# Sphagnum Moss Brand



## Andrew Lee (Jan 21, 2014)

Hey guys, I was just wondering what brand of sphagnum moss from Lowe's or Home Depot is frog safe and very commonly revives. I would love to have some wood covered in live sphagnum moss! The unique look is attractive and I also just need some sphagnum moss for my frogs. Thanks guys(and gals)!


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## Andrew Lee (Jan 21, 2014)

Is it this:
432 cu. in. Sphagnum Moss-110 - The Home Depot
or this:
Better-Gro 1/8 cu. ft. Premium Grade Orchid Moss (2-Pack)-50455 - The Home Depot


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## Gibbs.JP (Feb 16, 2016)

I've bought that first one and didn't like it. It had a lot of messy other debris in it. I like the New Zealand AAA Grade stuff you can get from the herp stores and sites. 

Like this: New Zealand Long Fiber Sphagnum Moss (100g 8L) | Josh's Frogs


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## srrrio (May 12, 2007)

The Moser I would stay away from, the Better Gro is a bit better. I would suggest best option is New Zealand that most sponsors sell.


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## Andrew Lee (Jan 21, 2014)

I have bought the New Zealand one before without any growth. I do know numerous threads that have said that brands from hardware stores usually come to life but I can't remember the brands that they said. Just saying guys that reviving them is kind of my main goal. Thanks for the current input guys.


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## Andrew Lee (Jan 21, 2014)

Currently, I have had sphagnum moss turn green with algae. Is there a chance it will regrow? I heard that it regrows after that or something. I don't know. Thanks guys!


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## DJMattz0r (May 17, 2015)

My New Zealand AAA Sphagnum moss will occasionally come to life. Usually when I have it in smaller containers with other plants in them. I haven't really had a whole carpet of it come to life yet in any of my tanks. Maybe it's the finer layer, but just keep trying. 

The only other mosses I have had come back to life would be sheet moss and mood moss. Hope this helps some.


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## Andrew Lee (Jan 21, 2014)

Here are a few pics. As you can tell, I am desperate. I know this should be placed in the wanted ad but anyone who doesn't want live sphagnum moss can ship it to me!.


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## Andrew Lee (Jan 21, 2014)




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## Andrew Lee (Jan 21, 2014)

The first 2 are something I just saw. It looks like two leaves. Not sphagnum moss but something weird.


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## mudbug (Mar 31, 2016)

Dried sphagnum moss rarely regrows in a vivarium. It is often treated to kill off the spores. I would try one of the live mosses offered for sale by reptile/amphibian dealers.


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## oldlady25715 (Nov 17, 2007)

If your ever up in my area I can give you a clump of live sphagnum. It's can be touchy to get established in the Viv tho.


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## Andrew Lee (Jan 21, 2014)

Too bad I live two hours away!


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## inka4040 (Oct 14, 2010)

mudbug said:


> Dried sphagnum moss rarely regrows in a vivarium. It is often treated to kill off the spores. I would try one of the live mosses offered for sale by reptile/amphibian dealers.


This has not been my experience at all. Nothing short of boiling it will keep it from reviving IME.


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## tardis101 (Apr 11, 2012)

Andrew Lee said:


> Is it this:
> 432 cu. in. Sphagnum Moss-110 - The Home Depot
> or this:
> Better-Gro 1/8 cu. ft. Premium Grade Orchid Moss (2-Pack)-50455 - The Home Depot


I didn't like the first one, it was messy. I've tried the long fiber stuff also and I didn't like that either. 

I use the second one, but usually get it at Lowes because they are closer.  I've had very small chucks of that turn green again. Usually it's a dark green vs the lighter green that I would say happens to a lot of the rest of it (which I assume is something else like algae).


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## Natural_Tank (Feb 24, 2015)

After misting my cork mosaic with sphagnum stuffed in the cracks every couple days for a month I had sphagnum sprouting everywhere. I used the zoo med stuff originally. After 4 months the moss outgrew the mosaic and was roughly 4-5 inches thick. It grows vigorously in a vivarium if allowed to haha.


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## cam1941 (Jan 16, 2014)

Every brand of sphagnum will sprout new sphagnum moss eventually even that Mosser Lee stuff. Its just a matter of the quality you want up front. 

The Mosser Lee stuff looks like crap with twigs and garbage and doesn't have the nice color and overall quality that the grade A sphagnum has. Many vendors sell the quality stuff.


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## TheCoop (Oct 24, 2012)

Ya get what you pay for folks. Home Depot Sphagnum is horrid most labeled "Orchid Moss" are a better quality.


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## tachikoma (Apr 16, 2009)

I was recently in the market for some sphagnum moss and was determined to not get the debris riddled stuff from home depot again. While on my search I found two that both sounded great but I was not sure which one to get or the differences between the two, so I figured I would bite the bullet and just buy both so I could finally compare them first hand and form my own conclusion. 

So here goes, all pictures are the same orientation so the moss on the left is AAA New Zealand moss and the moss on the right is 5 Star Chilean. I would also like to add both mosses are far and away better than any I have ever received before, but there are tangible differences between the two, so hopefully this helps people decide what they would like for their needs. 










At first glance you can see an immediate difference, the NZ moss is a lighter color and appears to be a bit more voluminous, I chalked this up to perhaps it had more moisture in the bag so I checked that on the next image. 











So after taking roughly equal amounts from each bag, I noticed both mosses seemed to be equally moist. So that leads me to believe the NZ moss is just more voluminous. 

The NZ moss was almost twice as voluminous and had a lighter/more bleached color. The NZ moss also was slightly softer to the touch. The Chilean moss had it's own unique qualities, one of them being the strands were much longer perhaps 50% than the NZ moss. It also was slightly wiry if that makes sense, it felt like the center strands of the moss were more rigid but not hard (think center veins of leaves). Lastly the Chilean was a darker shade of brown.










So finally I soaked them both in hot water for an hour to make sure they were both completely saturated. I then took them out and did a gentle half squeeze of my hand and compared their water retention qualities. 

Both mosses seemed to soak up about the same amount of water, but the appearances of the mosses was quite different, the NZ moss seemed to really plump up and look full, while the Chilean moss while just as saturated, did not look much different than when it was just slightly moist. Both mosses turned a pleasing shade of golden brown when wet. Lastly the NZ moss won hands down on being cleaner once wet. the Chilean moss left tons of moss particulate floating in the water and stuck to my hand. Not debris just pieces of loose moss fluffs. I feel this would probably stick to the frogs a bit, it would not cause a problem but might not look so great. 

So there you have it, hope this helps anyone on the fence. Both mosses are excellent and would be great for viv use, but depending on your needs one may be better suited than the other.


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