AI Nero for my 90 Gallon Reef tank

craiginphoenix

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So I have a 90 gallon tank that is 36 x 24 x 24 that I plan to use as a mixed reef tank and am looking at the AI Nero.

What would be better? One Nero 5 or two Nero 3s? Or two Nero 5s?

I was going down the route of two Nero 3's but started second guessing myself whether that would be enough. Was planning to position them on the back of the tank on each end.

Let me know thoughts and if you have a similar system what you are running.
 

EricR

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Don't know but I run a single Nero 5 on a 36 x 18 x 16 (40 gallon) tank with only soft corals -- way more than enough for pretty strong flow around entire tank even at 40%. (((wish I had started with a Nero 3 instead with expectation of adding a 2nd one at some point)))

2x better than 1 for flexibility, obviously.
Nero 5 is stronger but bigger (((another obvious statement there)))

I kinda like the idea of starting with 2x Nero 3 and adding a 3rd later only if necessary. *we'll see what those with similar size tank as yours say
 
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craiginphoenix

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I'd run two Nero 5's and dial them down if it's too much flow.
Thank you for responding!

So let me ask this. Would you go with one Nero 5 or two Nero 3s if you had to decide between those two options? Its about $100 more for the 2 of the Nero 5s vs the 3, which isn't a lot in this hobby, but there is other stuff I would like to allocate that money to.

Was going to position 2 Nero 3s along each side of the back pushing forward.

One Nero 5 saves me about 150 over two Nero 3s, but I never liked my flow in my last tank with only 1 wave maker.

Do you think one Nero 5 would produce enough flow for a 90 gallon tank?
 

jkcoral

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I use two of the Nero 3s on my 80g tank that is roughly 48x24x16.

They’ve been absolutely fantastic. Before this, both of them were on my smaller 30g AIO that was 36” width. They were great on that too, and ran at a max of about 40%. Since moving them to the larger tank I just upped the intensity to about 70% at peak times and they’ve been perfect.
 
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craiginphoenix

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Don't know but I run a single Nero 5 on a 36 x 18 x 16 (40 gallon) tank with only soft corals -- way more than enough for pretty strong flow around entire tank even at 40%. (((wish I had started with a Nero 3 instead with expectation of adding a 2nd one at some point)))

2x better than 1 for flexibility, obviously.
Nero 5 is stronger but bigger (((another obvious statement there)))

I kinda like the idea of starting with 2x Nero 3 and adding a 3rd later only if necessary. *we'll see what those with similar size tank as yours say
Thanks for the response! I was leaning toward two Nero 3s, because I had one wave maker in my last 36 gallon tank (I just upgraded to the 90 gallon) and never liked the flow, even though the wave maker was rated more than big enough for the tank.

The Nero 3s are obviously a little low for my tank size but I was thinking two is better than one Nero 5.

But I also don't want to end up in a situation where I spend $400 and then realize it isn't powerful enough for my tank.
 
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craiginphoenix

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I use two of the Nero 3s on my 80g tank that is roughly 48x24x16.

They’ve been absolutely fantastic. Before this, both of them were on my smaller 30g AIO that was 36” width. They were great on that too, and ran at a max of about 40%. Since moving them to the larger tank I just upped the intensity to about 70% at peak times and they’ve been perfect.
Very similar setup to mine. Was going to position them along the back wall of the tank at either end. Where do you position yours?
 

exnisstech

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Two nero 5 at least. I don't think one would be enough. I have two 5s in a 36x22x22 tank running at 70 % on the back wall. I added an mp10 down low to blow under the rocks, I'm bare bottom. To be honest I would have bought the 7 had they been out when I bought the 5s. I would rather have too much and dial it down than have to little and wish for more. I wouldn't even consider the 3 in a tank that size. JMO
 

strawberry_reef

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I ran two Nero5's on my 90 and had them range from 15 to 40% at random. One in the top left, one on mid/bottom right. Always better to have "more than enough" then not enough at all.
 

jkcoral

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Very similar setup to mine. Was going to position them along the back wall of the tank at either end. Where do you position yours?

I have one on each side of the tank positioned a little closer the the front glass side versus directly in the middle. Through most of the day they are “synced” to one other in “pulse” mode. The left pump (the parent) fires on every 1.0 seconds for 1 second, and the right pump fires on 1.5 for 1 second kinda creating that “crashing” flow that meets in the middle of the tank.

At night time, once the reef is asleep, they both run independently with the schedule set to “high variance” between 60% and 90% (which, if I remember correctly, has the pump vary/change speed every 1 minute). This creates a ton of flow that really helps flush out my bare bottom.
 

jkcoral

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Very similar setup to mine. Was going to position them along the back wall of the tank at either end. Where do you position yours?

Forgot to mention something. There’s 2 reasons I decided not to place mine on the back wall. The first being that the dry side magnets are not explicitly designed to be submersible. I personally just don’t ever gamble with things like magnets. And second, I have 2 returns, each with Y-splits and have been able to direct the flow on the back/bottom of the tank in a way that I need to with loc line returns.
 

Crustaceon

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Thank you for responding!

So let me ask this. Would you go with one Nero 5 or two Nero 3s if you had to decide between those two options? Its about $100 more for the 2 of the Nero 5s vs the 3, which isn't a lot in this hobby, but there is other stuff I would like to allocate that money to.

Was going to position 2 Nero 3s along each side of the back pushing forward.

One Nero 5 saves me about 150 over two Nero 3s, but I never liked my flow in my last tank with only 1 wave maker.

Do you think one Nero 5 would produce enough flow for a 90 gallon tank?
I had a single nero 3 on my 60g tank and in order to get decent circulation, I had to turn the pump almost all the way, which made the pump too noisy for my liking. I now use that same nero 3 on my 20 gallon tank but at maybe 20% power. You can’t hear it running. If money is the limiting factor, personally, i’d get one of the nero 5s for now, get your other stuff and set aside a little dough for a second nero 5. You’ll be happier in the long run with two dead-silent pumps running at 20-30% than two noisy pumps running at 100%.
 
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EricR

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In addition to the thought that it's safer to have a stronger pump running at lower power over weaker one running at full power, I just happened to notice this thread (small sample set) of some complaints about the Nero 3:

Nero Failures

No comment but more food for thought...
 
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