If you’ve put the time into building a pond in your garden, as well as the time to keep it clean and in good condition, then you probably want it to look its best at all times.
This shouldn’t be a problem during the day, when the sun illuminates its features, but what happens when it turns night and your pond isn’t illuminated anymore? How can you make your pond look good again?
Well, pond lights are the answer! By having pond lights set up under the water of your pond, it will give the pond a lovely soft glow throughout the night, illuminating the water and any fish that are swimming in it.
But what are the best underwater pond lights? And what are the features that you’ll want in them?
We’ve got all the answers for you, and the guide below will break down the very best underwater pond lights that you can buy.
RANK | IMAGE | PRODUCT NAME | RATE | |
1 |   | Jebao LED Pond Light | ||
2 |   | NFESOLAR Solar Spotlights | ||
3 |   | Aquascope LED Spotlight For Pond | ||
4 |  | Blagdon LED Pond Lights | ||
5 |  | AllPond Solutions LED | ||
6 |  | Esotec Solar Pond LED |
What Are The Benefits Of Getting Underwater Pond Lights?
You may be wondering why we recommend getting underwater pond lights, rather than just buying some external lighting and attaching it around the top of your pond
(Best Pond Kits). Those can be be good to an extent, yes, but they don’t offer the depth that underwater lights do – literally!
If you attach lights to the outside of your pond, they’ll just make the top of your water glow, because the light reflects off the top of the water. It’s a surface level light, in many ways.
Underwater lights, on the other hand, offer you a full and crisp illuminated view of everything underneath the water. This is a large part of your pond. It’s like icebergs – you’ve got the small part above the water, sure, but there’s a lot more going on underneath that you can’t see.
With that being said, you’ll get the most out of underwater lights the more effort you’ve put into the depths of your pond. For example, if you have some fish living in the pond, then the underwater lights will let you see them swimming around (Best floating fish dome).
Additionally, if you’ve got some fancy tiles or colorful patterns going on in the depths, then you’ll be able to see them. Moreover, if you’ve planted some underwater plants, then they’ll be illuminated. The more you have going on within your pond, the more underwater lights are going to illuminate.
However, even if you don’t have a lot going on, you’ll still benefit from underwater pond lights. They’ll give your pond a sense of size and scale, as well as make it look shimmering and magical overnight.
On top of that, the lights are often strong, so they’ll illuminate a lot of the surrounding area outside the pond. And if you change your mind? You can pick the light out and set it up in your garden, because they work just as well as outside lights.
Will Pond Lights Harm My Fish?
Speaking of fish, if you have any, you may be worrying that the lighting could hurt them. Don’t worry, they will be fine for your little creatures! That being said, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind. First, you’ll want to set a timer for your lights.
If they’re on all throughout the night, then they’ll be constantly illuminated, and this could attract other animals – who may try and take a swipe at the fish. Putting the lights on a timer isn’t difficult, you can widely get a manual timer plug, which works by putting into your socket and then plugging your light plug into the timer box.
Secondly, get LED lights if you can, rather than other types like halogen. LED lights do not heat up, and we’ll explain their benefits in a moment, which means that your fish will be at no risk of getting too hot if they swim up close to the lighting.
What Other Side Effects Do Lights Have?
On the topic of pond health, underwater lighting can lead to an increase in green pond water, as well as an increased build up of algae. To combat this, you can buy and install a UV clarifier (see also ‘Best UV Pond Clarifiers‘), which will get rid of all the green water – and keep things healthy and clean.
LED Lights VS Halogen Lights
As we’ve just said, you have a choice of what type of lights you get for the underwater of your pond. We’ll be honest, LED wins against halogen on practically all accounts. Firstly, LED lights don’t get hot like halogen lights do, which will keep your water cooler and safer for any fish or plants that are living in it.
On top of that, LED lights last a lot longer than halogen lights do. This is good for many reasons. For one, you won’t have to regularly spend money on changing the lights. Secondly, you won’t have to fiddle around with the underwater lighting too often – you don’t want to get as wet as the fish!
LED lights are also much brighter than halogen lights, on the whole, offering a much stronger and more wide reaching illumination. With LED, the underwater of your pond will be more strongly illuminated, allowing you to see much more of what’s going on underneath.
On top of all of this, LED lights are also generally cheaper than halogen. This isn’t just because you won’t have to replace them nearly as much as you will with halogen lights, but simply because they are often cheaper to buy originally anyway.
And if they ever aren’t? It’s still worth picking them over halogen, simply because their other qualities outdo halogen in every way.
