D23 Precipitate

[mehguy]

Hello everyone,

I tried my hand at making D23 at home, and tried to mix a small volume of it (250ml stock solution). In 125ml of water at 125 degrees Fahrenheit, I mixed a pinch of sodium sulfite first, added the metol, then added the rest of the sodium sulfite. Shortly after dissolving the sodium sulfite a precipitated started to form. Note that I haven't added the rest of the water yet to top it up to 250ml of water.
Is this still usable if I filter out the precipitate?

I've attached an image of the solution.

 

[Anon Ymous]

Did you use distilled water? If not, then water hardness could be the problem. In any case, top up to the desired volume, stir and then filter through a coffee filter, it's perfectly usable.

 

[mehguy]

Did you use distilled water? If not, then water hardness could be the problem. In any case, top up to the desired volume, stir and then filter through a coffee filter, it's perfectly usable.

No I had just used my tap water.

 

[Anon Ymous]

Try distilled next time, or try to source some sodium hexametaphosphate. 1 to 2 g/l hexametaphosphate is a reasonable quantity to add to D23 and several other developers. It's what Kodak used back then, but was later replaced by other agents.

 

[mehguy]

Did you use distilled water? If not, then water hardness could be the problem. In any case, top up to the desired volume, stir and then filter through a coffee filter, it's perfectly usable.

When I topped it up all the precipitate went away.... huh.

 

[Anon Ymous]

When I topped it up all the precipitate went away.... huh.

Well, in this case you didn't have enough water to get everything to dissolve at this temperature. Sounds a little strange considering sodium sulfite's solubility, but we don't know how low the temperature got. What happened was a case of recrystallization.

 

[Anon Ymous]

By the way, it's better to start with about 3/4 of the volume of water needed.

 

[mehguy]

By the way, it's better to start with about 3/4 of the volume of water needed.

Thanks, I'll try that out next time

 

[grat]

When I topped it up all the precipitate went away.... huh.

Remember: If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

 

[mehguy]

Remember: If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate.

I think that'll come in handy when I end up mixing and experimenting with more powder developers
I've only used liquid concentrate up until now

 

[removedacct1]

Don't use tap water to make D-23, and start with 2/3 of the total volume of water.