PicoPro Antique Copper LED Lid

I got this after watching the Mad hatters reef videos on it. Last winter it was on sale for I think $90 and as of winter 2021 when I'm writing this it is also on sale for $80. To preface I've only been in the hobby for about 5 years but in that time I've used quite a few different kinds of LED lights. I think this light is pretty great. I don't have a par meter or something like that but considering this light is designed to work on a tiny pico reef and only needs about a foot of water penetration it is plenty bright. It still produces algae and corals grow decent with it. I think if it was easier to put my kessil A80 on a jar I would probably do that, but thats only because I have one sitting around. I think if I was at the store and saw these both on the shelf I would still pick this. If youre thinking about which one you should get and planning on a pico reef this is probably the better option. The lid aspect of it helps quite a bit with evaporation (I do not think I ever need to top it off on a regular basis) so for that alone I think it is better than other lights. Also I have not had any issues with the light being so close to the waters surface and I've only wiped off salt creep once.

Now a few things about the pico reef experience with this light in the year I've been using it. To start I could not for the life of me find this jar after going to about 10 walmarts nearby. I asked customer service about any other jars this would work on and they said this is probably the only jar you should use with this light because otherwise it might not fit. I ended up finding the same jar at target so maybe that will save you some headache. Another thing about the setup is that I recommend you get a small filter instead of an airstone for this jar. There's a few reasons for this. First and probably the biggest complaint I have with the jar is that because there are no notches for cords, when you have a heater or an airstone running the jar does not fit perfectly snug, its more of a slant thing. When I had an airstone running on this jar the agitation from the bubbles ended up making the jar trickle out salt water constantly. I couldnt find any way around dealing with this because when the jar wasnt spilling over there wasnt enough flow to really get to all my corals. I changed to a small submersible filter that my local aquarium store sells which provides great flow and now I can add whatever filter media I want which is great. Maybe you will have better luck but for me an airstone would not work so get a small submersible filter instead.

And yeah like I said earlier not having notches for the cord makes the lid sit a little "off". It never fits snug and is kind of annoying. Two small slots for a filter/airstone and the heater is all thats needed and I think this would be a great product. Some people probably would want this to have a timer built in but that doesnt really bother me. I think it would be a great feature to have but I think if this light had cord slots I would be fine giving it 5 stars.

So yeah to summarize my advice is dont get an airstone, but this light is super easy to use and setup. Does not have a timer built in but you can get one for cheap if you need one, also two slots for cords would make this amazing. Get it on sale and I think you'll be happy with it too.