Cleaning up Diatomaceous Earth for filtering

So some time ago I tried to use my DE and found that it wasn't as clean as I would like - even though it was very high quality "Organic" that was of much higher consistency than less expensive bulk. It is the "better" fresh water DE instead of the salt water type. The fresh water tends to have more consistent size (usually smaller), cleaner and whiter.

It was amazing how much it shrinks in size when wetted - about a 80-90% reduction in size (it's so fluffy).

I filtered it through a coffee filter and 99%+ passed through. It went through a paper and a plastic & copper mesh coffee filter when wet.

I then added some muriatic acid and allowed it to soak (forgot about it for about 4 months so the HCl evaporated - what a mess). I ended up with a yellow cake. I then added distilled water, stirred and have filtered many times removing any HCl left. The color has changed from a tan color (when wet) to an egg-shell white which I assume means it has dissolved anything built up on the exterior of the tiny shells.

I'm doing another batch and have added water, filtered out larger sizes and now am extracting the water so I can add the HCl. The thing is that I don't know how much HCl is needed, how long it should sit, if heating would help and anything else that may be a good idea.

Here are some pics of the process.

What it looks like out of the bag


Mixed with water



Left side - processed with HCl -> Right side - DE & Water


After the HCl evaporated before rinsed and got the result in the pic above on left side of pic

Quote: Originally posted by NEMO-Chemistry

It contains mainly silica,alumina and iron oxide, so i guess that explains the colour you got. Good wash with DW and a fluff up, and it should be fine. You find it kind of self seals in a filter, also this might be just me but. When i try and vac distill in a frit filter with it, its alot like trying to suck the moon through a hose pipe [Edited on 15-10-2017 by NEMO-Chemistry]