Best flow for 180g tank

[NutNutCorals]

Hello reefers!
I recently upgraded from a 40g to a 180g tank with an 75g sump and I’m slowly buying parts for the 180g. I’m currently looking for powerheads/gyros and wondered what everyone’s go to is for that size of a tank. I was offered $300 total for two Nero 5’s and I’m not sure if that’ll be enough for such a big tank. I will eventually transfer over my equipment from my old tank to this new one and I do have two pretty large powerheads that can be transferred over. I saw mixed opinions on gyros, but they seem more affordable than multiple powerheads. I hope someone here can help me out thanks!
Dimensions are 72x24x24,

 

[blaxsun]

A pair of Nero 3s probably won't cut it. I have a pair of Red Sea ReefWave 45s on my tank (similar in size).

 

[LordofCinder]

You definitely want to get some gyros. it’s a great snack for building a tank.

As for moving water, personally I love gyres, they move water really well and really eliminate the no-flow zones

 

[Stang67]

Jaebo

 

[Rmckoy]

On my 230 with similar dimensions I have jeabo cross flow ( gyre ) one on each end

 

[Rmckoy]

A cf 150 on one end and it was the older pump I had in my 90 gal
I bought a scp 180 to go on the other end when I set up the 230 .
both are running around 90% on w1
I like the flow generated by the cross flow pumps compared to the older wave maker

 

[NutNutCorals]

You definitely want to get some gyros. it’s a great snack for building a tank.

As for moving water, personally I love gyres, they move water really well and really eliminate the no-flow zones

I heard gyros were a pain to clean. Which brand do you have and do you have trouble with cleaning them?

 

[C_AWOL]

A little bit of a hard question to answer without knowing what the rock scape will look like + type of corals/nems intended.
In theory the 2 nero5's you mentioned would generally be fine with lps/softies/nems from experience but not if theres a giant mounds of rocks/huge nsa aquascapes that can make it hard for flow to gain momentum (also without factoring potential return jets and what not)
Since affordability seems to be the main goal, I would simply suggest either scouring the used section here/wherever for tunze/mp40s/neros or buying some jebao powerheads. I'm personally not a big fan of gyre pumps due to cleaning difficulties/finicky parts but I admittedly have not tried anything that was made a lot more recently/newer revisions (no real need to since vortechs last extremely long and theres no point in fixing/changing things that aren't broken in this hobby)

 

[Jason boles]

I have a Nero 5 on one side and a Xf350 gyre on the other side of my 180. It’s amazing. I would go with two gyres if I could change, but the Nero came from a 90 gal setup….
Same size tank, nems, laps, softies and a couple sps.

 

[NutNutCorals]

I have a Nero 5 on one side and a Xf350 gyre on the other side of my 180. It’s amazing. I would go with two gyres if I could change, but the Nero came from a 90 gal setup….
Same size tank, nems, laps, softies and a couple sps.

I was offered $300 for two nero 5's used for about 6 months from my LFS what do you think about this? Should i just spend the $300 on two gyros instead?

 

[NutNutCorals]

A little bit of a hard question to answer without knowing what the rock scape will look like + type of corals/nems intended.
In theory the 2 nero5's you mentioned would generally be fine with lps/softies/nems from experience but not if theres a giant mounds of rocks/huge nsa aquascapes that can make it hard for flow to gain momentum (also without factoring potential return jets and what not)
Since affordability seems to be the main goal, I would simply suggest either scouring the used section here/wherever for tunze/mp40s/neros or buying some jebao powerheads. I'm personally not a big fan of gyre pumps due to cleaning difficulties/finicky parts but I admittedly have not tried anything that was made a lot more recently/newer revisions (no real need to since vortechs last extremely long and theres no point in fixing/changing things that aren't broken in this hobby)

Thanks for this info!!! I'm considering buying two nero 5's for $300 that were used for about 6 months from my LFS. I think with the two power heads I have from my previous tank I might be able to just buy those two nero's and should be good to go. I also heard about the cleaning pain with gyro's and thats why I'm not sure if i want to have to deal with that. Also coming from a 40g hob filter I am tired of hearing all of the noises so since gyro's are louder than traditional powerheads I am leaning towards Nero 5's.

 

[C_AWOL]

Sounds like a plan. Fortunately powerheads aren't like a tank purchase where you're basically locked in unless you upgrade. You can always add more much later as needed!
I will say at least from my experience of using maxpect gyres, they're pretty quiet until they need to be cleaned. Only problem is that's where all the problems start

 

[Jason boles]

I would for sure get two gyres and a hydros (flow control and battery management)

I purchase maxspect gyres. I used another brand once before that was cheaper and it was.

no matter what you put in there they will handle the water super well.

you could get away with one for a while if you aren’t going to put sps for a bit.

 

[LordofCinder]

I heard gyros were a pain to clean. Which brand do you have and do you have trouble with cleaning them?

Once a month I let it sit in citric water for a couple of hours, it keeps the gyre clean. I’ve had it for 2 years and only once I took it apart for deep cleaning. I was worried about it, to be honest, but it turned out to be easier than I had thought.

 

[Kfactor]

I heard gyros were a pain to clean. Which brand do you have and do you have trouble with cleaning them?

there super easy to clean i use the maxspec jumb 4k and love it

 

[vtecintegra]

I would go with a minimal of four pumps to spread out flow. I use two Jump 4Ks up top, and two MP40s down low. All on the back wall. I don't see how the 4Ks are hard to clean. You can pull the cages and rotors while leaving the motor block in the tank.