Requesting help.

[Smoke7]

Hello all.
Can someone identify/advice about what went wrong or why I’ve got discoloration on my colloidal silver?
The generator I used I made myself. I used 30V 1A DC power supply with reverse polarity board which is reversing every 30 second +/- I used 10 drops of Silverlight I made last year by backed backing soda, and I just made a new reducing agent right before start creating the silver.  The first batch went very well, however this one not so much. Another thing is when I added reducing agent and start heating up (I used the pot with boiling water and put a beaker on top) It took about 15-20 minutes to turn perfectly amber/golden color (I used 8 drops of (Karo 50/50%) reducing agent  for 2000ml). After that I let it cool down and put it inside the cardboard box overnight.  The next morning the beaker was covered in silver (I should have taken a picture before I washed the beaker) and the silver turned into a milky color.
P.S I ran the generator for about 4 hours with ¼ silver rods and magnetic steering on very slow speed. I have no Idea how much PPM is in it but TDS-3 was showing 34PPM after completion and only 15PPM next day. It looks like the whole silver was left on the bottom and on the sides of the beaker. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

[cfnisbet]

Looks like it was generated at a current which was too high and with reduction which was too fast. The particles are too big.

[chrisflhtc]

If you reversed polarity you made a copper colloid
ICK   Don't do that.
Sorry I thought were using a copper cathode NvrMnd
Chris

[Smoke7]

Thank you for all help and replies. I rebuild my generator and added Adjustable Step Down Buck Converter I took from my Arduino project.
I also rad some recommendation on this site and throw away reverse polarity board (as you suggested) and will continue to read on this site (it just soooo many advice's and confusion with this project) but I am not giving up so easy I will try another batch and will post here my result. I still have one question I couldn't find answer yet!!! If I am using 2L beaker with 2L distill water do I have to increase elecrtolight  and reducing agent? Or if somebody will be so nice and just post here how many drops electrolight and reducing agent for 2L will greatly appreciated.    Oh one more thing is it still 60min for 2L or should I shoot for more time to get 20PPM

Thank you all.

[PhiPhi]

Smoke7  I'm still trying to work all this out myself but I would save your distilled water by making smaller 250ml batches first, when you have succeeded go 500ml and work up to bigger quantities.  Also do you have an accurate multi-meter that can monitor the current as a consistent current seems to be the key to quality?

[Smoke7]

Thank you for advice.
My main multi-miter is FLUKE and all my other multi-miters I calibrated so they are very close to 99% accurate.

[Smoke7]

Well, I couldn’t wait any longer and made a new batch today, and it looks very nice and is golden clear.
Here is what I did. 1L DW, 10 drops of electrolyte and 13V across the silver rods 1.5” space between the rods (stirring on very low speed). Ran it for an hour and it had a nice good laser beam through the batch.
I warmed it up in microwave for 60sec. a couple of times and then put it on top of the pot with boiling water. Once it reached 140F, let it cool down for around 1-2 hours. And here is the result.
Thank you all for your help. I am aiming for 100PPM but will have to do more reading
P.S. It looks little bit darker on the picture than in reality

Forgot to mention I added 4 drops of the reduced agent.

[Smoke7]

Thanks for reply.
Damn, I was so happy with result.
So what steps should I take to eliminate that problem?
What did I do wrong?

[Smoke7]

Thank you.
I have two 1/8" silver roads and was using DC buck converter to drop down voltage to 13V and was running for 1 hour sharp.

[Smoke7]

Thanks again.
I will monitor current with new batch I am going to make. I wasn't monitoring this time. Can I still use this silver or throw it away?

[Smoke7]

I am going crazy, frustrated, and I just can’t figure out what I am doing wrong. Per your suggestion I dropped down current to 5ma and voltage was around 8-9V and I still start seeing the laser beam in about 30min. What the heck is wrong with me and what am I doing wrong. My setup 1/8" .999 silver roads 24V power supply (not just adapter) BUCK converter and magnetic stirring. I added 20drop of electrolyte (as on instruction) and was going to run for 60min on 1L of distilled water. I used the Instruction below.

Starting with 1 liter of water, add 20 drops of sodium carbonate solution
Time required for 1 liter of 20 ppm Colloidal silver at various constant currents:

Current mA      Time minutes
  3                  100
  5                  60
  6                  50
  10                 30
  15                 20

[Smoke7]

P.S.

I went ahead and converted to colloidal silver with 4 drops of the reducing agent. Looks much lighter than the previous and the laser beam is not strong as it was in Ionic. However I am still confused why I am seeing that laser beam?
Any help will be much appreciated. 
Thank you

[cfnisbet]

Forget the laser. It tells you nothing.

The only variables are current and time. If you don't have an exact Constant Current (you really would be better off with this) then you can approximate it by working out the equation in time chunks and then adding the ppm results together.

[Smoke7]

Thanks for reply.
I did not get any chunks and didn't have to clean the silver roads during the process, the picture is shows the roads after an hour of process. Nothing build up on the roads and the current was 4.6-4.8 almost all the time, I may had to adjust once or twice by 00.1ma.

Thanks again.

[nix2p]

Emergency kit, for making colloidal silver, (by Mark, ex-forum member):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xur-oP3bmbc

Nix