Solar Powered LED Lights VS Regular Electrical Lights
Speaking of saving money, another good way of shaving some spending is to invest in LED lights that are solar powered, rather than ones that are powered by being plugged into your electric mains. There are a handful of benefits to housing solar powered LED lights.
For one, they’ll be better for the environment. By not using mains electricity, and harnessing the power of the sun instead, you’ll be helping the environment whenever you light up your pond. On top of that, they’ll be great for smaller ponds, where there is less to light up and so you’ll get more out of one bunch of solar power.
On the other hand, there are quite a few flaws with using solar powered LED lights. For one, you’ll need a battery pack alongside them. This is because there isn’t any sun during night time, obviously!
On top of that, the lighting will barely be noticeable during the day when there is sunlight. So, you’ll need an extra battery pack to charge up during the day, collecting up the sunlight so it can then use all that stored energy at night when there isn’t any sun to draw from.
On top of that, the money saving is a bit questionable. Yes, in the long run you will save money. But in the short term, the solar powered lights are going to cost more to initially buy than regular ones.
Their technology is more advanced, and you’ll be getting a solar panel with it (which you’ll have to strategically place in a location where it’ll soak up enough sun).
Additionally, their power just isn’t as good, and this isn’t just because the reserves you’ve built up during the day won’t always last the entire night.
The actual brightness and strength of solar powered lights is a little weaker than normal electricity powered LED lights, meaning that you won’t be illuminating quite as much of the underwater of your pond during the night.
With that being said, they are good for the environment and can save you some money – so it’s up to you!
Choosing Your Underwater Pond Lights
Whether you’ve picked LED or halogen, or electricity powered or solar powered, there are a few other things you’re going to want to keep in mind when you’re searching the market for a set of your own lights. We’re going to look at some of these questions:
Getting Enough Brightness
We’ve already discussed the difference between LED and halogen lights, especially in terms of strength. LED lights are more powerful than halogen, so we really would recommend buying LED lights instead!
Once you are going to, though, you’ll need to be careful which wattage you get. Wattage, basically, is the unit of power that lights can be measured in. The higher the wattage, the more powerful the light is.
Which wattage you get depends on the size of the pond that you’re lighting. If you have a small pond, LED lights that have at least 1 watt are going to do the job just fine. Even though it’s the lowest end of the strength spectrum, it’ll be more than capable of lighting up your whole small pond!
On the other hand, if you have a bigger and deeper pond, you’ll need to get LED lights that are at least 3 watts in power. Really, anything up to 6 watts will do the job, and make sure to get that higher end wattage the bigger your pond is. They’re an expense that is worth it, because you want your pond properly illuminated, without any patches of dark.
Make Sure The Lights Are Submersible And Waterproof
This may seem obvious, but it can be easy to buy the wrong type of light. External “surface” lights will absolutely not work for being submerged in your pond, and being underwater will be dangerous – and could even give you an electric shock. So don’t even try it!
You must check the packaging of your lights and see that they use the word “submersible”. Only then will you know that they can be put under water!
Some might say that light up water, but they usually just mean light it up from the surface – externally. Only buy LED lights that state they are “submersible”, and as a result they will also be waterproof.
Solar Powered Or Mains Powered?
As we’ve looked at earlier, there can be benefits to getting LED lights that are solar powered. That being said, there are shortcomings, like limited power. In fact, one of the main benefits of solar power is that you save on your electricity bill. In truth, however, LED lights barely cost anything to run from your main electricity anyway.
If you do choose to use solar powered LED lights, though, you’ll want to look at their wattage. If the solar panel has a high wattage, then it’s not going to last as long, because although the lights are going to be stronger, they’re going to require more power.
To combat this, you can get a bigger battery, though this will obviously cost you more. If you just use your mains electricity to power the lights, you won’t have to worry about this, and you won’t be losing out on much more money.
Multi-Colored Lighting
This is going to be down to your personal choice and tastes. Lighting up your pond at night is already going to be magical giving it a wondrous glow, but you can choose to light it up in lots of different colors for extra impact.
If you want more than just white light, check the packaging of each type of light to see the kind of colors that they offer. Most will have set lighting modes, and will cycle through lots of colors, so check to be sure before you buy.
Best Underwater Pond Lights – 2022
Now, with all that extra information and choice detailed, we can get to the big bit – the reviews! Below, you’ll find a guide to the best underwater pond lights that you can buy. Each review will have a description of each light’s benefits, as well as a breakdown of the positives and flaws of picking them.
