Any water feature can be highlighted with lighting. Lighting around and in your pond can add a new viewing dimension to your pond. If you can incorporate electrical conduit in your construction plans, do it. It will make things a whole lot easier.
Choosing The Lights
There is a multitude of lighting options out there today. Most can be adapted to the water world. The simplest lighting is the spotlight. This single beam of light can be used to accent different areas around your pond like bridges, trees and bushes. Using spots for fountains and wall structures is another great accent. Try to avoid white light. Instead use colors to your advantage. For a warm glow use colored lenses of red, yellow and orange. For a dramatic nighttime accenting use dark blues. You can also choose to use colored bulbs instead of lenses, but it's easier to get the right look switched out lenses instead of bulbs.
Specially sealed units provide underwater lighting. Place these beneath waterfalls and fountains or right at the edge of the pond. Exact placement is not set in stone. You may have to reposition these to get the best look.
Floating lights are another great water to easily accent areas of the pond. These fixtures can be anchored in one area or be allowed to float to vary the accent depending on the water flow.
Installing Lighting
This would be a good time to decide whether lighting and the placement are a project you can handle. If you are using 12-volt systems, no real expertise or wiring is needed. Wiring 110-volt systems is best left to a qualified electrician. That said, we will proceed and let you decide.
We have said it plenty, water and electricity don't mix well, and lights improperly installed can not only be a hazard to your fish, but can also be life threatening if you don't install them properly. Only use lighting designed to be installed in and around water. Be sure all circuits that they are connected to have a GFCI or Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter. This way if there is a problem, the circuit will immediately shut off the electrical supply to the fixture. You have been so warned!
Most 12-volt systems have their own power supply. This supply is plugged into a standard GFCI outlet. The lighting via 12-volt cable is connected to the power supply and gives you low voltage power to your lights. Some units are self contained and sealed and can actually be placed directly in the water. We highly recommend that do-it-your-self people use this type system. It is safe and designed for use by the average homeowner.
