Hi Everyone,

This may sound crazy, but here it is anyway: I put my moissanite in my ultrasonic cleaner and it actually came out looking worse than when it when in. How can that have happened? Has anyone else experienced that? Now, when it is under my recessed lighting the sparkle is very muted (not like how crazy firey it originally was under the same lighting conditions) and the stone appears extremely dark/murky-the facets are completely clouded over.

I have tried all of the the following: steam (slightly helped) rubbing alcohol/brushing, vinegar/brushing, ammonia & dish detergent combo suggested on various sites. None of these things are getting the stone back to new. I am obsessed with getting it to look as beautiful as the day my fiance proposed.

I have a family event coming soon where people who haven't seen the ring yet are going to want to look at...I don't want to show them. I had my nails done the other day; the ring looked downright ugly under the nail light. I know it should not look like that because it used to be beautiful under the same conditions.

Has anyone had a similar problem and/or any ideas that I haven't already tried to bring the stone back to looking new?

Thanks for listening :-)

I know this is a jerky thing to ask but have you scrubbed under the stone? People forget a lot of grime builds up under there. And pour very hot water on it and let it soak.

There is a discussion on this page that has a couple of other things to try. I hope something works for you. I haven't had this problem with my moissy, I hope I don't, I can only imagine how sad you must feel.

Stained Moissanite

What kind of moissanite do you have? Enhanced?

Hi,

Yes, I have thoroughly scrubbed under the stone. I really think it is the top of the stone or the sides of the stone's table that are the problem. They appear dull. There is sparkle in the stone-it is just not bouncing light back off of the surface to the same degree that it used too.

Yes, it is the Mira.

Thanks, it isn't that stain though.. I don't know. I guess the only thing left to do is to try to find a jeweler somewhere to polish it and hope that helps. At this point, I feel like the whole stone should be unset-scrubbed-and then reset. Who knows how much that will cost and then if the same situation were to happen again I would literally scream and start throwing things around, lol. Seriously though, this is extremely frustrating and mentally tortuous.

I've never heard of anything like this, but the only thing that could make sense of how putting it in the ultrasonic would make it look worse, is if you have a lot of hard-water deposits building up on the facets.

By then immersing it water with the ultrasonic agitation, you may in effect just be depositing even more mineral deposits on what has already started.

We have seen before where hard water deposits can be extremely hard to remove, I suspect b/c they harden up like cement so once they take hold it can be a pain to undo it.

One idea - if you have an induction oven...put the ring/stone right next to it and let it run for a bit. Why? Induction ovens use extremely strong magnets - the hard water deposits are affixed to the stone largely via ionic (magnetic basically) type attraction and so putting it near a very strong magnet can undo the bonding. Have seen this work before whereas vinegar and other similar things did not.

Obviously having a layer of calcium-like crystal will dampen down the stone optics, so if you are not able to remove, then I would contact us or wherever you purchased as it may require having the stone pulled and thoroughly scrubbed in the worst case. If these get going to far, they are like coral and very difficult to undo.

Hope that helps,
Less

Hi Less,

Thanks, for your response, I did purchase the stone from BTD.

Unfortunately, I don't have an induction oven.

I spoke with a BTD rep, Dana, who gave me a really heartfelt reply. Some of her suggestions involved the, soaking in vinegar and/ then rubbing alcohol techniques and also to rty gemcare. I am currently waiting for my order gemcare to come in the mail.

The vinegar & rubbing alcohol ideas have definitely improved the store- but still not a 100% I will give the gemcare a shot and if that still doesn't work, then I guess the stone will just have to be scrubbed.

Going forward, once this issue is resolved. How can I prevent a similar situation from occurring?

If the vinegar worked, just not 100%, I would keep trying it. It sounds like it is prehaps what Less mentioned, and mineral deposits. You may just need to do a number of vinegar soaks to loosen it. I am sure Dana mentioned this, but make sure your vinegar is diluted with hot water. Pure vinegar is for some reason ineffective. Like it leaves it's own residue that you then have to get off too. I would keep trying this though, as removing a stone for this is a PITA.

Do you know you have hard water? If so, do not put your rings in it. I have every hard water at home, and my rings don't go in it ever. To clean them I use distiled water. And steam from distiled water. I don't use an ultrasonic because I have a lot of pave, but if you still want to use it, make sure you are filling it with distiled water too. Distiled water is dofferent from regular bottled water, btw, so you have to read carefully.

Hi Bells,
Ok, if you are seeing improvement with the vinegar, then the issue is as I thought, namely hard water build up.

The reason it is happening on the top and not the bottom as much is simply because water will pool on the top of the stone due to gravity.

As the water evaporates, it leaves behind a very thin film of minerals...and do this over and over and eventually it builds up thick enough to impair the optics.

Anyway, the fix is to keep going with the vinegar as JCent noted...it's a slow process b/c you are literally undoing layer after layer of mineral build up.

Assuming this is not micropave and you have a good ultrasonic (not the $20 Ebay types that do nothing but vibrate the water a bit), then get some distilled water (not bottled, but distilled) and make a 50/50 mixture of distilled water and vinegar, and let it run in that in the ultrasonic.

The cavitation will help loosen the top layer of the deposits and the vinegar will react with it and pull off a layer at a time.

Distilled water is important because it has no mineral content and thus won't worsen the situation. Otherwise, using normal tap water is just supplying more building blocks to the deposits that are already there.

To avoid in the future:
You'll need to basically try and prevent it from building up in the first place and that will likely mean at least a weekly soak in a mix of distilled water and vinegar to breakup and remove mineral deposits before they become noticeable.

The only real fix is otherwise to only wash your ring in distilled water, but that doesn't seem too realistic

Fyi - the gemcare won't help much with built up mineral/hard water deposits. It's a good cleaner, but it is more for organics like grease/oil. There is likely some grease/oil mingled in with the mineral deposits, but the mineral layers are the hardest part to remove.

Anyway, at least we've likely identified the problem and I think with a bit of work, you should be able to undo the deposits and get it back to it's original form at home.

Hope that helps
Less

Jcent, thanks, I will keep trying the soaking like you suggest. I was soaking in it pure vinegar and then pure rubbing alcohol so I'm glad you brought the hot water aspect to my attention. I never thought that we have hard water and fiance says he tested the water for hardness and got a negative result, but I don't know, maybe the kit was wrong, lol. I'm thinking Less knows what he is talking about. So, thanks for your input and I'll post back when my ring is back at her best.

Less,

The idea about the ultra-sonic + distilled water + vinegar is a great idea that I am going to try out tomorrow.

Thanks & I'll post back with my results :-)

Let us know how it goes!! It may need a few more times to remove the gunk, so scrub between each soak with a soft baby toothbrush. Keep soaking and scrubbing

And just a note, hot water is ok, but boiling is not...make sure you can still touch it.