Category: Blog

Echoes – Microbialite Reef

A biotope aquarium imagines an ancient Archean sea.

We’ve had this setup installed for a few years. Faux stromatolite structures were assembled with reef tank aragonite stones, then seeded with a mixed microbial culture from Great Salt Lake wild microbialites.

Water is very salty (1.0649SG) to approximate Great Salt Lake conditions.

There are many more details to share, but here is a series of pictures to show progress.

Microbialite Reef 5-X-21
Microbialite Reef, Day 1
Hypersaline (1.0649SG) light refractometer reading.
Hypersaline (1.0649SG) light refractometer reading.
Wild microbialites exposed during low water levels. Great Salt Lake, Utah.
Wild microbialites exposed during low water levels. Great Salt Lake, Utah.
Top view: Microbialite reef biotope aquarium with two weeks of growth.
Top view: Microbialite reef biotope aquarium with two weeks of growth.
Microbialite reef biotope aquarium with two weeks of growth.
Microbialite reef biotope aquarium with two weeks of growth.