--- title: "Water Feature Lighting in Naples, FL | NightScapes" description: "Water feature lighting in Naples, FL. Where the fixture sits (in the water, behind it or across it) for a fountain, pond or spillway, and how it stays clean." canonical_url: "https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/water-feature-lighting" last_updated: "2026-10-22" language: "en" --- ![A waterfront house at dusk with a fountain in a paved motor court, framed by palms](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/img/ns-estate-off-1920.webp) Design and installation # Lighting fountains, ponds and spillways in Naples Water does not light the way stone does. Aim a fixture at it from the garden and the beam goes straight through. Water shows light only when the light is in it, behind it, or reflected off it. [Ask about your water feature](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/water-feature-lighting#sv-book) [or call (239) 649-6940](tel:+12396496940) Tell us about the feature Drawing: a fall into a basin, with the light in four places. A sketch of the principle, not a NightScapes job. Where the light is How the water reads **Lit from the garden.** The beam lights the stone and passes straight through the falling water. A few drops sparkle; the water itself stays dark. This is the fountain that disappears at night. Clear water is nearly transparent to a beam that hits it from the side. The light enters, crosses and leaves, and almost none of it comes back to your eye. That is why a fountain surrounded by good landscape lighting can still be the one dark thing in the courtyard. Put the same light underneath, shining up through the falling water, and everything changes. Every drop and ripple becomes a small lens, and the water glows. Or light the wall behind it and let the water stand out as a shape. Or light the far bank of a pond and let the surface mirror it. Those are the three ways water takes light, and the rest of this page is about choosing between them. The right one depends on the feature: a tiered fountain in a motor court, a rock fall into a pond and a spillway into a pool are three different jobs. [Ask about your water feature](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/water-feature-lighting#sv-book). In it A submerged fixture, aimed up through moving water. The water glows. Behind it A lit surface beyond the feature. The water is a shape against it. Reflected Light on the far bank. Still water repeats it. ![A waterfront house at dusk with a fountain in a paved motor court, framed by palms](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/img/ns-estate-off-1280.webp) ### Inside: the fixture is in the basin A submerged fixture aimed up through the water lights it from within. Every ripple, jet and falling sheet above it catches light, and the water becomes the brightest thing in the court. This is what most people mean when they say they want the fountain lit. It gives Glowing, moving water. The strongest effect of the three. It asks A fixture made to live under water, and somebody to clean its lens. ### Behind: the water is a shape against light Light something behind the feature, a wall or a doorway, and leave the water itself unlit. The fountain is seen as a dark outline with bright edges where the falling water catches the light from behind. It is quiet, and there is nothing in the water to maintain. It gives A silhouette, with a rim of light on the moving water. It asks A plain lit surface behind, and a viewpoint that lines the two up. ### Across: light from the side, at a low angle A fixture in the planting beside the feature, aimed across it, lights the stone and catches the spray. It is the easiest to install and service, because nothing is wet. It lights the structure well and the water only where the water is broken into drops. It gives Lit stone and sparkle in the spray. Less glow in the water itself. It asks Careful aim, since the beam carries on past the feature toward whoever is opposite. ### Usually two of the three Most features are best with light inside the water and a softer light on what stands behind or beside them. The submerged fixture does the glow; the second source gives the feature a setting and keeps it from floating in a black court. It gives Depth. The water leads and its surroundings support it. It asks The two on separate levels, so the water is never outshone. Illustration of a fountain in a motor court. Levels are exaggerated a little so each position reads on a screen. ![A carved wall fountain lit from within its basin, water falling from the spout, vines trained on the wall around it](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/img/ns-job-wall-fountain-960.webp)![A curved pool at night reflecting a lit screen of bamboo and palms beyond it](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/img/ns-job-pool-bamboo-screen-960.webp)![A rock grotto with a spa lit blue from under the water, the light itself a bright point on the bottom](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/img/ns-job-grotto-spa-960.webp) Water falling from a wall spout, lit from the basin below. The moving water holds the light.The bamboo and palms are lit; the still water shows them a second time.In the still water of this spa, the submerged light shows as a bright point. 1. ### Moving water carries light Water that is broken up, by a fall, a jet or a bubbler, is full of surfaces at every angle. Light from below is scattered by all of them, so turbulent water reads as bright, white and alive. The more the water moves, the more light it will hold, and the less of it you need. 2. ### Still water mirrors what is beyond it A still pond or a quiet basin does not show light that is aimed into it. It shows a reflection of whatever is lit on the far side. So a still pond is lit by lighting its far bank: the planting, a tree, a wall. The water repeats it, upside down, at no extra effort. 