Apex users the world over will be rejoicing right now at the release of the Trident NP automatic Nitrate and Phosphate tester. First teased in April 2024, Neptune Systems did what we all hoped for and produced a Trident unit to test the remaining two of the big five water parameters – Nitrate and Phosphate, to work on its own or in tandem with the original Trident tester which tests KH, Calcium, and Magnesium.
Add these five tests to pH, ORP, temperature, and salinity monitoring capabilities via the Apex and you pretty much have the world’s most complete aquarium monitoring and control platform, we’re very happy about that, and we know our tank clients and other Apex users will be too.
Trident NP tests Nitrate and Phosphate once per day, but it can test more than that via manual testing if the user requires it. The nitrate range is a sensible 0-100ppm, with 1ppm accuracy, and the Phosphate measures 0-2ppm with an accuracy of 0.01ppm. Those are good figures and we couldn’t have asked for any more than that.
Daily results will be plotted on graphs as well as alarm setting capability and Trident-controlled dosing via DOS dosing units. That on its own would be enough for thousands of users to sign up for, but being Neptune Systems, a Trident NP/DOS combination will allow for actions to rectify high or low nitrate and phosphate levels via dosing of lanthanum to lower phosphate for example. Or even dosing nitrate and phosphate to raise levels if necessary.
The launch of the Trident NP is the final missing part of the puzzle for current and prospective Neptune Systems users, and we genuinely think the reefing hobby will be better for it. To have those regular, automatic test results at your fingertips, and to be able to take actions based on those results, will only serve to make our captive reef environments more stable, and hopefully, more successful as a result.
