Echoes - Stromatolite Reef - Hypersaline

[rhizotron]

I've made a new wall sconce style setup for decorative phytoplankton and a few other options. It usually takes more troubleshooting, but the parts for this design all came together pretty easy. Here it is with a Dunaliella salina culture in hypersaline brine medium.

And here it is with the natural amber glow of an Oak leaf tea.

However I currently have it holding a new Winogradsky column, shown here at day 15.

I collected the material for this Winogradsky while Grouse hunting up north on county land. The hunting wasn't especially great, but I saw such amazing things there in the glacial moraine landscape including this hidden glacial kettle beaver pond.

The small stream draining the pond was filled with bright orange ochre, a sign of the iron-oxidizing Bacteria living there in the upper reaches.

With a source of iron inside, these same Bacteria can create vibrant ochre inside of the Winogradsky column as well. Time will tell if I get to observe any here.

Just a short distance away from the Beaver pond I found another small kettle with another sign of the iron reduction-oxidation process, with a stunning swamp rainbow iridescence covering its still water.

I've seen swamp rainbow before, but never as colorful as this.

What an amazing world we live in!

 

[rhizotron]

This thing's coming along pretty nice. The organic material sank a couple more inches with continued decomposition, so I refreshed with some Corn husks and more Oak leaves. I also added a layer of tree roots, and charcoal pieces to the underground area.

I've observed good reproduction Porcellionides pruinosus isopods with numerous new juveniles walking around. There are additionally hundreds of Collembola sp. Springtails, but when the lights are on they mostly hide.


******************************************************

Coulee Region, 1983

Day 65

Edaphotron: watertight enclosure, electronic gas sensor, microcontroller, bonsai gravel, plant parts, soil invertebrates and soil microflora.

 

[rhizotron]

I haven't updated this in forever but here are a few new pics for the stromatolites tank. It went through a long period where there was a lot of the Cyanobacterium dark green EPS all over the tops of the features. It seems as though this organism actually hinders calcium carbonate precipitation when it's on very thick. I was able to reduce its coverage with water changes and I've also been dosing SpongExcel, which encourages the brown Diatom that seems to cement the sand grains together more coherently.

I got the Brine Shrimp colony into improved accommodations with a 12" glass bowl from the craft store and improved lighting.

That Oase CrystalSkim is another new addition and I really like it.

Water is cloudy. I have tried clearing this up with Purigen, but now I think it's probably the green phytoplankton (most likely Nannochloropsis or Chlorella), so I'm next going to try a UV sterilizer and I'm just waiting on delivery for that.

 

[rhizotron]

Bookmarking this interesting thing...

The Mechanism of Microbial-Ferromanganese Nodule Interaction and the Contribution of Biomineralization to the Formation of Oceanic Ferromanganese Nodules

Relevance to a possible freshwater microbialite reef aquarium...

Freshwater Ferromanganese Stromatolites from Lake Vermilion, Minnesota: Microbial Culturing and Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy Investigations

 

[rhizotron]

Really interesting thing I'm reading with my coffee...

(Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29018418/ )

 

[rhizotron]

Here's a photo update for this thing. I got a UV sterilizer hooked up again, which cleared the water real nice. Microbes look happy. They are easy to please.

I need to ask Randy Holmes Farley if he might have ideas for calcium and alkalinity. I can see some CaCO3 accretion, but even after all this time it is a very thin and soft layer on top of the faux stromatolites. I've dumped a lot of 2-part in here and I just don't know where it's gone. Maybe the sand bed? My cheap titrant tests seem to be incoherent for this very salty water. So I don't have a good measure.

 

[rhizotron]

I formatted a new poster for the Mars terrarium project mainly with pics I had handy already and got it mounted too.

I'm expanding the astrobiology with a new idea, kites, among a few other additional concepts. I'll explain more later when I have more components built, but here is the first kite, a 34" X 45" Rokakku. This traditional Japanese kite design is easy to build and one of the best for lifting payloads.