3. ### A submerged light in still water is a hot spot Put a fixture under still, clear water and aim it up, and from the bank you see the lamp itself as a bright disk. It needs movement above it, a hiding place among rock, or an aim away from the viewing side. In a still basin, less light from further away nearly always looks better. ### Tiered fountains The water Falls from bowl to bowl in thin curtains, with a jet or finial at the top. The fixture In the bottom basin, aimed up through the curtains, so each tier is lit from below. Seen from The front door and the drive. It is checked from both. ### Bubblers The water Wells up through a stone, an urn or a jar and sheets down its sides. The fixture Directly under the bubbler where there is a basin, or grazing the wet surface from beside it. Seen from Close by, often from a seat. The source has to be fully hidden. ### Wall spouts and niches The water Arcs from a spout in a wall into a trough or basin below. The fixture In the trough, lighting the arc and the wall behind it together. Seen from A courtyard or from indoors through glass, straight on. ### Spillway bowls The water Fills a raised bowl and spills over its rim in a ring, often into a pool. The fixture Under the lip, aimed down and out at the falling ring, or in the pool below it. Seen from Across the water, usually from the lanai or the house. Drawings, not to scale. The amber dot is the fixture; the glow is the water it lights. Waterfall lighting ## Waterfalls and spillways A waterfall can be lit from behind the sheet, at the splash point or by grazing the stone beside it. Behind the sheet makes the water a glowing curtain. At the splash point lights the foam and the mist. Grazing the rock shows the structure. A spillway into a pool is lit from under its lip. ![Water falling over stacked rock into a pond](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/img/ns-job-palm-rock-waterfall-480.webp) Stacked rock with three falls: each one can take a light at its foot. ### Behind the sheet Where water falls clear of the rock in a sheet, there is a pocket of air behind it. A fixture tucked into that pocket and aimed outward lights the back of the sheet, and the whole fall becomes a curtain of light with the source completely hidden. It is the most striking way to light a fall and it needs a fall that is built for it: enough of a ledge to stand a fixture on, and a sheet that stays intact. ### At the splash point The foot of a fall is all foam and spray. A submerged fixture there, aimed up, lights the most broken water on the feature, and the light climbs the fall as far as the water is turbulent. This works on almost any waterfall, including rock falls with no clean sheet, and it is the usual starting point. ### Grazing the stone A fixture low at the side, aimed along the face of the rock, shows every ledge and shadow and makes wet stone glisten. It lights the structure more than the water, and it is the one position that needs nothing in the pond. Used with a light at the splash point, it gives a fall both its form and its movement. Light the water where it is broken, and the stone where it is wet. ### Spillways, sheer falls and raised walls A spillway bowl or a sheer descent from a raised wall into a pool is a small waterfall with a pool for a basin. It is lit from under the lip or from the wall behind the sheet, so the falling water is drawn as a bright line against the tile. The deck and the screen around it follow different rules, covered under [the pool deck and the screen enclosure around it](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/pool-lanai-lighting). The same thinking applies below a dock, with salt water and tide added: [underwater lights on a canal dock](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/underwater-dock-lighting). Pond lighting ## Ponds, fish and the far bank A pond is lit at low levels, in warm color, with any fixture hidden among rock and aimed away from the side it is viewed from. Most of the light goes on the far bank, where the planting is, and the surface repeats it. Where there are fish, the pond is given dark hours every night. ![A planted bank beside a lake, lit at night](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/img/ns-job-lakeside-garden-low-light-480.webp) A lit bank, which is what a still pond shows. ### Light the bank, not the water Stand where you look at the pond from. What you see in the water is the opposite bank. Light a tree, a clump of grasses or a rock outcrop over there and it appears twice, once for real and once in the surface. Nothing is submerged, nothing needs cleaning, and the water stays dark and reflective. For the planting itself, see [lighting the beds that frame a pond](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/garden-lighting). ### Where a submerged light does belong Under a fall that feeds the pond, behind a boulder, or beneath a stand of water plants so their stems and leaves are lit from below. In each case there is something above the fixture to catch the light and something beside it to hide the lamp. In open, still water there is neither. ### Fish Common practice for a pond with fish is to keep output low and color warm, aim away from the places the fish shelter, and run the lights on a schedule that gives them darkness for part of every night. We work that way. If the pond holds koi or other fish that are looked after by someone, that person is worth asking too. Keeping it bright ## Scale, algae and reaching the fixture again Fountain and pond water leaves minerals on everything, and a warm lit lens grows algae. Both dim a submerged light within a season. No fixture is immune, so every one we set can be lifted out and wiped without draining the feature, with slack in its cable and a route that survives pump service. That cleaning is part of [scheduled lens cleaning and re-aiming](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/landscape-lighting-maintenance). If a light has gone dim or dark altogether, start with [tracking down a fixture that has gone dim or dark](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/landscape-lighting-repair). [Ask about your water feature](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/water-feature-lighting#sv-book) Submerged fixturesNightScapes Landscape Lighting 1. Reach Every submerged fixture can be lifted out and wiped without draining the feature. 2. Slack Enough cable on each one to bring it to the edge and put it back. 3. The lens Mineral film and algae cleaned off, which is most of what keeps water lighting bright. 