So the past 2 or 3 extractions I’ve noticed something odd. Fine sediment ending up in my tincture post extraction. I noticed it after draining a bucket of tincture into the rotovap and noticed this (now dried) at the bottom of the bucket.
I figured it was plant sediment getting thru my filter cartridges, but after filtering the tincture over celite, it looks a hell of a lot like activated carbon. The thing is, I haven’t used AC in months and can not fathom how it could have gotten into my extractions. This has happened now with 2 different cultivators so I don’t think it’s coming from the weed.
Any thoughts?
What is the finest filter you’re running through post extraction when you end up with this?
1 Like
1 micron. After spinning the weed, the tincture is filtered thru a staged stainless steel housed cartridge filter 50 micron - 10 - 1 micron. And then as it’s pulled into the rotovap, it goes thru staged polypropylene housed filters in the same order 50 - 10 - 1 micron. So basically it goes thru a 1 micron filter 2x.
It could very well be soil that was stuck to the biomass prior to extraction. Adding bentonite will cause it all to drop to the bottom of your solution. You can then siphon off a majority of the liquid and filter the last bit containing all the sediment.
That doesnt look dark enough to be AC and healthy soil tends to be mostly small particles of carbon.
1 Like
Seems odd you’d be getting anything past 1 micron in any amount you can visibly see. Maybe there’s a pin hole in your housings or your papers aren’t sitting properly?
2 Likes
I’ve never seen activated carbon be white.
These are the style of filters I’ve been using. They’ve served me well in the past. Maybe it’s the cartridges themselves.
1 Like
Ahh, the white stuff is celite. The buchner has a frit at the bottom, a layer of celite, and then the black stuff on top is what I think is AC and was filtered out of the tincture.
2 Likes
Here are some better pictures.
There are some white things on top which do not appear to be celite. They look to spherical and large. Unless celite looks like that when it’s when it’s wet. Celite 545 is what I used.
1 Like
Have you sent it through a properly wetted bentonite cake yet?
1 Like
Looks like thca to me
At least the top stuff in the bottom photo. Otherwise I’d imagine the carbon came from the cartridge filter housing
2 Likes
it could be anything tho, could be azomite. Wonder why its making it past your 1 micron filter when it’s clearly larger than 1 micron.
Did you re use your filter?
2 Likes
If that black material isn’t AC then I don’t know what it is. You’re not in HI or getting material near wildfires are you?
Edit: how much tincture made that much dirt?
1 Like
I have not. I just filtered it over celite. Let it sit for a while to see if any sediment sinks, and it appeared to be free of any sediment so now I’m rotovaping it.
Not it HI unfortunately lol. But there have been some wildfires recently…
10lb of trim in 10 gallons of solvent left what you see on the filter cake.
Yeah, it definitely looks like some kind of charcoal. Activated or not, maybe they amended the soil with activated carbon thats been inoculated with mycorhizal fungus?
1 Like
I’ve noticed this from 2 different cultivators who’s stuff I have extracted many times without this problem. But they are both outdoor grows and there have been a lot of wildfires recently…
1 Like
