Home Distiller

This topic is tricky to place, but I guess it sits under 'Safety and Related Issues' - although it's the safety of my goldfish I'm writing about!

I have an airstill which I run every 2-3 weeks. I ran it at first in my cellar kitchen, in which I also keep a 130l cold water tank with three goldfish (not your standard goldfish bowl goldfish - the largest is 8" from stem to stern). Every time I run the still - 6 stripping runs followed by two second distillation runs and occasionally a third - the goldfish tank clouds with a thick white/grey bloom, so dense that you can't see more than an inch or two into the tank. The fish clearly don't enjoy it - it looks as if the bloom robs oxygen from the water because they tend to rise up to near the top of the tank and start gulping. Indeed, the first two times it happened it took goldfish with it - both fancy goldfish, which I suspect is not coincidental. My plain peasant goldfish seem to be hardier than their inbred aristocratic cousins.

I have moved the airstill to my lobby, which is immediately above the kitchen (I don't have a garage or a garden shed). The tank still clouds when I run the still, though to a much lesser extent.

Can anyone offer any suggestion as to what is going on? My first theory was that the bloom might be yeast. That seems unlikely for several reasons. Firstly, I've brewed beers and wines in the kitchen for years and I've never had an issue with clouding in that time. I can't see any reason why distilling should liberate more live yeast into the air than brewing.

My second theory was that it might just be a bacterial bloom caused by a rise in temperature in the kitchen. When I do a distillation run, I'm effectively boiling a kettle in the kitchen for a whole day. I'm also often working down in the kitchen, keeping an eye on the airstill, so I'm probably doing other things that warm the room up. But this seems very unlikely too: I don't notice any massive change in ambient temperature when I'm distilling: less than when I start using the radiators in the Fall, say. And besides which, the bloom is still occuring now I've moved my centre of operations to the lobby which is another room completely, a flight of stairs away.

Has anyone ever experienced anything similar? Or can anyone suggest any other reasons why this might be happening?

Running an air still should not cause much rise in temp. Do.you have a thermometer in your fish tank? That's your starting point to figure out what if anything is causing it. It wouldn't be a yeast bloom from running the still. The yeast is already inactive at this point.

Otherwise mate I've got no other suggestions for ya.

Yak

the algae might like the extra heat?

Thanks Yak & Swedish. I agree that temperature is more likely than anything else - I guess the bacteria levels (possibly algae) must be right on the cusp and a small temp change is causing a bloom. The thermometer is a good suggestion. I don't like the prospect of keeping temperature records - feels a bit too nerdy - but it would confirm or squash the temp theory. Cheers both.

Try putting the air pump where it is not polluted by the vapours you are losing from the still.

Cheers Chris. I'd have hoped that putting the still in a separate room would have sorted that out, but maybe it's not distance enough.

What wattage is the air still and do you have any electric pumps/UV lamps etc in the tank? Just wondering if an electrical issue might stop something working in the tank that was previously keeping it clear?

Does the aquarium have a lid limiting oxy adsorption? How big is the cellar and how well ventilated.built up heat could be warming the water enough to reduce oxy levels coupled with you breathing the oxy if the room is small enough. Plus, co2 off gassing from the wash in the distiller.