Adding a pond and/or a water fountain feature adds to the beauty of your yard and might even increase home value. One of the least expensive additions is lighting. But you don’t want to overdo it. Think of pond lights as a way to accent what you have, not to overshadow it. Merely adding inexpensive solar pathway lights or solar accent lights can add a bit. But you can do even more at a fairly inexpensive cost.
Adding Underwater Pond Lights
By adding underwater lights, you can put the pond light spotlight on waterfalls and streams. If you add lights right under a waterfall spillway, the splashing will be accented. It can appear to flicker and brighten and fade as the water courses down the waterfall. Likewise, for streams a few cleverly placed light fixtures can accent the water as it moves down toward the waterfall. You might want to place a light next to small boulders in your stream to catch the water pushing past and around it.
One thing about underwater lights, there needs to be a very good seal so the fixture doesn’t leak. Some of the cheaper light kits will leak over time, causing damage to the fixture. Also, lights add to the temperature of the pond, though LED lights tend to run pretty cool. Halogen lights, however, especially the more powerful ones, can create quite a bit of heat.
Above Ground Lights:
Many homeowners have small statues or tall bushes or beautiful trees. It is pleasant to find lighting scattered around your pond area. Usually, a directional spotlight is used and is angled upward. But you can also create a “moon lighting” effect by pointing lights downward. You can, for example, install fixtures in trees and point them downward at your pond, thus creating a moonlight effect.
Light Color: Many light fixtures can be bought with a remote, to change colors of the lights when desired for seasonal changes, holidays, and celebrations. When it comes to white light, warm white light can create a cozy feeling, Cool white light tend to brighten up the area more, whereas daylight white light tends to mimic natural daylight conditions.
About UV Lights
Don’t confuse the pond lights we have discussed with UV lights for ponds., which are used to clarify water that suffers from too much exposure to the sun (full sun all day). These are ultraviolet lights used to clarify water, not to illuminate the pond.
Pond Lights for Floating Pond Fountains
Though we have provided some tips for homeowners with small ponds, we at Fountain Mountain are more focused on large ponds, e.g., ¼ acre and larger. For these large ponds, typically a floating fountain is used, often at the center of the pond, and of course the lighting is meant to focus on illumination of the nozzle spray, not on the pond itself. The brightest lights we offer are the Kasco stainless-steel light kits, which provide 19 watts per fixture of LED lighting. This is a lot when it comes to LED lights. These units are expensive and intended for industrial applications that require a great deal of light, especially if the ambient light surrounding the pond area is bright. We also offer remote-controlled lighting by Kasco, Scott, and Fountain Tech, as well as inexpensive but still reliable and effective cool white light and color-changing fixtures. A pond fountain with lights can be a stunning way to highlight your pond at night, pleasing you and your neighbors.
