Whats wrong with my solution?

[siconic]

So, I am very new to this, I have been reading this forum intently for months on end. I decided to give silver refining a try. I had about 2 troy ounces of silver quarters laying around, and started with them. I dissolved them in nitric, cemented out with copper, and rinsed several times. I then ran the silver through a HCL rinse, and rinsed with distilled water 3 times. I then redisolved in nitric, to make silver nitrate for a silver cell. Two thing have now occured, that I do not understand. I feel its worth mentioning that the nitric i used was my POOREST quality, that I had purified myself. It had quite a few contaminants, like urea (to remove the dissolved nitrogen dioxides) and some nitrates still, as this batch had boiled over.

1. I mixed some of the silver nitrate with distilled water, and now my electrolyte is cloudy white
2. In my silver nitrate beaker, all the silver is gone, but there is now a white precipitate on the bottom. Some is crytaline and hard, some is kinda soft looking, like cotton.

What did I do wrong, and what is the white precipitate? Why is me cell cloudy white?

 

[metatp]

Please see this thread. It may help.

http://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=8589&p=81295#p81295

Tom

 

[siconic]

WOW! Thank you! I searched and searched and never came across that thread. I am great at searching in google, but forums, I apparently am lacking. Who would have thought that you would have to melt it first... will do, and thank you very much. Couple last question too; what is the ratio of silver nitrate to distilled water, and I AM OUT OF NITRIC!!! Will poor mans nitric work?

 

[metatp]

Lazersteve has a great DVD on silver refining, including silver cells. Well worth the $25.

He uses around 100g/liter. This to me is still a very good question. Hokes book has a recommendation as well which includes copper. I never use any copper. I have tried from about 80g to 120g per liter. I thought the higher concentration gave me better crystal, but I know others that use less and say they get better crystal. I now usually use about 100g/liter.