AP Compact Developing Tank - Questions

I'm about to try developing my own film and the last time I did it this was in about 1977. Then I had a Yankee tank. Now I have an AP Compact Developing Tank which I purchased from Adorama a few days ago (these are made in Spain and apparently sold elsewhere as well). The instructions that came with it were poor and incomplete (in my view). I have a few questions for anyone who knows this tank.

1) Is the removable plastic stem that fits into the top of the tank (down the axis) used for agitation action? This stem has a little knurled-like knob on the end.

2) Is the light seal still intact if the stem is removed? The light tightness of the tank without this stem device inserted seems rather dubious to me.

3) Should I agitate the film by rotating the stem or by shaking and and rotating the canister (as with stainless steel systems)?

Thanks in advance for any expert advice!! - David

Hi, I suppose the tank you have is the one in this picture, or something similar:



If so, then you can see that the reel is attached to the central tube, through which the solutions will be poured. This also ensures that the tank is light tight . The other tube you see in the photo is used for rotation agitation. You don't need to use it, you can agitate by inverting the tank, which IMHO is a better method. I've had streaking happening the only time I did use this thing and it seems that I'm not the only one...

OK thanks so much, that's a great help. I'll post results shortly!

Those AP tanks and reels have a couple of advantages over the equivalent Paterson tanks and reels.

The tanks are shaped so as to permit rotary agitation by rolling on a flat surface - they sit flat on a horizontal surface.

And the reels (which are interchangeable with Paterson reels in both types of tanks), are much easier to load with 120 film, due to the wider flanges.

Well it worked out just great! I did some of that rolling agitation too. The film is Lucky 100 SDH (a really so-so film, but I'm just experimenting and testing gear and processes at the moment). The camera was a Bessa R2 C with a Zeiss Opton Biogon 3.5cm F2.8 - no filters.