Contaminated developer with fixer

[MingMingPhoto]

hi all, I let a friend use my chemicals and he dropped a significant amount of fixer in our 5L of id68.

I didn't see the amount but it's sat for some days and now there are white flakes floating around.

the fixer is ilford rapid fix,

I'm going to make a fresh batch, but I'm also curious if anyonw knows what the white flakes are and if they know how the fixer has affected the developer.

 

[reddesert]

Developers are alkaline to promote the developing reaction, most fixers are acidic. The acid in stop or fixer stops the developer from working. A developer contaminated with acid stop bath or fixer is a dead parrot. Dispose of it.

 

[JensH]

Discard the ID68, even if I doubt it is now acidic, the thiosulphate of the fix will ruin the developer.
My guess for the flakes: Sulfur.

 

[GregY]

hi all, I let a friend use my chemicals and he dropped a significant amount of fixer in our 5L of id68.

I didn't see the amount but it's sat for some days and now there are white flakes floating around.

the fixer is ilford rapid fix,

I'm going to make a fresh batch, but I'm also curious if anyonw knows what the white flakes are and if they know how the fixer has affected the developer.

Seems like getting fixer into the developer would be hard to do.....?

 

[JensH]

Btw, a good idea is to split the 5L stock solution into some 0.5 or 1L bottles...

 

[koraks]

My guess for the flakes: Sulfur.

Yes, that's a likely candidate; could also be sulfite that's dropped out of solution since both the fixer and the developer are likely fairly rich in sulfite. However, I think your original guess is right on the money.

if they know how the fixer has affected the developer.

For sure. The pH issue mentioned is one, and another severe problem is that the thiosulfate from the fixer still acts as a fixer. Hence, if you were to develop film in this, the fixer would compete with the developer and you'd end up with much thinner images. Effectively your friend has created a poorly balanced monobath developer/fixer along the lines of df96.

Also, since something has started to decompose which appears to have resulted in precipitation of sulfur compounds, there's an additional risk of undeveloped silver halide partially turning into silver sulfide as it reacts with some of the silver salts, resulting in staining and an overall high level of fog.

This developer should of course not be used unless you want to run a test roll through it out of academic interest. It will most likely still produce an image (depending on how much fixer was added exactly), but image quality can be expected to be poor, and the developer will not be stable.

 

[MattKing]

You may have created your very own monobath developer.
Here is an example of a commercial version of a monobath developer: https://filmphotographystore.com/products/darkroom-supplies-fpp-super-monobath-bw-developer-1-liter
Monobath's have their place, but I wouldn't put any film of value into what you have in hand.
On the other hand, MingMing monobath developer might be the perfect name for something new on the marketplace

 

[MingMingPhoto]

Discard the ID68, even if I doubt it is now acidic, the thiosulphate of the fix will ruin the developer.
My guess for the flakes: Sulfur.

thank you

Btw, a good idea is to split the 5L stock solution into some 0.5 or 1L bottles...

that makes sense, I'll just avoid having the friend use it again because i often develop with more than 1 liter at a time

Yes, that's a likely candidate; could also be sulfite that's dropped out of solution since both the fixer and the developer are likely fairly rich in sulfite. However, I think your original guess is right on the money.


For sure. The pH issue mentioned is one, and another severe problem is that the thiosulfate from the fixer still acts as a fixer. Hence, if you were to develop film in this, the fixer would compete with the developer and you'd end up with much thinner images. Effectively your friend has created a poorly balanced monobath developer/fixer along the lines of df96.

Also, since something has started to decompose which appears to have resulted in precipitation of sulfur compounds, there's an additional risk of undeveloped silver halide partially turning into silver sulfide as it reacts with some of the silver salts, resulting in staining and an overall high level of fog.

This developer should of course not be used unless you want to run a test roll through it out of academic interest. It will most likely still produce an image (depending on how much fixer was added exactly), but image quality can be expected to be poor, and the developer will not be stable.

thank you for this answer, really insightful

 

[Raghu Kuvempunagar]

Apparently, Hydroquinone and Thiosulphate form interesting crystals:

Hydroquinone and sodium thiosulfate crystals | 1988 Photomicrography Competition

Roland Marsh, Jr. - Hydroquinone and sodium thiosulfate crystals

www.nikonsmallworld.com

 

[RalphLambrecht]

hi all, I let a friend use my chemicals and he dropped a significant amount of fixer in our 5L of id68.

I didn't see the amount but it's sat for some days and now there are white flakes floating around.

the fixer is ilford rapid fix,

I'm going to make a fresh batch, but I'm also curious if anyonw knows what the white flakes are and if they know how the fixer has affected the developer.

As someone said before, the white flakes are elemental sulfur and the developer is probably ruined. investigate how the fixer could get into the developer and improve the process. Don't blame the user. Stabilze the process.

 

[cliveh]

Colour code your chemical bottles: - Develper - Blue, Stop - yellow, Fixer - Red and it should never happen again.