I also got my Urban Ninja out. This thing is tons of fun and I could fly it for hours.

 

[rhizotron]

Quick cell phone pics update for the Edaphotron...

I didn't see them much through the winter, but now that the room is warmer the soil fauna is quite active again. The organic matter is refreshed with some new things. I thought they would go for the Turkey feathers first, but the Roaches, Isopods and Collembola all went for the Maple keys instead.

The room is apparently a bit cooler than the exterior wall where this is hung, so there is foggy condensation on the the front polycarb panel.

 

[rhizotron]

A couple more updates...

I've built another rokkaku for one of the astrobiology projects. I made this one with a couple of fabric half-yard scraps and it's only 50" tall, so it's probably not big enough to lift the payload I have in mind with the sensors + data logger (second pic below), but I'll build another one with the same theme and more like 60".

Weather looks good for kite-flying this week and I'm eager to get this one up in the air.

I also rounded up aquascaping rocks for another astrobiology aquarium setup. This approximate layout will go into a 18" X 6.7" UNS tank. More on this later...

 

[rhizotron]

I got out with the new Rokkaku yesterday. We had our usual light & variable breeze and it was a good deal of work to keep kites in the air, but the new one flew well.

 

[rhizotron]

Not aquarium/terrarium-related really at all, but I got another kite built and up in the air. This one is based on Japanese multi-line bridle Edo kite design, but with compromises including a pretty small (22" X 38") sail, round vents and simplified bridle configuration.

It flew really well!

 

[rhizotron]

Hi everybody. I haven't been back here in a long time.

I'm still working on various things. Lately I've been getting into more outdoor design/art projects. A fun recent experience from this past fall was a short section of shrubby plants trained with inspiration from the UK practice of hedgelaying , which is used to contain/exclude livestock and delineate properties in farm areas. As a characteristic, historic and ecologically important feature of the countryside there, a lot of effort goes into maintaining British Isles hedgerows as well as the craft of hedgelaying:



Since I did not have a straight line of established shrubs in my garden area, I made a compromise with dormant-season transplants from elsewhere to fill the space between two existing plants, a Common Witch-Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana) and Silky Dogwood (Cornus amomom). Here's a pic with that short, straight line of stems:

Hedgelayers usually leave most of the branches and twigs of laid stems, but I cut all of these off at a height of 60" and removed most branches to compensate for the transplant root loss. I expected the established Witch-Hazel and Dogwood to resprout with more vigor than the transplants, so cutting their tops should also start them off with less of an advantage where they might otherwise overgrow the others. Here's an edited photo showing the plant selections, all but one of which are native to my area here in Wisconsin, USA:

Here are the shrub stems laid at an approximate 30-degree angle. After the partial cut through the stem bases, they are left with just a strip of bark and sapwood, so I provisionally tied them up against stakes with jute twine:

The hedge binding is the really crafty step in the process. Here, flexible Willow (Salix sp.) in two bunches wrap around the stakes with a complete twist between each pair:

To finish the job, I cut all of the rustic stakes off at an even height. The stakes and binders are dead pieces of cut wood at this point, but with luck the laid shrubs will resprout in the springtime from dormant buds along their stems to grow in as a dense hedge. This short section of hedge serves no real purpose aside from decoration and wildlife value, but it was fun to try training the plants with this traditional method:

 

[rhizotron]

Here's an update on the larger Mudbrick Vertical Garden that I built. There are some older photos showing the panel and early biocrust development, but I finally got around to finishing the case and got it up on the wall. and I really like the larger (40cm X 73cm X 12cm) scale of this one. The panel was seeded with Cyanobacteria and Green Algae almost two years ago:

Early growth for one of the Green Algae:

Here's the Cyanobacterium covering areas of the panel middle with circular dark green patches:

And here's a pic from a few days ago. With time, the panel biocrust has developed a rich texture and blend of hues. I find myself staring into it several times a day:

More detail here...the Mosses along with a couple of Ferns appeared as volunteers. I've pulled out a good deal of Moss, although I like to see these small patches:

I have a few more ideas to expand on this concept. I'm experimenting with another fabric + clay configuration as well as an idea for easier watering:

 

[rhizotron]

Amazing view tonight with the Waxing Crescent Moon and Saturn chasing Venus across the southwest sky.

