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Fix in the dev- please help.

OEyers

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Yesterday I contaminated my 4.5l bottle of 1:9 ilfosol 3 with 300ml of 1:4 ilford rapid fix. Will this have any effect on developing film in the future? Any answer would be welcome. Thanks in advance.

OEyers
 

cliveh

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To avoid ever doing this again, have you thought about using colour coded bottles, or coloured tape around them?
Dev = Blue, Stop = Yellow, Fix = Red.
 

Sirius Glass

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Hardy: Stan, this is another fine fix you got us in!

Dump it and thoroughly rinse the bottle.
 

Terry Christian

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4.5L bottle?! What did you do, mix up the entire bottle into working solution? If so, don't. Only mix up the quantity you need. Unless you're developing a boatload of film, working solution will not last very long stored.
 

Worker 11811

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cliveh said:
To avoid ever doing this again, have you thought about using colour coded bottles, or coloured tape around them?
Dev = Blue, Stop = Yellow, Fix = Red.
Click to expand...

Or, at least, label every bottle in large, easy to read letters. Gaff tape or duct tape and a magic marker is all you need. Use colored markers if you like. This is what I do. I also label my beakers to prevent any mix-ups while processing.

Wrap the tape all the way around the bottle and repeat the label so you can read it from any angle.

Make the letters big enough that you can read them in the dark.
 

bobwysiwyg

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RalphLambrecht said:
i used fixer prior to developer once.
Click to expand...

I did this quite recently. Had doled out the necessary chems into their usual containers for use, took them upstairs to allow them to warm for a few hours (I do most work in the basement) and allowed them to get shuffled around carrying them down and didn't bother to recheck the order even though they are marked. It was 35mm and knew what I had done the second I pulled the film off the reel. [sigh].
 

Sirius Glass

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We have all done that at some point.
 
OP
OP

OEyers

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Thank you all for the replies. Indeed I had mixed the whole bottle to working solution (which I agree was probably a mistake). I'll bin it, but could someone first mention why such a tiny amount of fix should ruin the whole bottle, please?
 

MattKing

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OEyers said:
Thank you all for the replies. Indeed I had mixed the whole bottle to working solution (which I agree was probably a mistake). I'll bin it, but could someone first mention why such a tiny amount of fix should ruin the whole bottle, please?
Click to expand...

The developer might still function - poorly and inconsistently.

Some developer/fixer mixes can work together as monobaths, but they work in a substantially different manner then when you use the chemicals separately.

And I believe that monobaths need to be mixed up just before use.
 

tkamiya

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When you develop your film, you are counting on certain temp, certain agitation, and for certain time will give you a consistent result. You LOST that.

Also, consider what fix will do to your film.

Developer will turn exposed part of the film into silver
Fixer will remove what wasn't developed into silver and down the drain (sort of speak)

If you have fixer come into contact with film before developing your film, it will start to remove all material. Having fixer IN developer will cause (in theory) start removing emulsion material from the point you pour your now contaminated developer into the canister - exposed or not. Remember, once gone, it's gone permanently. Most of us won't risk it.

Generally speaking, contamination in forward direction (the order you do your processing) is not that much of a problem. Backward is a pretty big issue.
 

ROL

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Sirius Glass said:
We have all done that at some point.
Click to expand...

Patently untrue. Careful, organized darkroom workers easily avoid such mistakes.


OP, your developer may "cleaned" of fix with my patented fix separator, aka "FIX–UP"®. At a more than reasonable one time cost of $499.99 for the hardware and a $49 monthly subscription fee for software integrity assurance (required for the first year), your developer can be fix free! At a blazing ten cc's per hour, you will have your developer back to pristine condition in mere days (running time approximate). Act now and STOP-BE-GONE® is yours as our gift to you. Please PM me regarding payment (cash only)*.

...or you could just mix up new developer and label your chemistry, if you really prefer the old-fashioned approach.









* Results not guaranteed. Offer void in Maryland and any other state with more than 2 letters. Stop-be-gone chemical disposition disclosed by international law as dihydrogen oxide.
 

Sirius Glass

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Unlike you, I am not a chosen one. However, your name ROL is part and parcel of ROTFLMAO.
 

polyglot

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OEyers said:
Thank you all for the replies. Indeed I had mixed the whole bottle to working solution (which I agree was probably a mistake). I'll bin it, but could someone first mention why such a tiny amount of fix should ruin the whole bottle, please?
Click to expand...

Most fixers are generally quite acidic whereas developers need an alkaline environment to operate. Reducing the pH reduces development activity, possibly to the point where there is none at all. Secondly, the fixer can oxidise the developer and directly destroy its active components. Thirdly, the fixer will be stripping your latent image off the film at the same time as the developer is trying to develop it, which further reduces the image that you get.

With about 8% of your developer being fixer, the developer may have some activity left in it, but I'm pretty sure it will be quite weak and certainly not to specification - even if the dev still worked at all, you wouldn't know how long to develop for. You could test with a short piece of scrap film with some meaningless test images but certainly don't use it on anything you care about.
 

tkamiya

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Let's share how we avoid such mistakes then....

Like the guy above me and skip one and the one above that (oh, wait, that's me... I'm not the chosen one either), I've made such mistakes and ruined a whole bottle of my chemistry before. Since then, I use a system to stop myself from doing it again.

My rule is simple. NEVER have more than one bottle open at any given time. So as I'm done with a step, I pour the chemical from the tank to a cup, then it goes into the open bottle. Pretty simple but effective. Also, as I line up my bottles in the order I need to use it, and place a measuring cup right in front of it. So there is never a confusion what's in each cup. Chems travel vertically from a cup to a bottle.

It's pretty easy to make careless mistakes. I try to avoid it by doing the above and making it a habit.
 

JBrunner

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Fixer is the mortal enemy of undeveloped film. It dissolves it. That's its job.
 

albada

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Think of the positive side:
You did not ruin film. Photos are difficult or impossible to re-do. Chemistry is easy to re-do.

Mark Overton
 

Worker 11811

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tkamiya said:
Let's share how we avoid such mistakes then....

My rule is simple. NEVER have more than one bottle open at any given time...

It's pretty easy to make careless mistakes. I try to avoid it by doing the above and making it a habit.
Click to expand...

Agreed!

I do the one-at-time thing, too. I also reread the label every time, before pouring anything.

I just started experimenting with Diafine. If I get the two parts mixed up, I am screwed. If ANY amount of Part-B gets into Part-A it will be ruined. Therefore, I need to double down on paying attention to what I pour, where and when or else I risk trashing $50 worth of chemistry.

It might seem silly at first but, after a while, it becomes a habit.
 
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