4. The pump Cable routed so servicing the pump does not mean disturbing the lights. 5. Splash Connections kept out of the splash zone and sealed against water. 6. Aim Checked after cleaning, because a fixture that has been lifted rarely goes back the same. If it cannot be reached, it will not be cleaned. Who does the work ## Who lights the water: NightScapes Landscape Lighting, Naples NightScapes Landscape Lighting has lit fountains, ponds and waterfalls in Naples since 1998. Todd and Sherry own and run it, outdoor lighting is the only work it does, and its Google Business Profile shows 63 reviews at 5.0. Water is lit for the view from where you see it, whether that is the front door, the lanai or the drive. The photographs on this page are NightScapes jobs: a carved wall fountain lit from its basin, a tiled wall fountain in a courtyard, a rock grotto spa, a pool before a bamboo screen and a rock waterfall under a coconut palm. We light water features across Naples, Marco Island and Bonita Springs, and through Lee and Collier counties. Water lighting is a small part of most systems and the part people look at most. We would sooner set one fixture in the right place than four in the easy ones. [Ask about your water feature](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/water-feature-lighting#sv-book) ![A tiled wall fountain set in a courtyard wall at night, with date palms uplit around it](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/img/ns-job-courtyard-wall-fountain-960.webp) A tiled wall fountain and its basin, with the palms around it lit. Since 1998 Lighting properties in Naples and Southwest Florida. Todd and Sherry Family and locally owned. The owners are the people you deal with. 63 Google reviews Rated 5.0 on the NightScapes Google Business Profile. Outdoor lighting only No side trades, this is the whole business. Choose a question - [Can I put underwater lights near a waterfall or fountain?](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/water-feature-lighting#wf-questions-0) - [How do you fix a light at the base of a waterfall?](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/water-feature-lighting#wf-questions-1) - [How many underwater lights should a pond or fountain have?](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/water-feature-lighting#wf-questions-2) - [What type of underwater lights are best?](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/water-feature-lighting#wf-questions-3) - [Can underwater lights harm my fish?](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/water-feature-lighting#wf-questions-4) - [Can the lighting on a water feature be dimmed?](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/water-feature-lighting#wf-questions-5) - [What stops the lenses going cloudy?](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/water-feature-lighting#wf-questions-6) Ask us about your fountain or pond. Choose a question, or call and we will answer it on the phone. ### Can I put underwater lights near a waterfall or fountain? Yes, and that is the best place for them. A fixture at the foot of a fall or under a jet has broken water above it, which catches and scatters the light. The fixture must be one made to be submerged, set where it can be lifted out for cleaning, and aimed so the lamp is not seen from where people sit. ### How do you fix a light at the base of a waterfall? It depends on what the base is made of and whether the feature can be drained. The fixture needs to stay put under moving water and still come out for cleaning, so it is held by a weighted base or a bracket and left with slack in the cable. We look at how the feature is built before choosing how to hold a light in it. ### How many underwater lights should a pond or fountain have? Fewer than you might think. One fixture under a jet or a fall lights a great deal of moving water. A still pond may want none in the water at all, and light on the far bank instead. We start with one fixture and add only where something that should be seen is not. ### What type of underwater lights are best? Ones built for permanent submersion, in a metal that suits the water, with a sealed lens and a sealed cable entry. Warm white suits most stone and most planting around a feature. Low output is usually right, because water is seen against darkness and a little light in it shows clearly. ### Can underwater lights harm my fish? Common practice for a pond with fish is low output, warm color, light aimed away from where the fish shelter, and a schedule that gives them dark hours every night. If the pond is stocked with fish you care about, tell us, and ask whoever looks after them as well. We will light the far bank before we light the water. ### Can the lighting on a water feature be dimmed? Yes, and it should be on its own zone so it can be. A fountain that looks right at dusk can be too bright at midnight, when everything around it has been turned down. Being able to set the water separately from the garden is most of what makes it look good all evening. ### What stops the lenses going cloudy? Cleaning. Fountain water leaves minerals on everything it touches and a warm, lit lens grows algae. No fixture is immune. What can be designed is how easy the fixture is to reach and wipe, which decides whether it gets done. That is why every submerged light we set can be lifted out. [Ask us on the phone: (239) 649-6940](tel:+12396496940) Close to this - [Pool and lanai lighting The pool deck and the screen enclosure around it](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/pool-lanai-lighting) - [Underwater lighting Underwater lights on a canal dock](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/underwater-dock-lighting) - [Garden lighting Lighting the beds that frame a pond](https://www.nightscapeslandscapelighting.com/garden-lighting) Free Consultations and Estimates ## Ready to see the water lit from within? Tell us what the feature is, whether the water moves, and where you see it from. We look at it with you and plan each position before anything is fixed. - Inside, behind or across - Every fixture reachable - Free consultation and estimate [or call (239) 649-6940](tel:+12396496940) Tell us about the feature