New Trident - Do these numbers look right?

[JCOLE]

Hello everyone! I received my Trident in today. I set it up this evening. Setup was a breeze and took about 30 minutes. My Apex was updated last week to the new firmware and I updated my Trident with the new firmware as well.

I ran a couple test and love it so far. I did not calibrate it yet. I am going to wait a couple days before calibrating. My Alkalinity isnt far off from my Hanna Checker. Trident said 8.53 and my Hanna said 8.7. However, my calcium is off. Trident says 378 but my Hanna said 443.

I am not concerned. Just wondering if the numbers will get better overtime and after I calibrate? I also know there could be an issue with the Hanna Calcium tester as I have heard from others. This is the newer checker and I am pretty good with getting consistent results.

 

[melanotaenia]

I would definitely not trust Hanna to confirm your DKH.

 

[Sumbub]

Let it run a few times. See if it correlates. As long as the tank looks good to you don't fret. If it still tests low, do the calibration and see if numbers match.

 

[JCOLE]

I would definitely not trust Hanna to confirm your DKH.

Why is that? Has always been on spot so far.

 

[melanotaenia]

Why is that? Has always been on spot so far.

I have had inconsistent results with their different reagent batches being off by as much as 0.5-1.0 DKH from previous batch when I test under identical conditions, so I have given up on the meter and switched to Salifert. Just my experience.

 

[MnFish1]

Hello everyone! I received my Trident in today. I set it up this evening. Setup was a breeze and took about 30 minutes. My Apex was updated last week to the new firmware and I updated my Trident with the new firmware as well.

I ran a couple test and love it so far. I did not calibrate it yet. I am going to wait a couple days before calibrating. My Alkalinity isnt far off from my Hanna Checker. Trident said 8.53 and my Hanna said 8.7. However, my calcium is off. Trident says 378 but my Hanna said 443.

I am not concerned. Just wondering if the numbers will get better overtime and after I calibrate? I also know there could be an issue with the Hanna Calcium tester as I have heard from others. This is the newer checker and I am pretty good with getting consistent results.

Correct me if im wrong - you get the trident - you let it sit for a couple days - then you calibrate - then you do readings. The readings you get before that are meaningless.

 

[JCOLE]

Correct me if im wrong - you get the trident - you let it sit for a couple days - then you calibrate - then you do readings. The readings you get before that are meaningless.

That is correct. I am a kid with a brand new toy so it course I am going to get a little ahead of myself. I do know that these are calibrated and tested before leaving the facility so they should be close to accurate out of the box, correct?. My Alkalinity is close to my Hanna so I would assume that the calcium would be the same?? Just curious. I realize all of this doesn't mean anything until I calibrate. However, I have read a couple posts from users that experience the same reading with calcium vs their Hannas. So just checking.

Ttb is from Neptune's website on calibration - Additionally, the Trident is factory calibrated upon your receipt of the unit. The calibration process simply allows for the Trident to be calibrated to your specific installation- such as sample line head height. Do not expect drastic changes in your measurements compared to before and after the calibration.

 

[JCOLE]

I have had inconsistent results with their different reagent batches being off by as much as 0.5-1.0 DKH from previous batch when I test under identical conditions, so I have given up on the meter and switched to Salifert. Just my experience.

Interesting. How old is your reagent while testing once opened? I have heard that the Alkalinity does start to lose strength once opened. I usually go through a bottle within 12 days as I test twice a day. Has been pretty consistent for me atleast.

 

[User1]

I believe it is calibrated prior to leaving Neptune. You are supposed to let it run for 48 to 72 hours before you calibrate it. The calibration I believe is two parts. One for the readings on your tank and the other is for how you have it set up and installed.

I didn't calibrate mine for over a week. The numbers are pretty much close to factory and the initial installation. I only checked ALK to compare and both read 8.0 or 8.1 respectively. So close enough. Overall it has been pretty consistent and I was running the 6 tests until the first A reagent was empty now I'm down to 4 tests a day.

 

[JCOLE]

I believe it is calibrated prior to leaving Neptune. You are supposed to let it run for 48 to 72 hours before you calibrate it. The calibration I believe is two parts. One for the readings on your tank and the other is for how you have it set up and installed.

I didn't calibrate mine for over a week. The numbers are pretty much close to factory and the initial installation. I only checked ALK to compare and both read 8.0 or 8.1 respectively. So close enough. Overall it has been pretty consistent and I was running the 6 tests until the first A reagent was empty now I'm down to 4 tests a day.

Good to hear. Tonight will be 48 hours so I will calibrate tonight. Last night I had a reading of 8.56 from the Trident and 8.6 from the Hanna for ALK so it is looking better. Just a little concerned about the calcium. My calcium is still hovering around the 380 range while Hanna says 440's. If it doesnt change after calibration then which tester should I trust? My gut says Trident but I dont want to overdose my tank of Calcium.

