
I plan to do a KH director and Trident comparison, I was going to wait for the ION so it could be apples to apples but it going to have to start as apples and oranges then grow into apples vrs apples
