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Low-voltage Fish Pond Lights and Garden Lighting

I am an absolute sucker for lighting scattered around our garden, and used underwater in the pond. It makes such a difference for viewing your fish because it literally brings the pond alive at night-time. I have the main loop of my garden and pond lights on an automatic timer to turn them on and off.

Some of the underwater lights use quite strong bulbs and the fish love the heat given off by them, to the extent that they will "sun" themselves under them, particularly in winter when the water is freezing. This never seems to have done any harm to them. I have a variety of lights in my pond, some halogen spots, some lower wattage coloured dome lamps. The dome lamps shine upwards, which silhouettes any water surface plants, the halogens shine across the pond underwater.

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Night-time in the pond.
Above: Bell water fountain and lamp set with various other single lamps in the pond.

Jims Pond Blog

To get the latest news on my ponding bio-filter and venturi experiments why not visit Jim's Pond Blog. You can subscribe to my blog's RSS Feed powered by Feedburner to ensure you get the latest updates. It will work with most Atom and RSS 2.0 compatible news reader software, such as Bloglines, Desktop Sidebar, NewsGator, MyYahoo, etc.

FISHY FORUMS

For great fish-keeping communities visit my favourite forums at:-

They are very friendly and knowledgeable groups of people who will make you feel very welcome. There is tons of discussion going on about fish of all kinds, problems whether relating to the health of your fish or the state of your pond, and advice on filters, pumps and anything else you can think of!

Nature 3d Screensaver

A lazy summer afternoon in Nature 3D Screensaver

As a fish lover you might be interested in the beautiful Nature 3D Screensaver, which is a fully animated and very realistic scene in a peaceful woodland, where a stream runs into a lovely clear pond, with fish swimming lazily just below the surface of the rippling water, and birds and butterflies fly overhead. Very authentic with sounds of crickets, woodpeckers and birds (and if you listen carefully you can hear the chattering fish too! No - only kidding ;-)

Its FREE to download on a Try-n-Buy basis.

Click here for details

I highly recommend Bradshaws Direct for all your ponding supplies:-

I also have a tripod stand which rests on the bottom of the pond. The 3 lamps on it are held about 6 inches below the surface and these point DOWNWARDS, angled slightward outward. These are NOT halogen, so the heat generated is gentle.

Not only does this light up the bottom of the pond, but in the cold weather my koi constantly fin themselves so they hover directly underneath the beam of light. They are sun-tanning themselves!! Well, keeping warm anyway.

Amusingly the light gets reflected off their big fins as they fan them, and its almost like you've got a pulsing police car beacon in your pond.

So anyway, the point is that the fish enjoy lighting as much as you will.

Generally the lights I use are all white lights. However one of the domes is red and the smaller goldfish and shebunkins love this, and sometimes I've seen 3 at one go trying to stay on top of it. This lamp doesn't generate any more heat than the white or green dome lamps, so I think its something to do with the colour!?

Anybody else experienced this?

Pond and Garden lighting tips:

  • Make sure you fix them well. The fish will nudge them and then they end up floating on the surface.
  • White lights will soon get coated with a layer of algae, so you should place these where you can get at them easily to clean them off. I am certain my fish look forward to me cleaning off the algae so they can get back to their tanning again
  • Plan carefully where you are going to lay the cabling used to power the lights. It is best to use some kind of armouring to protect the cable, especially if it crosses places where people will walk over it. It may be prudent to lay some channelling so that if you need to get at the cable for maintenance, or to lay additional cabling, it makes the job easier and tidier.
  • Keep some spare bulbs handy as the bulbs will eventually blow, although some of mine have been in use for 3 years and still haven't blown!
  • Make sure you get a suitably sized transformer. Usually lighting kits will come supplied with their own transformer, but you end up with lots of transformers plugged into your garage (or wherever you mains electricity supply is). I bought one big meaty transformer capable of powering many low voltage, low-wattage bulbs, and it also has a timer built into it for controlling the lights.

Below: Jaws can be seen enjoying the heat from the lamps.

Blagdon Photech 35w Spotlight

Click for products and prices at Bradshaws Direct

This low voltage lighting set will create beautiful effects either in the pond or garden. Complete with weatherproof transformer that can go outside, the Photech lighting system is unrivalled in its ease of installation. A seperate light support is included. This can be filled with stones to add extra weight, giving a stable platform and allowing for a chosen position in the pool. Alternatively there is a bracket that allows it to be screwed to a solid fixing point
¦ All lights have an installation range of 13 metres
¦ A high quality, 35 watt fully submersible halogen spotlight (20 watt spotlights sets also available)
¦ 12v transformer and cable
¦ Supplied with 3 colour lenses for changing the lighting effect. The lenses are 1 x green,1 x red and 1 x orange
¦ 2 year guarantee

Click here for Underwater Spotlight products and prices at Bradshaws Direct

Floating Jumping Jets- 9 Heads

Click for products and prices at Bradshaws Direct

Quite simply one of the most exciting lighting and pumping accessories we have ever seen. The Jumping Jets float on the surface of the pond and are powered by a pump (not included) to create a wide variety of fountain and lighting effects.
¦ The spray schemes change automatically.
¦ Each jet system incorporates high intensity LEDs which rotate through a multitude of colours
¦ Available in 2 sizes
¦ 1 year guarantee

Click here for Jumping Jet products and prices at Bradshaws Direct

Ocean Mist 36 LED Light Red

Click for products and prices at Bradshaws Direct

These Ocean Mist 36 LED lights can sit on top of the water when bought with a float or sit at the bottom of your garden pond.
¦ Comes complete with 10mtrs of cable and transformer
¦ 56mm in diameter x 27mm in height
¦ Energy saving and longlife
¦ Input: 230v or 120v, Output: AC24V
¦ Available in blue, red or green.

Click here for Ocean Mist LED products and prices at Bradshaws Direct



 
 
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