There are many options for lighting your pond or fountain. The right lighting setup will make your pond come alive at night, turning it into a focal piece for your entire yard or garden.
The two main options are surface lights, which are placed above water or float on the surface of the pond, and underwater lights, which illuminate from below the surface of the water.
Floating lights come in a variety of styles and are great for accenting your pond. One popular option is a set of water lily lights, which are shaped and textured to look just like real water lilies. By day, they make an attractive, natural-looking addition to your pond’s foliage. By night, they provide lovely illumination along the surface of the water. They come in a variety of shapes and colors.
For a more fantastic look, you might consider a set of floating crystal globe lights. These are translucent globes which contain a LED light and float on the surface on your pond. They come in a variety of colors. Best of all, many of the floating light models are solar powered, so you don’t need to worry about cables or batteries. Crystal stone lights are a good way to accent the area around your pond. You can place these around the edges of a pond or on the sides of a waterfall.
An Underwater Glow
Underwater lights are a great addition to any pond. They let you and your visitors enjoy your pond at night, and the sparkling play of light on water gives a sophisticated atmosphere to your entire garden. Underwater lights work well at a variety of depths, from relatively deep ponds to fountains as shallow as six inches. For safety, underwater lights use 12 volt halogen lamps and transformers rated for outdoor use.
The lamp itself is housed in a sturdy stainless steel case on a swivel base that makes it easy to position the lamp just the way you want. The front of the lamp should have a grill to protect it from your pond life (and vice versa). Underwater lights come in a variety of colors, and you can change the colors to suit your mood with interchangeable colored lenses.
The newest choice in underwater lighting is fiber optic lighting, which uses underwater fiber optic cables connected to an illuminator box on the side of your pond. The light bulb and any colored gels you wish to use are housed in the illuminator box, and the cables carry the light under the water. This means there is no actual electrical equipment in the water, and you don’t have to go into the water to change a lightbulb or a colored gel, because it’s all in the illuminator box. You can create very cool lighting effects with a fiber optic lighting system. Instead of using one color gel, you can use a rotating color wheel for underwater lighting that slowly cycles from one color to another.
You can combine multiple types of lighting to produce beautiful water lighting effects. It’s up to you to decide what pond features you want to accent and whether to keep a more natural look or go for a fantastical effect. When buying pond lights, you may also want to consider a light timer, to eliminate the hassle of turning the lights on and off every evening.
The right lighting set-up can make a beautiful pond even more beautiful. The colored lights and sparkling reflections of a well-lit pond make a spectacular backdrop for an outdoor evening get-together, and add a truly special ambience to your garden that you will enjoy for years to come.