I followed an STB tek, after two successful pulls, I go to draw the naphtha a third time this morning, and it is all uniformly black and gooey, no separate layer of naphtha on top like there's supposed to be. I suspect this might have possibly happened because I lessened the amount of naphtha each time (a little spilled once, the other time a little was left in the evap jar and just evaped), so maybe I offset the ratio, though I'm not really sure. How can I rectify this? Do I dump everything out all together and restart or do I just add a little naphtha to see if it helps after 24hrs and is separate again?

Add a bunch of salt (pure salt, not iodized, no anti-caking agents). It also might help to add more water, can't tell since you didn't give any details about your process. It also might help to add more lye, hard to tell again because you haven't provided any details.

It's easier to answer questions if you include the information we need to understand exactly what's going on.

Here is the tek I used:
http://www.shroomery.org...flat.php/Number/10089233
third picture down is what it looks like instead of 5th now

Yeah, you might need some more water too, a 1:6 ratio is pretty low... you run into a lot less problems with a 1:15 ratio (adding another 900ml). If adding a half a cup of salt doesn't do the trick, adding more water would be the next step.

Im going to go pickup some pure kosher salt in a little bit, what do I do when I put it in, swirl it around? shake vigorously? nothing?

Stir really really well, but try to not splash too much. The salt is going to even out the layers, and make your water more polar, pulling the naptha to the surface.

I would add 500mL water + salt(until no more dissolves), add to mix, stirstirstir, wait for separation, if nothing happens add more salt directly, shakeshake. If you have something that contiunously vibrates, it might be easier...emulsions tend to even out with vibrating.

Let's go extract something together heh p:
I can only add a little more water, you see my jar is a quart jar = ~900ml, and I already have about 700ml of "stuff" in there, so I will add 100ml of water at most

I did what you explained here, even shook for about a minute, let it settle for three minutes, still no separation. Maybe it was the salt? I got Morton brand Coarse Kosher Salt, and it it didn't even dissolve in the water... is it supposed to?
Anyway I'm going to dump this out later and wash it out and reuse the jar, start over (:

One more question... since you say it couldn't hurt to add more water, I'm going to modify the tek and add about 200ml more than whats called for (600ml). If I do this do I need to worry about any other quantities/ratios, or can I just use more water and be ok?

whaaaat, you gonna dump your whole mix out?!?! why?!

Add water, add lye, add salt, dont worry about being exact about ratios, your problem will solve itself, your dmt isnt dissapearing somewhere! Naphtha not separating happened with loads of people many times, its no big deal

Can you tell me if the salt you use is supposed to dissolve in water? cause mine did not and it didnt help... i cant add more water, its already filled to the top...

Gargh it's not worth throwing away though! Transfer it too a bigger container, then put the water in the old container and swill it round to get all the extra bits which were stuck to the side.

You should always try and rectify it til it really is impossible to do anymore. You learn alot from doing this (as i learnt from my first disaster of a rue extraction)

at least some of the salt will probably dissolve, its possible some doesnt, specially not straight away, but this doesnt matter.. if its salt, its salt. It will make the water more polar, helping in separation.. and you have to add A LOT! not just a bit... It definitely helps.. more lye too. and if after loads more lye and salt it still doesnt settle (I doubt, but anyways), just get another container and divide it in two containers.. I guarantee it will work one way or another

When you were pulling naptha was the naptha clear or yellow? Not that this will help me help you but i am learning a thing or two. GoodLuck.

It was clear with a strong yellow tint; it shouldn't be completely clear, the yellow tint means there is migration of spice into the naphtha if I'm not mistaken, and that is what you want to achieve


I added even more salt a little more lye, shook well, but still the top layer is very black, I dipped a little piece of paper in it and it came out black. I'm gonna swirl a few times and see if it's separated by tomorrow, if not I'll go get a bigger jar and try to rectify it further from there...

Ive pulled naptha that has been clear, and still gotten the goodies

That yellow tint is probably fats and oils that you pulled too.

This happened, yet again, the layers are not separated - and this is a fresh setup, haven't even done any pulls yet. Salt doesn't seem to help this. Probably the wrong kind? I'm ready to try more water but I don't even know where to get jars bigger than the ones I'm using (1 quart).

OHHHHHH YESSS, after adding salt and letting this sit for a few hours, I just opened the jar - dipped a piece of paper in it - looks like the top centimeter layer is clear naptha!!! going to add more salt, shake vigorously, and let sit for a few hours, hope to separate more of the naphtha back out - will report back - Thank you gammagore! very grateful for all the help I have received here!!

Wonderful to hear! Don't worry about adding too much salt. You may also put the container in a hot bath several times if more salt does not clear the emulsion. Good luck!

So this is what emulsion means? When the two layers are not separated? I thought emulsion meant just small suspended blobs of material that won't dissolve... So in dmt extraction terms, emulsion describes the situation I'm in right now?

One more thing... I just realized this and I find it pretty funny, but the tek I used actually advised against vigorous shaking - what I started doing once the layers wouldn't separate - because it only adds to this problem! I'm starting to find out swirling is the best way after a little searching. Haha, live and learn