Choosing the Best Lights for a Magical Pond Experience

by Tory Jon | Last Updated: February 18, 2022

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Choosing Lights for Your Pond

Let's take a quick look at the 6 most important considerations when searching for the perfect lighting setup for your pond. Don't skip this section has it has some important details and tips I've learned from 20+ years of installing lighting.

1. Bulb Type

This choice will be fairly easy as most pond lights use LED technology. You can find some that are halogen if you are specifically looking for that for some reason, but most are LED, and we would recommend LEDs over their competitors anyway. They don't let off much heat, and they are extremely energy efficient.

2. Light Positioning

Before purchasing a lighting kit, you'll want to have at least a rough idea of how you're going to position your lights. You may want some submerged pond lights to glow underwater and put your fish on display. You may want some external lights to illuminate your pond's landscaping. And you may even want to light up your waterfall if you have one.

I would recommend you do all three if you can for the best pond lighting experience. Either way, you'll want to make sure you get the right type of lighting for where you plan on putting them. Just keep in mind that whether you plan on putting the lights underwater, behind a waterfall, or on dry land to light up your landscaping, you'll want them to be waterproof.

3. Power Source

Another thing you'll want to consider is how you're going to power the lights. You have three main options:

1. Electrical pond lights that will plug into an outlet
2. Solar powered pond lights
3. Battery-powered pond lights

Each has its pros and cons, so you'll need to figure out which option is best for you.

For example, if you don't have a power outlet nearby and don't want to run a cord to your lighting setup, then solar or battery-powered pond lights might be your best option.

If your pond or water garden doesn't get a lot of sunlight, then the solar option might not work for you, and you'll need to go with a battery or outlet-powered option.

If you really want to wow your friends and family with a brightly lit pond with a lot of submerged and landscaping lights, then you'll probably want lights that'll plug into an electrical outlet as solar and battery might not provide the illumination necessary to create such an experience.

No matter what you plan to do, consider the power source as it can make or break your pond lighting experience.

4. Power Consumption

Power consumption may be another important consideration to you, especially if you plan on using lights that plug into an outlet and have a running cost.

If you're worried or just curious about what the running cost of your pond's lights will be, you'll want to look at how many watts the setup will use. You can even figure out the monthly cost of your electrical bill.

How To Calculate The Monthly Cost

1. Multiply the wattage of your lights by the average daily run time in hours = Daily Light Usage
2. Daily Light Usage / 1000 = kWh usage per day
3. kWh usage per day X days in month = kWh monthly usage
4. kWh monthly usage X cost of 1 kWh on your latest electric bill = Monthly Operating Cost

For example, if you have a lighting kit that uses 5 watts, that is on at night for 10 hours in a 30 day month, with an electricity cost of .10 per 1 kWh:

1. 5w X 10 hours per day = 50
2. 50 / 1,000 = 0.05 kWh usage per day
3. 05 X 30 = 1.5 kWh monthly usage
4. 5 X .10 = 0.15

The cost to run your lighting kit for the month would be only 15 cents.

If you're looking for electrical lights that are energy-efficient, the Jebao Submersible LED Lighting kit uses just 4.8 watts of power.

5. Multiple Colors

You'll also want to consider whether you want to light up your pond with your typical white light or with a multitude of different colors. This is completely up to you, and one isn't better than the other. Some of the most amazing pond light setups I've seen used just natural white light. It's more about how many lights you use and how you position them.

With that said, using different colored lights can certainly add to the experience. Some lights you can even change the color of with a remote, which brings us to…

6. Remote Controlled

Some pond lighting kits come with a range of color options that you can control with a remote, making it easy to modify or enhance the lighting experience.

Now that you understand exactly what to look for, let's look at some popular lighting options.

Comparison Chart

	Description	Award	Price
	Jebao Submersible Pond Lights with Colored Lenses	Popular Underwater Pond Light		Buy on Amazon
	Solar Energy Pond Light IP68 With 3 Submersible LEDs	Top Solar Pond Light		Buy on Amazon
	Aquascape Pond and Landscape LED Lights	Great All-Around Pond Light		Buy on Amazon
	Underwater Multicolor 1.5” LED Tea Lights	Best Battery Powered Pond Lights		Buy on Amazon

*Buying through links in this chart may earn us a commission at no additional cost to you.

Jebao Submersible Pond Lights with Colored Lenses

• Popular Underwater Pond Lights

The Jebao Submersible Pond Light Kit provides an affordable way to light up your pond or water garden with multiple colors.

The long-lasting (100,000 hours!) LED light bulbs work in or out of the water to illuminate your pond and landscaping. It comes with a set of colored lenses that you can attach to the lights to change the color.

The energy-efficient lights are 2.25” in diameter and 3” high and come with a generous 16-foot power cord.

Solar Pond Light IP68 Waterproof With 3 Submersible LEDs

• Top Solar Powered Pond Lights

The Solar Powered Pond LED Light Kit is one of the best zero-running cost pond lighting kits available.

You'll never have to worry about running up your monthly electrical bill with its built-in solar panel. And don't worry about the lights not working at night as it has a battery pack which stores energy during the day and provides up to 20 hours of light when fully charged.

The submersible LED lights are color-changing with 2 light modes: steady on or gradual color changing. They have the highest waterproof rating available (IP68), but they can work anywhere, underwater or out.

