Ammonia smell from rapid fixer?

[BetterSense]

I just had a strange thing happen.

I took 500ml of working fixer, and put it in a 1L pyrex thing. But I needed 1 liter for my film. I'm pretty sure that it was fixer. I cannot be positive, but it was clear like fixer.

I took my jug of fresh fixer, and I went to top off the pyrex container to 1L. When I did it, the solution turned purple. It reeked of ammonia. I dumped it, and used the remaining fresh fixer for my film, but I only had enough to do one roll at a time.

What would cause fixer to react to give off ammonia, especially when it's combined with other used fixer? Again, I'm willing to consider that I had my first container labeled wrong and I actually was pouring it into something else, but what other clear liquid would do that? I don't really have anything around here except developer, yellow stop, and rapid fixer.

 

[MattKing]

The only solution that I use that turns purple is indicator stop bath. Normally it doesn't turn purple suddenly, but it will if I pour something alkaline into it, like developer.

 

[Rick A]

My TF-4 fixer has an amonia smell , and if you were to mix it with an acid fixer it would turn purple and reek of amonia.

 

[BetterSense]

My TF-4 fixer has an amonia smell , and if you were to mix it with an acid fixer it would turn purple and reek of amonia.

Well, that's exactly what happened to me, but I don't have any TF-4, I was just (intending) to pour together two different vintages of the same rapid fixer.

 

[removed account4]

i made tf4 once and it reeked of ammonia so much i got rid of it ...
i have been using sprint speed fixer since 1981
and it has NEVER reeked of ammonia ..

good luck !
john

 

[Dave Martiny]

Could it have beem selenium toner? It definitely smells of ammonia to me, and will most certainly turn purple/black when in contact with fixer that's been used and has silver in it.

 

[Mike Wilde]

This is why there is always a roll of green masking tape and a sharpie marker near the sink.

Nothing gets left unlabelled or undated (or uncovered for that matter) before I walk out of the darkroom.

I may step out having the best of intentions about getting back in there soon.

Sometimes, however, it is a week or more before I find the time.

The little 'notes to self' are always useful in these circumstances.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

I think you have learned a lesson, label everything.

 

[nworth]

Rapid fix will produce ammonia if it gets too alkaline. It will also be ruined that way. I'm not sure what the purple color came from, but the two possibilities given above (indicator stop bath and selenium toner) are both reasonable, and some developers go purplish when exhaused. My guess is that you poured developer into the rapid fix (or rapid fix into the developer) somehow. The pH has to get pretty high for the ammonia smell to get really bad.

 

[BetterSense]

I do label everything. In this case, I was definitely mixing two containers which were clearly labeled. That still doesn't completely rule out the possibility that something got incorrectly placed in the labeled containers.

 

[BetterSense]

Rapid fix will produce ammonia if it gets too alkaline. It will also be ruined that way. I'm not sure what the purple color came from, but the two possibilities given above (indicator stop bath and selenium toner) are both reasonable, and some developers go purplish when exhaused.

Indicator stop bath is acidic, isn't it?

I don't even have any selenium toner, but it could have been developer. It would have had to be Xtol, though, because it was perfectly clear (until I poured in the fresh rapid fixer). The solution I poured into it was definitely fresh rapid fixer, by the way, because I used it to fix the film and it worked fine.

I should note that it gets very hot in my darkroom during the day. I have worried about this affecting my chemicals, but I haven't had a problem before except dektol that goes brown a bit fast.

 

[Photo Engineer]

My TF-4 fixer has an amonia smell , and if you were to mix it with an acid fixer it would turn purple and reek of amonia.

No, it would not. Sorry.

There is no easy answer for what was observed in the OP.

PE