And the lake is freezing over again.

 

[NanoJHB]

Here's an update on the larger Mudbrick Vertical Garden that I built. There are some older photos showing the panel and early biocrust development, but I finally got around to finishing the case and got it up on the wall. and I really like the larger (40cm X 73cm X 12cm) scale of this one. The panel was seeded with Cyanobacteria and Green Algae almost two years ago:

Early growth for one of the Green Algae:

Here's the Cyanobacterium covering areas of the panel middle with circular dark green patches:

And here's a pic from a few days ago. With time, the panel biocrust has developed a rich texture and blend of hues. I find myself staring into it several times a day:

More detail here...the Mosses along with a couple of Ferns appeared as volunteers. I've pulled out a good deal of Moss, although I like to see these small patches:

I have a few more ideas to expand on this concept. I'm experimenting with another fabric + clay configuration as well as an idea for easier watering:

Incredible!

It almost looks like an Aerial photograph of the African bushveld in summer

 

[rhizotron]

Incredible!

It almost looks like an Aerial photograph of the African bushveld in summer

Thanks for stopping by!

Yeah, there are layers within layers. I find myself just staring into it a few minutes every day.

 

[NanoJHB]

Thanks for stopping by!

Yeah, there are layers within layers. I find myself just staring into it a few minutes every day.

I always enjoy reading through updates on this thread. Incredibly different and interesting things covered.

 

[rhizotron]

It took me approximately forever, but I finally got an article for this put together and you can read it in the current issue of AMAZONAS Magazine. Check out the issue video preview right here.



Many thanks to the editors at AMAZONAS for helping me with this.

 

[TheClown]

It's coming along.

Some time ago the setup went through a pretty wild diatom bloom, followed by a cyanobacteria bloom. The cyanobacteria appeared to be the same one growing on the live piece of stromatolite rock from the lake. I did a few water changes with sand rinses because quite a lot of it was growing on the sand as well as the stone surfaces.

The stone is now mostly colonized with a thinner growth of the cyanobacteria along with other microbes. They have had a more difficult time establishing on the smooth top surfaces, but they are slowly spreading to cover there as well.

How’s it going now??

 

[rhizotron]

How’s it going now??

It's doing really well. I'll try to get a photo update to post one of these days. Please try to read the magazine article if you can get your hands on it.

I haven't been back here in a while, but I have another new project to share.

This is another biophilic design feature with a very simple concept. A wood piece designed as a multi-sensory, interactive sculpture experience hangs on the wall at eye, hand and nose level. The idea is based on psychological and physiological research demonstrating beneficial responses to touching of natural wood surfaces, especially smooth, unfinished wood.

Personally, whenever I'm doing a woodworking project I just can't get enough of that smooth-sanded, unfinished wood surface touch experience.

I have a few additional features and concepts in mind, but this version in several different iterations is a 27" sculptural shape that hangs on the wall with 20-series aluminum channel and other simple hardware. The gallery label positioned nearby invites exploration and also explains a simple natural history/ecology concept for the tree species involved.

This Eastern Red Cedar (Juniperus virginiana) piece has a very nice aroma in addition to the smooth wood contours.

I've tried to find salvaged or reclaimed lumber for most of these. Other commercially-available boards that I got were FSC-certified, so they also have a degree of of forestry sustainability. I found some relatively clear and metal-free Pine (Pinus sp.) boards, probably around a hundred years old, at a local reclaimed lumber seller and they planed up really nice.

The third design that I've completed so far is a feather shape in Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) representing the Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) and other fruit-eating birds that eat this species' abundant fruit.

Thanks for looking! I've been awfully distracted with things, but I might have some more updates for this and other projects on the way.