This super easy to install kit also comes with a 1-year warranty.

Aquascape Pond and Landscape LED Lights

• Great All-Around Pond Light

The Aquascape Pond and Landscape Lighting Kit feature 6 x 1-watt energy-efficient LED lights that work great in and out of the water.

These extremely rugged and durable lights come in a diecast metal housing with a protective coating to protect them during even the harshest conditions. The LED bulbs were designed to provide one of the most natural-looking white lights of any pond light.

The lights come with an adjustable stand that will easily stay on the bottom of your pond and a landscape stake to help secure them when used outside of your pond.

It also comes with an industry-leading 5-year warranty, so you know they stand behind their product!

Underwater Multicolor 1.5” LED Tea Lights

• Best Battery Powered Pond Lights

This multi-color underwater LED pond light kit is 100% battery-powered, meaning there's no power cord, no need for a solar panel, no wires at all. They are actually little tea lights that you can use as underwater light (they are 100% waterproof) or as accent lighting around your pond.

The multi-color submersible lights are fairly bright for being small battery-powered lights. And they come with a remote that allows you to easily turn the light on/off, change the colors, fade the lights, create a strobe or flash effect, and more.

The light's battery offers about 36 hours of continual use.

Where To Place Pond Lights

In my humble opinion, this is what will make or break your pond lighting experience, so you'll want to really spend some time getting this right. And it may take some playing around with the positioning of the lights in your pond over a number of days before you get it just right.

Submerged Lighting

Submerged pond lighting is simply lights placed underwater that are typically angled up towards the surface of the pond. You can use submerged lighting to illuminate a pond and give it a sort of natural glow, highlight a waterfall, show off your fish, or maybe just light up a specific part of your pond.

Keep in mind that this technique will not only show off you're the beauty of your pond, but it will show off any floating debris in your water. If you plan on using underwater lighting, then be sure to keep your water clean with a pond filter. You can check out our reviews of the best pond filters on the market to keep your pond crystal clear.

Uplighting

With uplighting, you simply place lights on the ground around your pond, near the surface of the water but not submerged. This is a great technique to highlight your landscaping, like rocks and pond plants. It's also an effective way to illuminate your waterfall or to simply cast light in a dramatic fashion over the surface of your pond.

Just be mindful of the direction the lights are pointed. If there's a specific place you typically sit to look at your pond, you don't want the lights blinding you.

Downlighting

Downlighting can help mimic the effect of natural light – like when the sun sets, or the moon casts light over your pond.

If possible, mount the lights high up, like in tree branches, to better mimic the natural light effect. This is a powerful technique to illuminate the entire pond and surrounding landscape. Just try not to overdo it. You typically don't want it to look like you have a giant spotlight on your pond. Instead, aim to recreate the warm glow effect of moonlight over your pond.

How To Achieve The Most Awe-Inspiring Experience

For best results, try to incorporate all three techniques. Don't overdo it with all three, but subtly illuminating the water with submerged lights, highlighting the landscape and waterfall with some uplighting, and applying the warm glow effect of the moon across the pond area with downlighting can really create that magical pond experience.

How To Install Pond Lights

Unless you have to run electrical lines underground to supply the electrical needs of your lights, installing a pond lighting system is usually pretty straightforward.

Battery-powered pond lights are going to be the easiest as you simply place them in the desired position and turn them on. There's no power cord or sun requirements to think about.

Solar and plug-in light kits are still easy to install. You just need to be mindful of the power source. More specifically, for solar lights, can you position the solar panel where it will get enough sun? For plug-in lights, are you able to reach an outlet easily to supply the necessary power? Once you have that figured out and where you want to position the lights, installation is a breeze.

Here's a quick video on how to install our recommended Aquascape LED pond lights.

How To Install The Aquascape LED Kit

Lighting Tips & Tricks

To make this process as easy as possible for you, and to help you avoid the most common pitfalls, here are a few tips and tricks to positioning and installing a pond lighting system.

• It's OK to highlight a specific part of your pond, like the waterfall, for example, but don't just light up that one specific part and leave the rest dark. It's best to have balanced and natural light throughout the pond and surrounding landscaping.
• Be mindful of the most common viewing areas of your pond or water garden, as you don't want any of the lights shining directly at the viewer's eyes and blinding them. This may be tricky if your pond can be viewed from multiple directions, so you may have to play around with the positioning of the lights.
• In the case of pond lighting, more isn't always better. Be mindful not to overdo it. And that goes for all of your pond decorations. Unless you want your garden pond to look like the Griswold house in A Christmas Vacation, it's best to create a more natural, warm lighting effect that is soothing and relaxing.
• Murky debris-filled water will only be highlighted at night if you use submerged lights. Be sure to invest in a proper filtration system and check out our guide on how to clear murky pond water the right way.

Pond Lighting Ideas

You're only limited by your imagination as to what you can do to create that magical pond lighting experience. So, to help you develop some ideas for your backyard pond, koi pond, or water garden, here are a few pond lighting ideas to get you started. And be sure to follow us on Pinterest as we actively pin new ideas regularly.

Koi Pond Lighting Ideas

Underwater Lighting Ideas

Waterfall Lighting Ideas