Hello Nexus fellas!! I come here looking for some help since I haven't found any similar situations to the one I'm on right now on the FAQ forums, and I'm not pretty sure how to proceed from here

I've been working on my first STB Lazyman tek plus some friend's help. After having broken 500g of root bark, poured around 2.5l of water, added around 250g of NaOH, mixed it, left it all night and added the next day the solvent, this is what it looks like right now: After shaking it it should start getting separated as the tek says, but instead it still looks like a thick dense dark brown goo... I don't know if from here it's just a matter of waiting, if I can do anything with the substance I have right now or so on...

Any ideas, feedback or help would be super appreciate!

Thank you all and hope it turns ok!!!

This might be bad advise but I would add more water lye solution.
Use distilled water then add the lye slowly whilst stiring and wait for it all to fully dissolve leaving clear looking water. Then add that to your mixture , mix and leave.
Try to make everything equal . eg.
500g MHRB (preferable grinded up to dust or near dust).
5000ml Distilled water.
500g Lye.
4x200ml solvent.

Sounds legit. If for tomorrow it didn't get separated I may try that.

Thanks dude!!

Answer is there in the FAQ, look more closely

https://wiki.dmt-nexus.m...parate.2C_what_to_do.3F

Good luck!

There's not alot I can tell you from your description of 'sludge'. Do you have a picture? It could be that you've got tiny bark particles clinging to the organic layer. If that's the case you're gunna have to filter. If you've got an emulsion that won't settle, you're going to need to break it. All we can do is make uneducated guesses.

Why did you extract so much on your first go around?

This is the tek I normally use. What kind of vessel are using to mix in? With acrb in my pyrex jars it dyes the glass red somehow after shaking but if I give it some time it resolves itself but is still hard to see the separation due to glass being stained. I just take a bright flash light and shine on opposite end then I can see the separation just fine.

Also start with smaller extractions, they seem to work better.

I was told that the more quantity I handled the easier it'd be... I'm not pretty sure at this point though. I don't have a pic, but the description of 'sludge' fits pretty gopod to it. The clinging comment also looks accurate. Yesterday I tried adding more basified water but this morning it doesn't seem it changed to much, I'll think about filtering it today. It's been really helpbul, than you man!!!

Noted for next one, I'll get smaller. I use a 5l Polyethylene plastic jar. It also makes a little bit difficult seing the inside. What I did on the first check was pouring a little bit out, and if the first drops seemed good separated liquid, it soon started to be a muddy dense goo.

Also maybe bor next ones I try and get a more suitable vessel. Thank you!!

You can pick up 1000-2000ml Pyrex jars w/lid pretty cheap off auction sites. Try not to use plastic too much as they will leach chemicals into your spice, even HDPE. I've seen pics of people using beer, wine bottles so you can improvise a little.

I've also used a long stainless steel rod to help break up an emulsion, plus a slight swirling action of the jars contents, just try different things, usually just let it sit for a day and it'll resolve. Good luck