Saving a Lamp, no idea how to proceed

[Casey Wolf]

be warned, it may run a bit TL;DR.

we recently found a lava lamp i got my mother between '92 and '94, not old, but old enough that the lava had yellowed and the top had cracked, it does not have a bottle cap seal, just a wide-mouth bottle with an O-ring and screw top. fortunately it was right side up, so it didnt lose ALOT of fluid.
but it did lose enough
my problems are thus:

low fluid level *is it possible to homebrew fluid that will work with lava that came with it?*
the crack *gorilla glue? duct tape?*
the lava doesnt seem to be getting hot enough *the body of the lava rises, but not far enough to seperate *this observation was during the "oh well, the fluid will expand" phase of the other two problems. no matter how long i ran it it never got that heat

to be honest, i do not know alot about lava lamps from an enthusiast's standpoint, i dont know what kind of lamp, but i do have pics of the lamp, with an altoid box scale, and the crack in the lid.

please guys, help me save this lamp, and i will forever sing the ballad of oozing goo, the savior of the lava lamp

update: following lamphead's awesome advice, backfilled it, testing now.... the anxiety of letting it warm up is killing me XD

update to the update
it's been around 18 hours, still nothing from the lamp warming up, astrobaby suggested to add soap, so.... homebrew fluid recipes, does anyone know any?

[Casey Wolf]

update: it seems to be a lava Century. originally black base, blue fluid, white lava,

[Casey Wolf]

i ended up -so far- draining half of the original fluid *stupid mistake* then putting purified water with a layer of aluminum foil tightly sealed on top...
what do now?

[Casey Wolf]

got that, thank god

[Casey Wolf]

i'm tryin to make my own fluid.
i dont think i can afford another lamp
question is, what do i do to make new fluid. i'm trying a recipe astrobaby found for a mathmos lamp.
seriously tho i'm flying in the dark.
if all else fails, i'll try to get a goo kit, idk if that works, but yeah

any advice?

[Casey Wolf]

ok :D on my way... if my current chemistry experiment fails
http://www.moltenmeditation.com/lava.htm

[Charles]

the molten mediation essay doesn't work? what does, other than buying a goo kit?

[Dawn]

I used the moltenmedation salt method plus food coloring to fix my 32oz lamp,worked great! But later found out it will rust up the coil.So I would not use that method again.

[Casey Wolf]

haha if it gets cloudy, woo. so long as the goo goes up and down i'm happy XD

[☆VixenGypsy☆]

Casey, if it gets too cloudy, you won't be able to see the lava rising & falling!

[Charles]

There's nothing like a lamp with pristine clear liquid...really makes that flow pop out at ya.

[Scott]

Once again I expound the virtues of a good crystal clear propylene glycol and water mix. No rust, a great heat xfer rate and extra caveat-- opacity of the wax after it melts. You can get some propylene glycol (clear) from stores that sell horse and cattle feed. It is a cure for ketosis in cattle and it is not toxic or the cow wouldn't make it! moo Look up in google how to mix up stuff by volume. I'll bet a 30% propylene glycol by volume in water will make that lava jump to it. Take it easy on the surfactant. It may do some clouding on its own. You can also buy premix in 30% at the autoparts store. Just hope you don't need to tweak it.

BTW here's a shot of my first "mercury - metallic" lava lamp on its maiden voyage!!! This used 45% propylene glycol by volume. Still needs some more exercising but a blast to make!

[Casey Wolf]

that is awesome, now i just need to find a feed store in the suburbs XD
yeah the water and epsom salt failed, it's perfectly clear but nothing to see, you know?