Advice on Lighting and Moss

[Snaily]

Edit: Basically I'm looking for a light that's good for growing plants but will NOT produce heat.

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I'm in the process of building a terrarium right now. It is a temperate setup so I do not need nor want a heat lamp.

I'm only going to grow mosses and some small ferns. Following some advice I read in another thread, I got a mixture of sand, sphagnum moss, and coconut fiber and placed it in a bowl. It is too dry for moss where I live so I used some that I bought from the pet store. I think it might be an exo-terra product? It still has dirt on the bottom and it said on the bag that it would grow if planted. I just wet my soil and the moss very thoroughly and pressed it into place.

First question: which type of light should I get to keep the moss and ferns alive when I move them into the terrarium?

Second question: will the moss that I got emerge from dormancy and grow, and if so how will I know when it does? It's already green now lol, and I've read that moss grows very slowly so it may be difficult to tell.

[Pavel]

All lighting produces some heat, that is unavoidable.

LED lighting emits the least amount but the lights are expensive and the only ones I know of that are really good for plants emit purple light (combo of red and blue). Not terribly attractive.

Cfls are probably your best bet as they don't emit a huge amount of heat (though far more than LEDs) and are relatively in expensive. I use daylight specturm cfls in my terrs.

Even with dried out moss, it isn't uncommon to see new moss appearing. The bagged moss often still has moss spores on it -- not to mentioin fern spores as well -- and moss spores are air borne so mosses can even show up that way. How familiar are you with moss's appearance? I only ask as people frequently mistake the presence of algae growing on dead/brown moss as the moss "coming back to life." It is difficult for me to easily explain though new moss does have (to me at least) a very different appearance. If it is just algae, the color tends to be a dark, slick/shiny green. New moss growth is often, but not always, a lighter shade of green than the older living moss and you can see the individual moss plants/growths.

[Snaily]

I know that all lights will produce heat, I just didn't want to turn my terrarium into a desert or a tropical jungle.

So far I've been using an ordinary fluorescent bulb. I'm getting sprouts on my seeds, so it actually seems to be working. The seeds I just grabbed from some parrot food lol. I'll have to check out the lights you mentioned when I get the money, but I think my method will work (if the isopods stop munching on the seeds ).

Thanks for the advice about the moss. One side of it is a bit moldy so I don't have much hope. It's still a light green in spots though, and the individual "leaves" perk up visibly when I spray the tank. You think this is a sign of life or just the dead moss absorbing water? I've also seen some springtails hopping around on the moss, so I guess something was alive. I'm hopeful for spores now that you've told me.

[terrestrial_man]

I think that you should have no problem with growing mosses in a terrarium IF you can keep the terrarium in a cool enough room, perhaps in an enclosed patio.
What would be needed is proper lighting, air circulation and moisture. Here is a link to a page I made up from what someone in Sweden did successfully. It is great. He did have alot of comprehensive follow up to his work but the forum where he was at dumped all the old threads. But I did make up a page on his work that might provide for some info. It is at my website here:
Nano Vivarium