Moss Help

[TwiinKey]

I have decided that my tank is kind of boring, so I have been looking at ways to make it look better. I've been looking around on here and decided on the driftwood look. Most people with driftwood also have moss on and around it to look more natural. My questions are these:
1) What kind of moss should I get? I'm not sure exactly what my lighting specs are, but it is the lighting that came with the 29g aquarium starter kit from Petsmart, so i would imagine that it's not that great.
2) Where is the best and cheapest place to buy moss online? I don't want to spend too much on it, because I'm not even sure if it will last long at this point.
So I am looking for moss that will do well in my tank, and is on the cheaper side.

 

[okapizebra]

Hi! I would recommend java moss. It's easy to keep and very resiliant and probably will do fine with your lights because they are not too demanding in that regard. Do you know any other specifics on your light? Is it one of those long tubes? Your best bet would to post in the classifieds of the forum that you are looking to purchase some java moss.

 

[TwiinKey]

Yes it is a long white tube that goes across almost the entire tank.

 

[okapizebra]

Then it's a fluorescent tube, which should be fine for growing java moss. Do you know how many watts and what the kelvin rating for the bulb is?

 

[gravereaper0]

Like he's saying people have good luck with java. And find out the kelvin rating of the bulb. If its not in the 5-8k range invest in one. They're cheap and the moss has a much better chance.

 

[TwiinKey]

I might sound dumb but how do I find out the watts and kelvins? Is it just on the tube?

 

[gravereaper0]

Well easiest would be to just look up the tank model online. If you bought it new and it has the factory bulb that should be a snap. Or take the bulb out (carefully) and check the ends. Some, but not all, have that info printed on them.

 

[TwiinKey]

I got it from petsmart and I looked online at the model got. All it says is full good with fluorescent lighting. No other lighting specs. I'll look into it more but at this point do you think I'll be okay with the java moss?

 

[TwiinKey]

At the model I* got.

 

[gravereaper0]

Only one way to find out. If you're unsure and don't wanna spend a lot you can buy little moss squares from ebay for a couple bucks and see what happens. You can YouTube how to attach it to driftwood, there's plenty of videos on it.

 

[Oohitsae]

what kind of kit is it?

I know that the aqueon flourescent tubes that I usually buy are 6500k t-8's, so if its that brand you should be fine.

Not sure about others, as I've only invested into aqueon so far

 

[TwiinKey]

It's TopFin

 

[Oohitsae]

So I did some research, everywhere I looked said they come with a pretty weak 15w light. You should be able to grow low-light plants, but nothing moderate-high unless you upgrade the lighting. Most mosses, actually all mosses that I am aware of should do fine in your tank, but if you want to do anything other than moss, anubias, java ferns, anarchis, stuff like that, then you'll probably want to upgrade

 

[TwiinKey]

Ok thank you for the help. I'll look into new lighting but for now I'll just stick to moss