Woah! Tell me more! Generic reagents that work with Apex?! Personally what I’ve done to save money on reagents is to reduce the amount of tests per day to 1 combined and 1 Alk (to maintain the correct reagent ratio) with custom programming. But cheap reagents would be even better!
Yeah I take this approach as well. It might not be “correct,” but the whole point of regular testing is to get repeatable, verifiable results. If the Trident disagrees with my other tests than it’s not that valuable to me; do I just trust that Trident is more “accurate?” So I’d rather just “calibrate” it to my next most trusted testing system (I use Red Sea). Then I can always compare them against each other if I get funky results.
I use a spent 1 gallon vinegar bottle. Just drilled a hole in cap; it takes forever to fill up!
Back to the OP… I think its value depends a lot on you. I’m horrible at being super consistent and rigorous with testing and even water changes. I would do them when I got around to them; I have a busy life with more important things going on. So for me, things like auto-testing, auto water changes, etc. make a huge difference and free me up to enjoy the hobby more without as much of the chore. It just makes the hobby better for me. That said, if you’ve got a stable tank with consistent parameters and you don’t mind weekly testing, there’s no doubt the Trident is over priced for what’s actually inside of it. Recently though I went out of town for 4 weeks with no tank sitter. Between the Trident, DOS, AWC, ATO, feeders, solenoids, and monitoring systems the tank did just fine. I really value that ability to be as hands on or off as life dictates week to week.
