When you have an aqua regia solution that is dark like in your picture do you test to see if it has gold in solution? A common mistake refiners make is they keep adding material to an aqua regia solution and as the material dissolves they add more. The problem is you will get to a point where the gold that is in solution will start to come out as more base metals go in. Essentially, no actually, this is cementation. You can use this to your advantage. You can continue to add to an aqua regia solution until the gold drops, decant the valueless solution and add fresh acid which will redissolve the gold in substantially less acid. Keep testing with stannous. When the acid starts out reacting with gold it will indicate with a stain. Continued additions will get you to the point where testing that same solution that was holding gold earlier is now not holding gold, it is all on the bottom. This is one example of why stannous chloride testing is so important!
I suspect your gold solution is saturated with base metals and it is not able to hold more gold. Be careful because when you get to this point, you are already dropping gold out of solution. Many refiners have lost gold by filtering the solution and tossing the filter paper thinking it is not gold because the gold is in solution. Floating gold that will not dissolve in aqua regia is a sign that your solution is saturated.