As the title says we’ve been having an issue with our runs coming out cloudy with it being first noticeable during recovery and after also it’s been poured out. At times it will be so cloudy that the bottom of the tray cannot be seen through the extract and others only noticeable with a light shown through it. We first noticed the issue back in the fall and assumed it was CRC media but that has since been ruled out as we filter down to 0.2 micron and even tried some 0.1 micron and it still persisted. It has also appeared in fresh frozen that wasn’t CRCed.
We mostly run material from our own facility with a small amount processed from outside sources. Both inside and outside material have been shown to produce this anomaly and once it is poured out in this cloudy state it will stay like so even after it has been purged. However, if it is poured off clear then it will not show later. Whatever it is does not crash to the bottom like THCA at room temp or with heat applied. It did seem to separate when dissolved in ethanol and left to sit in the freezer but I think what we were seeing was lipids as it homogenized quickly once agitated.
It appears to be related to the temperature of the recovery / pour as it shows itself at different times. Upon initial injection and dump into the collection pot while very cold (about -50C) it shows as clear with a large ratio of solvent to oil. As it nears the end of recovery it will begin to cloud up as the solvent is evaporated and the ratio of solvent to oil lessens. If stacking runs it is more readily apparent than a single run of about 5 to 7 lbs of dry biomass.
We typically run 50/50 butane / propane mix but have been using 70/30 more recently with no difference between the two. Both soaking and pushing through more solvent cause the issue and the difference is negligible. We’ve cleaned out the system multiple times, regenerated our beads, got some 13X, and distill our solvent every time we get a new delivery.
We have not seen anything related to the Medusa stones, but we also do not make many diamonds. I have a batch going now and am worried they may chalk up once done. We also have not seen any fast crashing in the collection or otherwise but the cloudiness can be mistaken for THCA saturation in the right amounts. The garden has tried new things recently but the timing of it doesn’t add up with when we started to see this issue. Photos of it after pour can be seen below.
…the client had fats and lipids before and after we made some changes he didn’t That’s the trick…crc will polish fats, the ones that make it through…making them very visible at room temperature
I’d say this is bc ur line of solvent backing up going through the crc slowly the material is getting super soaked in tane warming up most the time ,thatll pull fats…I combat this by adding a material column on top the crc so the solvent can get in and out the material column and into the crc wait column as it slowly goes through without contacting material anymore
This is also plausible however I’ve seen the same cloudy issue with runs that were not using CRC and the material was not soaked in cold solvent (-50 C). I can do a 50 lb injection in a few minutes.
Thanks to all who posted, we figured it out few months back. To anyone finding this thread with a similar issue, the culprit ended up being moisture making its way into the system.
Moisture will do it everytime…was it fresh material? Not being frozen enough. Or moisture in the gas fixed by filter dryer…or bad clamp letting water in?
It was moisture getting in during a tube swap between stacked runs. Honestly I don’t 100% understand why but it seems the dry ice jacketed columns had residual solvent left in them during the swap and when putting in the new tube and vaccine it down that caused the cloudiness.
I found that using no vac on the second tube mitigated the issue and so did recovering all the solvent before a swap. Of course now I’m doing both and seeing no issue.
Right but it seemed to only happen when pulling vac on the second tube. If I didn’t pull vac it usually ended up fine even if it was open for longer than usual (still under 2 minutes)
What system are you currently running? I’d try a inline Dewax with chilled columns and if that doesn’t work, you could be being affected by the Medusa gas
That should be reversed. You’d think that a column filled with subzero refrigerant would tie up any water (remaining after vac) as ice, and greatly negate its pickup
Exactly that’s why I don’t 100% understand why it was happening, just that by not vaccing it somehow went away.
It might be that any moisture that got in was trapped as ice and when the column warmed up overnight the water was left inside before setting up the next day. I now check the column before but loading but just a thought.
This looks a lot like the spicy gas (e.g. contaminated with an as yet unidentified contaminant). Bet if you held a flashlight to that pour off, it’d be a snowglobe of microprecipitated THCa
Read the medusa and fast crash threads We do not get medusa’s at my work, but depending on the solvent (we distill 100lb/daily) it crashes into sugar largely, with some days crashing in less than 20.
Only our early and our more recent production batches seem to be excepted. And hell, next week after I’ve gotten into 3 more tanks from our supplier, the fast crash might be back.
Yes I can successfully grow them without any of the documented Medusa issues. No fast crash, no bar crystals, no chalking, nothing. I have a batch I’m going to open tomorrow and will know next week if they were made with Medusa gas but highly doubt it.
You would be wrong, I check every run with a flashlight and have never seen fast precipitating THCa. It was moisture, trust me.
I have extensively read every post on Medusa, fast crash, and the new contamination demystified thread as that was my initial concern. All I can say is if I do have it, it must be in smaller quantities than others or the media we use almost every run does a good enough job of cleaning the gas.
Had the same problem, we went around in circles for months trying to eliminate the problem. We did come to the conclusion that it was the gas, like you said there were inconsistencies also with ours. With thought sulfur in the gas, it changed and wasn’t consistent because when we would run it through the powders and filtration that temperature wasn’t as regulated so I believe that it caught the sulfur on certain occasions, didn’t on others or would wash through at some point. The only way we resolved - was completely emptying out our gas getting a brand new batch of gas - that had been verified that it was cleaned and then running through all of the lines and columns washing out any sulfur or contamination that could be lingering in the lines and then disposing of that gas… yeah it was a lot of annoying time consuming BS, it eliminated the problem though.