The Best Lights Available In America
Jebao LED Pond Light
These are perfect for big ponds, but will do just as well in smaller ponds, giving them even more light and clearness. On top of this, they’ll also be a good fit if you have any fountains installed in your garden, or small waterfall fixtures – giving the running water a multi-colored, trippy texture!
Features
Eah kit comes with 4 lights, and there are 12 LED bulbs within each of those – so a total of 48 LED lights! That’s going to be a very, very strong illumination. You might think that this amount of LEDs per bulb would cause the bulbs to run down quickly, meaning you have to replace them, but this is far from the case.
Each bulb has a predicted lifespan of 100,000 hours, which is more than enough nighttimes. It will take 4.8w of power to run the set of lights, so keep that in mind.
As you may have noticed, this set is a multi-colored kit. It achieves this in a very simple yet effective way, meaning that it’s versatile and can be changed very easily without too much hassle. Each bulb comes with 4 different color lenses, so 16 in total, meaning that you can have each lens a different color. The colors are blue, yellow, green, and red.
Since there are 4 lenses and 4 different colors, you can even have each color on display at the same time. Mix and match the colors to get the combination that you want! If not, they’ll just be white light.
If you have the colored lenses on too long, make sure to give them a good wipe. Muck could begin to build up, which would shroud and obscure the light.
Naturally, the lights are all waterproof and submersible. They are specially built to be used underwater, with strong light and power to reach every patch, and you’ll be able to put them under the pond water with ease.
That being said, there is a shortcoming in the form of the cable length. The main power cable is 16 feet long, but each bulb’s cable can be quite short, meaning that the lights can only be placed so far apart from one another. If you have a smaller pond, this won’t be an issue though!
Monthly Cost
As we’ve said, the lights will take 4.8w to run. Given that it usually costs 10 cents per kWh, the monthly cost for having these lights on at night (for about 10 hours) would be just 14 cents. To most people, this will be barely noticeable, considering how much fun you’ll get out of your glowing pond!
Pros
- Great color variety
- Cheap to run
- Very strong light
- 100,000 LED lifespan
- Easy to set up
Cons
- Power cables not too long
NFESOLAR Solar Spotlights
If you liked the idea of solar powered lights earlier, this is a great make to get! If you worry about the extra cost that solar might bring, despite the long term money saving, then don’t even worry with this one – because it comes at a very affordable price.
Features
This kit comes with 3 LEDs, each with 12 lumens of brightness. Lumens measure brightness, while watts measure power.
The solar panel comes in at about 3.5w, which is a good deal of power, and should last an impressive 8 hours maximum before needing charge again. That being said, the LEDs aren’t quite as powerful as they would be if they were plugged into the electrical mains.
The kit is also multi-colored, so you’ll get a good few different colored lights to display. These lights are red, blue, and green, and the lights are set to a mode where they go through the different colors on a rotation. This means that your bond will be continually changing and refreshing.
With that being said, there are certain flaws with the colored lighting. For one, you can only have the colored lighting: there is no white “normal” light option. On top of this, you also can’t pick and stick with whichever color you want.
There is only one setting, and it switches through the colors. However, the colors are at least powerful and exciting, which makes up a little for the lack of control that you get over them.
Naturally, the lights are all waterproof and submersible, built for being placed under the water. They should run smoothly, and won’t have any bad reactions to the water – no electrical fizzling! And as for the running?
They are connected to a 10 foot cable, which should give a good amount of room for moving them about, but maybe not as much as you’d like if you have a large pond.
Overall, these are highly affordable lights that also double as good for the environment! Their battery is likely to last all night, recharging during the day’s sunlight.
Monthly Cost
None! That’s the beauty of solar power, it costs nothing because it all comes from our natural sun.
Pros
- A good few colors
- No monthly cost
- Affordable
- Up to 8 hours of battery life
Cons
- Cannot pick the colors
- Cannot have white light
- Lights aren’t as strong as mains-electrical ones
Aquascope LED Spotlight For Pond
This is going to be one of the cheapest (by monthly electrical running cost) LED lights that you can get for your pond.
Features
The light, referred to as a spotlight, has a rating of just 1 watt, which may not seem very powerful to you. We admit that it isn’t the best, but it is still more than enough to cover a small pond, and will do good work with a larger pond.
After all, 1 watt of LED light is equal to 10 watts of a halogen light, so you’re still getting a better deal than with halogen. And if it still isn’t enough to cover your pond? You can buy more!
