Thank you I am quite happy wih my progress from when i first started.

Thank you the collection has been growing for quite a few years. Now i am happy to finally use some of it with my extractions.

I am not too sure of how much a lose per run, maybe lets say 150ml-200ml i would estimate.

I am also not sure about reusing as I have not yet done it. I will start now since I have like more than 10L of used Ethyl Acetate. Still need to try and clean it first.

From someone who went from getting goo to mastering the process, are there any improvements we can make to the TEK description? Especially for new folks. Thanks!

A few things I do that I think helps is:

I do not use the whole 275ml of water at once. I tend to use around 250ml initally and then when my paste is mixed well, I will add little bits of water at a time until I feel my paste is perfect. There was one paste that I used the whole 275ml of water and I felt that it was a little too wet. So I think by starting less and adding little bits(like a teaspoon) at a time helps to get that perfect paste every time.

I also cool down my Ethyl Acetate a little before extracting/pulling, I feel this helps it not evaporate as fast and the fumes are not as rough to deal with.

Once the 24 hour fridge rest is done, it helps so much by turning the jar at an angle so that all the water droplets form into one area becoming one big ball of water. ( I use a Pipette for the last half of decanting) I also top up my jar with about 50-100ml of Dry Ethyl acetate in case i missed a drop, but this is just to be safe. I dont think I am missing any water droplets but I just like to stay on the safe side.

As advised by Merkin earlier in this thread(by not stirring), when I add my citric acid I give one (1 second) stir and the crystals come out much nicer than when I stirred more aggressively. This is obviously just for aesthetic reasons.


I also realised that the full 3 days is very much necessary when waiting for the crystalzation to finish. Even a few hours before the 3 day mark left me with a small amount of crystalzation that formed later in my jar. So dont be to hasty and just let the process finish in its own time

Thanks! If xtals are still forming near the 3 day mark, it may make sense to wait a few more days beyond that.

You mentioned you have 10L of used EA. Maybe you can check and see if anymore xtals have formed?

If xtals form asymptomatically in time, so you could have some in your used solvent after all this time.

I did look in my jars but only found in the one that I decanted a in the morning instead of the evening 3 day mark. I will just be more patient from now on and just give it a little extra time to finish.

That is interesting how after 3 days xtalization was indeed complete and not before.

Thanks for the TEK comments. I have sprinkled some of your advice in the TEK to try to make it better.

I assume you haven't noticed a decrease in yield with colder solvent? Is it fridge cold?

Others have indeed mentioned less water too. We are now down to 250ml starting water for the paste. Different than the limo TEK it makes sense that the optimal for a different solvent system would be somewhere else.

Cheers.

Reading through the CIELO Wiki page again after reading that this thread helped modify its process some. I find it really amazing that someone can influence and participate freely with a TEK and help hone it. That really is meaningful for the at home entheogen enthusiast. I've always kind of approached extraction TEKs as "gospel" that are set in stone and not to be modified. The culture here at DMT Nexus is to be applauded after seeing this thread and I just happen to be approaching the end of the David Nickles - Criminals and Researchers: Perspectives on the Necessity of Underground Research presentation linked in The Nexian.

Hey there,

Well the Ethyl Acetate was fridge cold... i don't think there was a decrease in yield but I would have to do some more experiments to confirm.

I did do a room temp extract and another cold extract on the same cactus and got 1 gram each. But i will rather then stay on the safe side and keep it room temp if this is a known problem with decrease in yield.

Saw a possibility yield decrease when freezing cold.

Fridge could be perfectly fine.

Guess we need more tests and repeats to know, but your initial 1g for both room temp/fridge is promising.

Hey guys,

So I am sitting with so much used Ethyl Acetate at the moment and I have to do something with it. I obviously want to see if I can reuse it but just want to see if there are any tips I should know about cleaning it properly for more extractions.


It is quite difficult to find PH Strips here where I am locally, is this a necessity in cleaning the solvent? PH Pens and PH drops are easily found (cant really use those) but not the strips. I would have to do a special online order from my Lab supply company but seems like such a waste to pay such high shipping just for PH Strips....

Anyways, if I have order, i will just add some fresh Ethyl Acetate to my order to make it worth while.


What is your experience in reusing the EA?

You don't really need pH strips. Just shake well with the sodium carbonate solution to neutralize. They are handy to know when to stop/verify, but shaking for 10 minutes should be plenty.

If you don't neutralize it, the cactus pull becomes very cloudy as the paste reacts with the acidic EA to make calcium citrate. The cloudiness is annoying, but it does settle and the extraction still sort of works because the lime paste is able to neutralize the EA so it can pull mescaline. This would be a worst case. Or maybe you can figure how to work with unwashed EA, it could work if it decants well. We never tried unwashed EA + fridge rest. Could simply clear up nicely if the calcium citrate settles well in the fridge and sticks to the water so it decants well.

EA will break the plastic pH meters. Not sure about the drops.

Okay great, thanks for the info. I do have sodium carbonate that I bought a while ago. I will just make sure I shake the container well. I do also have a few airlocks that I use to ferment sauces, which I think could be quite handy for the pressure buildup mentioned. There would be no need to burp the jar of CO2 bubbles.

I will try my first wash a bit later. So once washed it is just left for a few days until it is clear and then pipetted out?

Yes, and it can clear up quickly during the wash.

Okay i put 50g of washing soda into 500ml of water and then added that to 1500ml pf EA. I mixed it vigorously for 10 mins and this is what i have now.


What exactly am i waiting for to happen after this?


I am also going to buy activated charcoal later to help clear it up more after this is done.

Just for it to separate. Looks good.

So just have to wait for the water and EA to separate and then pipette the EA into a separate jar? It does not get lighter at all?

So the only way to really lighten up the solution is through Activated Charcoal?


Thanks for the help.

Yes, and it looks like it separated already.

Activated charcoal will clear it up. It takes a few weeks if you are using the low dust pellets passively in solvent.

It can be a lot faster if you setup a column with ground charcoal. See Brennendes Wasser's post for acetone/salvia.

I don't bother with charcoal. I just use the green stuff which seems to just saturate with green. Xtals may not be as needle-like but do come out clean and are just as good as the pretty needles.

Okay thanks for that. Im just going to leave it green as is. Too much effort to try and clear it up haha

Going to see to do an extraction with cleaned EA and see for myself what difference there is.

Some super fluffy crystals incoming ☁️❄️