Lava Problems with Green Mathmos Fluidium

Hi I have a problem with the lava inside my bottle. I had not used the lava lamp for a period of two years on getting a replacement bulb a e14 40w and replacing and switching on the unit for a period of six hours. I have two large chunks of lava one floating disc up the top and a large lava chunk down the bottom. To remedy this I carefully heated the bulb up in hot water to allow the lava to come back together. It has not totally formed backed together I still have a lava portion down the bottom with a 1cm layer of lava up the top.

The second problem is that the unit has been shaken and has a quite a large amount of clouding. In both seperations the floating and sunk layer of lava there is quite a number of small bubbles. What ways can I remedy this besides cycling the unit? I have access to lab equipment and was thinking about preforming a filtration of the the master fluid through filter paper. Then heating the lava component up and reforming a solid layer then decanting carefully the master fluid back in. Any advice anyone tried a similar treatment like this before?

Thanks for you help or comments.

Rob

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Permalink Reply by Rob on April 16, 2008 at 11:45pm

Luckily I have access to a laboratory and can filter by the use of a vacuum pump and commercial filter paper. Just in regards to the lava is it fairly solid at room temperature or will I have to cool the bottle down?

I have noticed that I have a substantial flow problem with the lava had the lamp on for a period of 8 hours with no blobs. Would this be detiration of the chemicals in the bottle over storage time it is over 5 years old now, or would that be due to not enough heat being produced by the bulb? I have replaced the old broken bulb with the exact same wattage and volts as the original, just not mathmos brand. The ambient temperature of the air where I am would not be a factor in the flow of the lava as it is about 27c. Would you recommend adding some surfactant or lowering the density of the masterfluid with alcohol to increase the flow rate?

Also with my lava I have attempted to remelt the lava but well I seem to have a disc of lava at the top which is a different density to the lava at the bottom hence floating. The top lava disc did melt when heated, do I need to heat the lava further to remelt the floating disc, or is that deteriation of the lava which I have to overcome by altering the masterfluid.

Thanks for you help muchly appreciated..
Rob