I pick mosses for my aquariums, terrariums, and now for a paludarium in local parks of NY.
There are many variations of mosses to choose from during the warm season.
I pick healthy-looking samples of various colors and shapes.
All samples come with some critters, worms you can see here, and such.
I generally prefer to keep them all in for my terrariums.
Let's wash the moss.
Put the moss in a container filled with cold water.
Cover the container with a lid and shake it well.
Drain the dirty water.
Repeat it all again until moss is clean.
Make sure to wash out soil and any organic detritus from the moss.
Clean moss has a better chance of surviving— that's what I learned from growing terrestrial mosses underwater.
As you may see, the water is running constantly through this platform filled with gravel.
I culture aquatic scuds on this platform for feeding fish in this tank.
The moss would serve as a source of food for scuds.
I am building 29 gallon self feeding sustaining paludarium for fish, scuds, and terrestrial springtails.
Let's place washed mosses on top of the gravel.
I put a couple of different types of mosses into a nice, thick carpet.
It already looks nice.
Here goes another type of moss.
I use the iNaturalist app for identifying mosses, plants, and such on my walks through parks.
iNaturalist also works great for looking up local species.
I have a video to help you with using the iNaturalist app:
Here goes another type of moss.
I want to try different mosses— some may not survive the high humidity of this tank.
Check my playlist of videos about growing land mosses underwater:
Now, let's see if this very dry moss can be revived.
All set and ready on April 26th.
Here you can see the water is running through the land platform.
I have two platforms hanging above the aquarium water surface.
Water is dripping down from the land platform back into the aquarium.
The paludarium is covered with the lid to prevent water evaporation.
Here you can see fish hunting scuds that get washed down from the land platform.
Two weeks later on May 13th.
Most mosses look very healthy.
This one gets bushier.
Another two mosses on this platform are growing in a thick, healthy carpet.
This moss turns brown, and you can see mold start growing on it.
I am going to remove the brown parts to prevent spoilage of the healthy mosses.
Healthy mosses generally grow very fast, taking whatever available space.
All they need is water and natural light to keep growing.
I have plenty of water in this high-humidity tank for my mosses to stay hydrated.
Also, water condenses on the surface of glass walls, greatly limiting the amount of natural light available for mosses here.
I keep the tank near the window, allowing only indirect natural light.
So again, this spoiled sample needs to be removed.
I spread the healthy moss to cover the whole platform.
About 3 weeks later on June 5th.
I removed some of the gravel on land platforms to make space for scuds to swim.
Here you can see an adult scud.
There are many more scuds hidden between rocks under the mosses.
And the mosses are doing very well.
Noticeably, most mosses tend to grow elongated in high humidity, just as when I grow them fully submerged in water.
Now, I also use natural spectrum LED light on the lid of the tank.
Let me turn it on for you to see the beauty of the moss.
Natural spectrum LED certainly beautifies everything :)
Plants and mosses in high-humidity tanks benefit greatly from the LED.
July 4th.
It's been a couple months since initial setup.
You can see the mosses thriving here.
A string of moss has grown very long submerged in the water.
The same moss growing above the water has noticeably shorter and thicker stems, while still elongated.
Magical fairy tale forest in close-up view.
Here is another moss that is blooming - yes, mosses do not bloom, and yet :)
All healthy terrestrial mosses that I have tried so far grow very well in high-humidity tanks.
And it takes only a couple of weeks to see if freshly collected terrestrial moss would adjust to grow healthily in high humidity.
Find your local mosses for the most unique landscaping.
Have fun and happy paludariums :)
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