The Nero 5 is an all new water pump from Aqua Illumination, the company best known as one of the pioneers of aquarium LED lights such as the AI Sol, AI Prime and Hydra. The Nero 5 is Aqua Illumination’s first device outside the lighting category and it has inherited lots of great features from AI’s experience developing intuitive controls for lighting.
The layout of the Nero’s propeller and may not be an entirely new pump style, but the specific designs of the AI Nero 5 really help achieve peak performance. One of the ways it accomplishes a nice broad cross section is by using the relatively newer design of having propeller blades turning outside the stator. The body of the Nero 5 is just a touch over two inches thick and 2.8 inches in diameter.
The AI Nero 5 pushes an impressive cross section of water flow that can ramp up to a true 3,000 gallons per hour with a force that you can feel, while consuming a paltry 30 watts of power. The pump is completely silent and submersible and is held to the glass with a dual magnet mount which permits a modest 15 degrees of directional freedom, and is strong enough for holding onto glass up to 13 mm thick.
These days there are more choices than ever for quality water flow in reef aquarium pumps so one way the AI Nero 5 really stands out is in its control features. The first real game changer is the use of Bluetooth LE allows an instantaneous connection between the Nero 5 and the myAI app, without having to ‘find’ and pair the device.
After connecting for the first time the Nero 5 is controllable through the local network for instant access to the pumps various features including flow rate, pulsing modes, programming, scheduling and everything you’d want to adjust to make this pump ‘dance’ to your aquarium’s tune. One feature that we love about the AI Nero 5 is that in addition to all its wireless control and programming tricks, there’s still a built-in speed and function controller, so you can have direct physical control of the pump at your fingertips.
The AI Nero 5 will make its world debut at ReefStock Australia this weekend in Sydney at the AquaBlue Distribution booth. As you might gather from the number in the name, the Nero 5 is likely the first in a series of pump sizes from Aqua Illumination but we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
The AI Nero 5 will begin shipping in America in early September for $299 and the rest of the world shortly thereafter. Having seen, used and played with this pump we are confident that the AI Nero 5 will be a favorite of casual and demanding reefers alike for high volume, broad controllable water flow.
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