 

[jt17]

I noticed you have some updates available for your apex. Is your trident running the latest version? My calcium was off when i set up my trident. It should correct after you calibrate. Last week I took a sample to wwc to have them test it and compare to my trident readings. Ca and Mg were spot on with the salifert tests. Trident said my alk was 9.2 but hanna and salifert came in at 10.2. It has been 5-6 weeks since my last calibration, guess it's time to recalibrate.

 

[JCOLE]

I noticed you have some updates available for your apex. Is your trident running the latest version? My calcium was off when i set up my trident. It should correct after you calibrate. Last week I took a sample to wwc to have them test it and compare to my trident readings. Ca and Mg were spot on with the salifert tests. Trident said my alk was 9.2 but hanna and salifert came in at 10.2. It has been 5-6 weeks since my last calibration, guess it's time to recalibrate.

Yes. Apex and Trident are running the newest update. I did that before the first sample test. Good to hear the numbers are more in line after calibration. Must be nice to have WWC in your back yard. I will update tonight after calibration.

 

[JCOLE]

The verdict is in and it looks good! I calibrated tonight and ran some tests. After calibration my Trident parameters were as follows,

Alk - 8.61
Calcium - 459
Magnesium - 1376

I compared them to my Hanna for Alk and Calcium and Red Sea for Magnesium. Results as follows

Alk - 8.7
Calcium- 468
Magnesium - 1440(Red Sea is questionable anyways)

I ran another Trident test and results were dead on again within .01 of each parameter. Needless to say I am very impressed!

 

[Sumbub]

That sounds great! It's working as it should for you.

 

[Centerline]

The verdict is in and it looks good! I calibrated tonight and ran some tests. After calibration my Trident parameters were as follows,

Alk - 8.61
Calcium - 459
Magnesium - 1376

I compared them to my Hanna for Alk and Calcium and Red Sea for Magnesium. Results as follows

Alk - 8.7
Calcium- 468
Magnesium - 1440(Red Sea is questionable anyways)

I ran another Trident test and results were dead on again within .01 of each parameter. Needless to say I am very impressed!

And those numbers will only get tighter as time goes on. I have three tridents and noted that about 2-3 weeks out they all started reporting trend curves with a bit more precision. Could be the steppers, tubing, etc settling in a bit.

 

[MnFish1]

The verdict is in and it looks good! I calibrated tonight and ran some tests. After calibration my Trident parameters were as follows,

Alk - 8.61
Calcium - 459
Magnesium - 1376

I compared them to my Hanna for Alk and Calcium and Red Sea for Magnesium. Results as follows

Alk - 8.7
Calcium- 468
Magnesium - 1440(Red Sea is questionable anyways)

I ran another Trident test and results were dead on again within .01 of each parameter. Needless to say I am very impressed!

are you joking? you just bought something to do testing. you cAn see that all of the results are normal and within range to the margin of error of both tests - im curious why you're asking. BTW - before people cup down my throat for being 'mean - I'm assuming that someone that is buying a trident 1 - knows something about testing and 2 something about accuracy and precision. and 3 - what Neptune recommends you compare your initial results to. Im sorry - but why does this question keep coming up - and no I'm not agin being mean - but how would anyone on this site know which test is the most accurate

 

[JCOLE]

are you joking? you just bought something to do testing. you cAn see that all of the results are normal and within range to the margin of error of both tests - im curious why you're asking. BTW - before people cup down my throat for being 'mean - I'm assuming that someone that is buying a trident 1 - knows something about testing and 2 something about accuracy and precision. and 3 - what Neptune recommends you compare your initial results to. Im sorry - but why does this question keep coming up - and no I'm not agin being mean - but how would anyone on this site know which test is the most accurate

Are you referring to my latest post for which you just replied to? If so, there was no question. I was implying that I was impressed by how accurate the Trident is compared to my Hanna's. Did you even read my initial post???

My initial post stated that my calcium was way off compared to my Hanna tester. Before my Trident arrived I read several concerning posts from other Trident owners that the calcium readings were way off compared to their other test kits even after calibrating. My calcium before calibrating was over 100ppm different from my Hanna. Neptune's website states that the Trident comes from them calibrated and the numbers wouldnt change much after I calibrated. I started to get a little concerned after reading these things so I posted on here to hear what others had to say. I was not downing the Trident. I was actually thinking maybe my Hanna checker was off.

Anyways, thanks for the feedback. FYI, after calibration, the Trident did indeed correct itself within small margins of my other testers. So far it is running great.

 

[JCOLE]

And those numbers will only get tighter as time goes on. I have three tridents and noted that about 2-3 weeks out they all started reporting trend curves with a bit more precision. Could be the steppers, tubing, etc settling in a bit.

Awesome!! So far it is running great and very consistent. Thank you!

 

[Joedubyk]

My Hanna isy always .02 dkh higher and that's been others experienceas well. You're good to go

 

[JCOLE]

My Hanna isy always .02 dkh higher and that's been others experienceas well. You're good to go

Cool. Yeah, mine is a little off and that's ok. I know all testers will be a little off from each other. 100ppm was a different story though. Everything all good now.