FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

short version: I've been trying to grow sphagnum moss and it looks sad. Please help!

long version:
I bought red sphagnum moss (see link) with the intent of growing it and using it as a topdressing for some of my plants. I placed the sphagnum in a small closed storage container, on top of a ~1cm base of peat moss, and watered it with distilled water. The sphagnum was fine for a few months, although it grew rather slowly. The issue was that it was turning green, and after reading that it green means not enough sun, I tried to swap the translucent cover with transparent paper hoping more sunlight would go through. It didn't really work... the moss was alive though still green.

I saw a tiny clump of mold forming in some of the mossheads and decided maybe the humidity was a bit to high, so I then tried to remove the lid so the sphagnum can get direct sunlight and was careful about misting the surface of the moss at least a couple of times a day. Here is where things went wrong: my moss now looks like this:
What am I doing wrong? Any and all tips on how to better grow sphagnum appreciated!

Lighting is an issue that I find confusing with Sphagnum. Some of my windowsill grown Sphagnum have been light deprived and burned at the same time. I'm bot sure but I think some of your plants look burnt in the picture. If your plants are turning black it meas they are burnt and I think increasing humidity reduces the chance of burning. I now use artificial light for mine which works well for other non-red Sphagnum but I don't have red Sphagnum so I'm not sure about it.

Well what works well for me is to clump my moss together and put it in a clear tray with about half an inch of rain water. With nothing covering the moss it seems to do pretty good. I got my moss from the same site it's called dwarf sorghum moss. Sorry I can't figure out how to add links. my moss is by a South facing Windowsill with a supplemental t5 florescent light running at 13 hours of light a day. I use a timer to run all my lights. Pictures