Oozing Goo - The Lava Lamp Syndicate

Is there an easy way to de-cloud Mathmos bottles please?

Hi everyone, the very first two lava lamps that I bought myself, a Mathmos Astro Baby and Telestar, purchased back in the late 90's both went so cloudy that you could hardly see the lava.

I tried changing the liquid in one of the bottles. I used a method that I found on the net for tap water and epsom salts. I'm sure you'll have heard of it, but can give further details if required.

I had the lava working wonderfully, better than it ever had, in my opinion. The problem was that within a four or five hours the water was cloudy again. I hadn't moved it or knocked it, I've never done that with any of my lamps.

Can anyone suggest a super easy way to clear bottles or change the liquid, one that doesn't require me to re-learn chemistry please? (I never was any good at chemistry lol) Also, as cheap as possible is best for me.

I want to have another try at the bottle I've already tinkered with. Then I have the other bottle that I want de-cloud, I've not tinkered with that one yet.

Thanks for your help.


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it's the soap you're using probably - or the salt same happened to me with fairy liquid and epsom salts
eventually i found the best in the house was tesco own brand tea tree oil shampoo and flaked sea salt from sainsbury but i;m sure there's other soaps out there that will be just as good.
using that i've had a re-done lamp going for a month.
with fairy liquid i got re-clouding, with epsom salts i got re-clouding.
with flaked sea salt and tea tree oil shampoo i got success.
apparently childrens bubble formula is good too - the stuff that comes with the wands.
Well I never! thanks for your help, very interesting indeed. I never thought it could be the soap or the salt. I thought it was the wax that was just past it.

I will go and buy those products and see how I go.

Did you use tap water or distilled water please?

Thanks very much for your help :)

PS: I'd given up on my orange wax bottle and I was about to throw it away.
i tried distilled for my first attempt - that i managed to cloud.
after that i decided to save my money and use tap water - although in my case it went through the filter jug we use first but i couldn't say if that had anything to do with my success - i'd probably try regular tap water.
Great thanks, I will try that.
Yey, I think I've cracked it (fingers crossed) I've had several goes at clearing two Astro Baby bottles since I wrote this post, all resulted in cloudy water.

However, having washed and re-washed the bottles I think I've found the answer! They have been running now for a few hours (without clouding as yet, before they went cloudy before this time)

Tap water, epsom salts and one drop of Aldi shower gel in each. They are stunning, I hope they keep up looking like this. The wax is flowing better than when they were new (in my opinion that is)

You name it I've tried everything, I was about to give up.

Thanks :)
hehe - took me a few tries too.
too much salt, not enough salt, tip a little water away and add unsalted, you name it.
as of now, it's 3 months and still running!
It's daft as I'd nearly totally given up and thrown them away yesterday! I'd been really scientific about it, one drip of salt here, one there. This time I thought marshmallows to it, bunged some mixed salt in and a drop of gel and away it goes.......
Sure, I will tell you about it and send you a pick as well if you need one. If you want a pic send me your email address via PM and I will send you one.

It was around 65p and is a bright blue green colour in a clear container. Made by Abbott & Broome. Says shower gel sea minerals on the front.

Hope that helps. I didn't know if it would work but I'd tried all the other stuff we had in the house and nothing else worked.

I was about to go and buy some of the Tesco stuff that Alan Lovedog suggested on this thread.
Post before and after photos of the lamps !!!!!!!
I can post an after photo later tonight when I get back in, but I don't have any before photos. Having said that, just imagine a super cloudy mess with hardly a view into the wax and you're there.

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