That’s a big difference with this kit, actually, compared to the others we’ve talked about. Unfortunately, it only comes with one light – not a set like the others. However, one light is very good, producing strong and warm light, and has a predicted lifespan of about 40,000 hours.
This means that you’ll get more than enough use out of. On top of that, each light comes with a 5 year warranty, so you’ll get a free replacement if yours breaks for whatever reason.
Also unfortunately, there are no other colors that you can get for the lights.
Monthly Cost
Since the light is 1 watt, and the national average is 10 cents per kWh, it should only cost you about $0.03 cents per month – nothing!
Pros
- Cheap monthly cost
- 40,000 LED lifespan
- 14.5 foot cord
- 5 year warranty
Cons
- One light per kit
- No other colors
The Best Lights Available In The U.K.
Blagdon LED Pond Lights
A big contrast to getting just one light, with this kit you get 5! This is a great number if you’ve got a big pond, because you’ll be able to place them all around, and get a lot of light.
Features
Each light has 3 watts of power, which is one of the higher end levels compared to other LEDs. This individual power, combined with the fact that you get 5 lights, means that you’re going to have a very strong glow going on in your pond during the night.
They also have a great variety of colors, not offering just flat white light. They offer three different shades, which can be easily attached as multi-colored lenses over the lights. They come in pink, yellow, and blue, which gives you a lovely choice of relaxing and vibrant colors.
Once you’ve picked your colors, you can position them in the places where they are going to brighten up and color your pool even better. Thankfully, they can be rotated in every direction very easily, meaning that it’s very easy to get exactly the right arrangement you want.
On top of this, the lights come with different bases, allowing you to be versatile and plant them wherever you want – if you want to put them outside the pond.
One type is a support base that holds the lamp and can be decorated with pebbles to better blend in. Another type is a garden spike, with the kit coming with one spike for each light. They can be pushed down into your garden soil, firmly holding them in place.
But that’s all for outside the pond! Underwater, these lights will work just as well.
Monthly Costs
With 3 watts per light, it should come to about 45 cents a month. More than others, but still ludicrously cheap!
Pros
- 5 lights
- Color options
- Different bases
- Powerful light
Cons
- The color lenses are shared between all the lights, not 3 each
AllPond Solutions LED
Features
These come with 3 individual lights, with 12 LED bulbs in each, and all running at 1 watt of power. This may seem low, but is more than enough to spread around your pond, especially if you position the 3 in clever locations.
Each one of them is weighted, meaning that they stay under water very easily, but they work very well outside the water too – with a tripod suction pad fixture, and full rotation.
You also get a variety of colors, with four colored lenses coming with the kit. They come in green, yellow, red, and blue, and attach to the front of the lights to project those same colors.
Unfortunately you only get 2 of each color, meaning that you can’t have all 3 lights be one shared color. That being said, you can have them all be clear white, because you do get 3 of the clear white color lenses.
The lights are very energy efficient with their low power wattage, though it admittedly doesn’t always give off a lot of power in terms of lighting.
The light can be weak at times, not reaching all the areas you want it too. If you have a bigger pond, you may want to keep this weakness in mind. Perhaps buy 2 kits? After all, the lights have plenty of other qualities.
Monthly Cost
At 1 watt per light, this should come to a brilliant 9 cents per month to run.
Pros
- Multiple color lenses
- Tripod suction cup for external use
- Energy efficient
- 1 year warranty
Cons
- Lights quite weak
Esotec Solar Pond LED
Features
If you want a more environmental option, this solar powered kit will help! It has 3 individual lights, all run through a 1 watt solar panel. On top of that, each has rechargeable batteries included, meaning you should never run out of charge – with around 8 hours of use per night.
A clever sensor is included to further save power, detecting when there is sunlight (and it is day) so that it can turn the lights off then. And when it becomes dark? It turns back on! This will stop you wasting your sun power during the day, when the pond lights won’t be noticeable anyway.
The lights have a fair amount of brightness, though it’s never as much as when it’s plugged into your electrical mains. Unfortunately, they aren’t multi-colored, coming with no extra lenses. This means that you’ll only get a typical flat white light – so they aren’t as vibrant as other kits.
Monthly Cost
None! Solar power is free.
Pros
- No monthly cost
- Charges batteries to last the night
- Good for the environment
Cons
- No different colors
- Weaker brightness than electrical
Final Thoughts
And there you have it! If you’re looking to light up your pond at night, this guide should give you a great idea of what you may want – LED lights, good power, multiple colors, and so on. Be sure to get the one that is going to work best for you, in terms of pond size and cost, and using our reviews section might just give you the perfect one.
