What's Inside a Neptune Trident & What components can you Service? - Video Breakdown

[Asonitez]

Hey everyone,
I noticed a lot of Trident related issues recently and decided to video a simple breakdown and repair that I had to do to my Trident. In the video I go over some easy to access components and how you can service them yourself.

Part 1 is replacing the Feed/Drain tube combo line from the micro dosing pump heads.
Part 2 is removing the plastic titration vial cleaning it out of all of the nasty chemical buildup, and replacing it inside the Trident.

I hope it helps someone!

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[BlueZreef]

Great vid! I’m sure I speak for many when I say that I wasn’t planning on disassembly unless Neptune advised of it for fear of some sort of warranty void or something. Mine has been running fine so haven’t wanted to go digging lol

One point you made that hit home for me was cleaning the vile. I’m really surprised Apex doesn’t either sell a cleaner or have a cleaning function in the controls that would allow you to use something like rubbing alcohol or DI water. Does the purge function run the mixing pill? If not, a clean function that did this would also be good.

I think they say the unit needs service after 18 months or something? Will be interesting to see how that goes for people as we are getting closer to that time from when it was released.

 

[Kvnsu]

Great video!

 

[Asonitez]

Great vid! I’m sure I speak for many when I say that I wasn’t planning on disassembly unless Neptune advised of it for fear of some sort of warranty void or something. Mine has been running fine so haven’t wanted to go digging lol

One point you made that hit home for me was cleaning the vile. I’m really surprised Apex doesn’t either sell a cleaner or have a cleaning function in the controls that would allow you to use something like rubbing alcohol or DI water. Does the purge function run the mixing pill? If not, a clean function that did this would also be good.

I think they say the unit needs service after 18 months or something? Will be interesting to see how that goes for people as we are getting closer to that time from when it was released.

Thanks for the feedback BlueZreef. When you have been doing this for as long as I have one tends to look deeper into the things that they purchase for their reef. I honestly did a lot of testing and trial and error to make a clean video that shows how to get inside. The more I learned about the unit after using it the more flaws I found in its implementation.

The common sense portions are what really it home. Cleaning the cuvette with something other than saltwater and purging the lines of saltwater was something that really stuck with me. Those lines don't hold a lot of water and in my experience less than a week caused the water to evaporate from the feed lines leaving behind build up.

Since the feed lines don't have any inherent FILTER on them one could only imagine the crap that will build up over time in that tiny tube.

I understand from a self service perspective the actions in the video do seem a little "involved" but I personally thought it was better than sending in my unit and paying a repair fee for the service. I'm a right to repair proponent so learning about the positives and negatives of the equipment I use on my reef are only an extension of the hobby for me!

 

[nautis]

Asonitez - Thanks for posting this. My Trident was dead on arrival but thanks to your video I was able to get the lines flushed and that helped get it working for a couple of days. Now, I'm getting a "no water sample" error. Where I'm at now...

 

[ariellemermaid]

Great video! I’ve been curious what’s inside the mystery box but haven’t looked into it much. I’ve thought for some time no matter how well something like this is designed, it would be impossible for it function long term without some kind of cleaning/maintenance. I don’t know how much it costs to have Neptune do it, but I completely agree it shouldn’t be this difficult to clean the vial that clearly does suffer from buildup. It doesn’t seem that difficult to build the vial into it in such a way that it could be easily popped out from the top for cleaning.

 

[Dave_R]

I know this is an older thread. But thanks for taking the time to post the vid. I bought a used trident that was DOA. Your video was exactly what I was looking for before diving in to the repair myself. I went a little further and removed and cleaned/cleared every line in the trident with alcohol. The trident is now performing as it should. Thanks again.

 

[ClownSchool]

While on vacation, my B dosing head jammed in the open position (the button is pressed down and won’t raise back up).
I sprayed a little WD40 on it without success.
Any suggestion on getting it to release?

 

[ClownSchool]

While on vacation, my B dosing head jammed in the open position (the button is pressed down and won’t raise back up).
I sprayed a little WD40 on it without success.
Any suggestion on getting it to release?

Nevermind, I saw @nautis posted photo and realized I could pop it out the back of the assembly. Once removed, I only needed to remove four small screws to open it and release the piston.
I’m testing it now.

 

[Yodaman]

I wanted to dig this up because it saved me today, and let others know. I let my trident run out of reagent A, then it didn’t run a test for about a month. Upon replacing reagent A, I was getting no sample errors, test fail errors, and couldn’t get it to cooperate. I opened my trident, flushed the feed line, and all 3 reagent lines with RODI water. Wiped out my cuvete and now I’m back in business

 

[David Gaskins]

Sorry for jumping in on this post, but having similar issues with Trident.

Background: slightly less than 1 year old trident. Failed to test CA and No Test for 24 hours message. Removed drawer and found the Reagent B bottle overflowing onto tray/cabinet. Reviewed all the internal parts and found a stuck #1 solenoid along with blueish/white deposit around solenoid and hose at pinch point, drainage down into lower body.

I was able to free up solenoid and it appears that the hose has small tear near pinch point of solenoid (this hose runs from manifold thru solenoid to reagent B metal stem/cap/bottle.

As a preventative item, I had previously ordered the service kit, which contains both waste and sample lines, connectors, new pump head, curvette with hose and stirrer, and pair of silicone hoses that connect the manifold to waste/sample hoses. Not included were the (3) three silicone hoses (with colored labels for reference) that connect to manifold/solenoid/bottles. Seem to be wear items and unsure why they are not included in service pack (?)

Does anyone know of a source for these small peristaltic hoses? Hard to get a real sizing, but they appear to be one size smaller than the serviceable hoses I am familiar with from the Bubble Magus heads (3mm ID I believe). Did find similar hoses listed on BRS (Reef Factory) that come in meter lengths of 1mm and 2mm ID.

Sincerely,

David