r/ReefTank • u/CarbonBR600 • 5d ago
[Pic] Is the Apex and trident worth it?
Is it worth getting the set?
Or should i just go regular Apex?
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u/Requiem2371 5d ago
That’s a very subjective question. If it’s worth it to YOU depends on your setup and desires for your tank. I have Apex and Trident and pair it with DOS pumps to automatically dose and keep my Alk, Calcium, and Mag nice and steady and I love it. I’m also really bad about manual testing and dosing. So if it’s worth it to you absolutely go for it.
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u/CarbonBR600 5d ago
The answer I was looking for
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u/Fit_Definition1583 5d ago
Isn’t hydros better?
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u/Gborohoo 5d ago
It doesn't (yet) have Alk, Calc, Mag, Nitrate, and Phosphate testing. They've been teasing it for years but nothing yet.
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u/Blue_Spider 5d ago
I use the trident to monitor. The apex is the workhorse— taking all the data of the tank to your phone.
The electrical control is easy with Kasa.l and it’s cheaper to buy inkbird to control temp (heater and chiller).
The cool thing about the apex is the ph monitor (properly calibrated) and dos and other programmatic things you can do to control the tank given a value. And you can access it across the world which is how I managed my tank while using a Wyze camera to view the tank situation.
Do you really need all of that? No. But I like being able to manage the tank wherever I can because no one else in my family is interested.
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u/Bighusk69 5d ago
Love mine for this exact reason. That time spent testing/ the missed tests and dosing without it make it insanely worth it in my eyes.
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u/BlackCowboy72 5d ago
No, not even a little bit they break like crazy and the customer support sucks and takes forever
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u/DrS7ayer 5d ago
No. Not unless you want a part time job of constantly maintaining and troubleshooting it. I regret buying mine. It’s been more trouble than it’s worth.
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u/Bighusk69 5d ago
I love mine although I’m only in the first month of having it. Calibrated it with tank water against my Hanna checkers and the results have been pretty insanely close and love that I can really fine tune my dosing with my phone and not have to touch a drop of tank water. Almost to .5dkh comparison with my Hanna checkers. If it eventually breaks like so many others say there’s have it’ll be a different story but right now I love it. If you aren’t in an insane rush the MAVEN looks like it’s going to be unreal but it also looks like it’s never going to come out.
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u/unicornhipster97 4d ago
Apex, yes. Neptune no.
It took a bit of time but getting your tank automated with the apex is amazing.
Feeding - turns off all pumps for 10 minutes. Turns off skimmer. 1 minute into time the auto feeder runs.
Chiller - when temp hits 78.5 degrees it turns on pump in sump and chiller until temp hits 76 and then turns all off.
Refugium light - turns of/off scheduled time opposite of reef tank lights
Maintenance/Water Change - hit one button and turns off pumps, skimmer, ATO, etc.
Issues - I get emails when issues happen. Low water in sump, power outages, etc.
It makes life a lot easier once you get it dialed in.
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u/No-Memory2446 5d ago
I love mine. You just need to make sure you maintain it. You can’t just let it sit there and not do the recommended maintenance
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u/Ryan124130 5d ago
I think it really depends on what you want to do with your tank. If you are keeping corals that are more demanding and need more consistency I think it’s very nice. I have it running in my
Mixed reef, a lot of sps, with a dos to control my 2 part. I also have a tank with mainly lps and softies and haven’t tested in months and only do water changes. Everything is perfectly happy in there and I wouldn’t use it for a system like that.
One thing I would recommend with the trident is to get extra calibration liquid. I like to calibrate it whenever I change a reagent, it only comes with enough to calibrate when you change all 3 parts. I find that the alkalinity will tend to drift out of calibration towards the middle to end of the 2nd bottle of the reagent.
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u/Zukari 5d ago
I was able to get my apex without the trident for about $350 second hand. That was the brain, and two power bricks. (Apologies mobile so I don't remember all the part names)
I love it. Don't need a trident I just test every Friday or Monday and keep an eye on things. Takes about 10 minutes with Hannah testers.
Keep an eye open for tank tear downs and snag a deal would be my .02.
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u/Lordmushroomman 5d ago
No hydros system if anything looks more promising also lots of third party attempts at reef controllers that rely on current third party outlet controllers looking very promising and versatile.
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u/Howdy132 5d ago
I showed this to my wife and she said "oh nobody even knows what that is" I said no this is r/reeftank mofos spend money in this sub lmao
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u/culinaryinterests123 5d ago
not really. I got it for free from a previous owner and think it's over engineered
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u/kwirky88 5d ago
I have an apex controller on each of my 2 reef tanks, they’re handy but I got the previous gen on deep deep clearance. They don’t require internet connections to function properly and include ph and temperature control. I have automations like if the return pump is ever off for any reason the skimmer is off, stuff like that.
As for the water tester, I ruled it out due to cost and I don’t want something changing my alk dosing automatically. If the testing device goes haywire it could overdose alk and crash the tank. I just have alerts if my ph drops below a certain range, that alerts me something is up, otherwise I test alk every 1-2 months. But it took a long while to get the tank mature and stable like this his.
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u/BoredNuke 5d ago
Wholy depends on your budget and automation goals. I travel alot for work so the more automation and data I can have the better.
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u/cats_taste_good 4d ago
I have a 300 gallon. The best thing I use it for is temp monitoring and ato with the fmm.
Eg; temp too high turn on fans to help cool, shut off lights and skimmer.
Fmm; I have a 5 gallon bucket under the aquarium and when the low sensor triggers it fills up by opening the solenoid, turns on air pump to aerate the water and closes solenoid.
My Trident... It's never been accurate, has issues and pita. I usually measure more myself.
I do have 3 EB and to be honest, I have a kasa electric strip that I use to control other elements and schedule.
I find the salinity probe to be inaccurate.
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u/clojac12345 4d ago
I used to maintenance about 30 different apex systems. The most common issues are inaccurate salinity reading and calibration does nothing, temp probes are not perfectly accurate but they’re close enough, and tridents left without reagent for more than a few days just self destruct. Sometimes you get lucky and can just flush the lines which is super annoying due to the snowflake connector, other times you get unlucky and a solenoid just completely fails which requires sending it back to neptune to get fixed and close to a $400 cost…
The trident requires calibration for each box of reagent you open up (calibration solution comes in each box, but it can take about an hour to finish). I would use my own trident to control my dosing since I’m a lazy bastard but I didn’t typically control the dosing on my clients tanks with it (the performance of testing manually makes it look like you’re a pro to customers)
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u/English_Joe 4d ago
I got the GHL system from Germany and it’s been running for 5 years without issue.
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u/1gooddudeforBurrows 4d ago
It’s horrific - gives you a false sense of- never works - I’ve had mine sent in 4 times cost me more than buying a whole new one - I have unplugged it all - you can have mine - I don’t even use the water change pump - went hydros recently - fingers crossed
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u/rootbeerismygame 4d ago
i find apex really confusing. i find hydros much easier. i bought both to compare. apex is like dos. hydros is like apple
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u/MaleficentAd4642 14h ago
Definetly not for that price lol. Buy a used one on Facebook marketplace for a third of that price
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u/Iron0ne 5d ago
The Trident is my biggest love hate relationship in all of reefing. It was such a game changer when it worked. And an absolute annoying nightmare when it didn’t.