Slight contamination of bleach in fixer, can it still be used?

typicalaussiebloke · Oct 15, 2014

G'day all.

I've recently shot and developed a 60s colour film using the colour developer from my C-41 kit and then chrome alum hardener and ferricyanide bleach and then Ilford Rapid Fixer as I've been getting better looking results than that of blixing. Whilst I got what I call good results, I was rather shocked to see the fixer turning from standard slight yellow to a cyan colour after pouring it back into the bottle which I think maybe traces of the ferricyanide bleach got in there. Prior to fixing I gave the tank with the film a good 5 min wash with the hose as the yellow ferricyanide bleach was prominant even after a couple of minutes of washing and pouring out, but after the water went clear and a couple more minutes I thought it was safe to fix it. Anyhow the fixer is now a light cyan colour, I guess there's trace amount of bleach in it, so is it now no good for re-use or can it be still be re-used despite slight contamination seeing that a lot films can be blixed anyways?

Photo Engineer · Oct 15, 2014

At this point with the fixer blue, it is pretty much shot. That color is ferrocyanide, formed when ferricyanide reacts with hypo.

Wash longer and use a Sodium Sulfite clearing bath between bleach and fix. Like this, bleach, clear, wash 8', fix, wash, stab. (Formalin stab or the dyes will degrade.

PE

snapguy · Oct 15, 2014

Slight of hand

Slight contamination, huh? Is that like being slightly dead? If you care about the images you will not use anything you even think might be contaminated.

typicalaussiebloke · Oct 15, 2014

Thanks for the info, shame about that as I only recently mixed it but good thing I have recently acquired another big bottle of fixer from someone clearing out his darkroom stock. Anyways I happen to have a potassium metabisulphite clearing bath mixed 25g to 1L of water, would that work just the same as a sodium sulphite clearing bath?

typicalaussiebloke · Oct 15, 2014

snapguy said:
Slight contamination, huh? Is that like being slightly dead? If you care about the images you will not use anything you even think might be contaminated.

Well that's why I though I'd asked in this forum this question before using or chucking it, and I thought because there's blix which is bleach and fixer mixed together perhaps it would work okay together for colour film. I admit I'm an amateur and not had years of experience and fully know and learned only so much of the art of developing film via the net there's a lot I don't know about developing film so I ask these questions. Anyways the fixer is gonna be disposed of.

Photo Engineer · Oct 15, 2014

typicalaussiebloke said:
Thanks for the info, shame about that as I only recently mixed it but good thing I have recently acquired another big bottle of fixer from someone clearing out his darkroom stock. Anyways I happen to have a potassium metabisulphite clearing bath mixed 25g to 1L of water, would that work just the same as a sodium sulphite clearing bath?

This sulfite bath should work. And I thought that the question was quite reasonable!

PE

snapguy · Oct 15, 2014

take a dive

One of the things I did in my misspent (but fun) youth was to skydive (prior to 1960). By law in my country if you make an intentional jump you have to have a second parachute, packed by a guy with a license to pack parachutes. If somebody said "well, I think, maybe, perhaps that one was packed okay" I never jumped that chute. And I am still here. I am funny that way I guess. Your experiences at home may vary.

Photo Engineer · Oct 16, 2014

But before you learned that you didn't "know" that and the same is true with chemistry. Having lived through explosive decompression in a military plane, and having to save a person sucked partway out of a defective escape window I know how scary it can be. When we regained our senses we each checked the packing slip in the 'chutes. We had just ignored the rules, after all this was a military cargo plane. Well, turns out someone was short a 'chute and the guy hanging out the window had one packed in the '40s. Believe it! I was there to read the tag.

I've been certified to 100,000 ft for all sorts of things and one thing I did was check my equipment, but if it was "NEW TO ME" I read up on the operating rules or went to someone or someplace for help. We have such a case here and it is quite reasonable to ask such a question when you do not know chemistry.

Athiril · Oct 16, 2014

Photo Engineer said:
But before you learned that you didn't "know" that and the same is true with chemistry. Having lived through explosive decompression in a military plane, and having to save a person sucked partway out of a defective escape window I know how scary it can be. When we regained our senses we each checked the packing slip in the 'chutes. We had just ignored the rules, after all this was a military cargo plane. Well, turns out someone was short a 'chute and the guy hanging out the window had one packed in the '40s. Believe it! I was there to read the tag.

I've been certified to 100,000 ft for all sorts of things and one thing I did was check my equipment, but if it was "NEW TO ME" I read up on the operating rules or went to someone or someplace for help. We have such a case here and it is quite reasonable to ask such a question when you do not know chemistry.

I demand a documentary about your life story.

snapguy · Oct 16, 2014

got

And he got an answer.

Athiril · Oct 16, 2014

snapguy said:
One of the things I did in my misspent (but fun) youth was to skydive (prior to 1960). By law in my country if you make an intentional jump you have to have a second parachute, packed by a guy with a license to pack parachutes. If somebody said "well, I think, maybe, perhaps that one was packed okay" I never jumped that chute. And I am still here. I am funny that way I guess. Your experiences at home may vary.

Once when I first started processing film, at the end of a roll, I decided to see what would happen if I poured in laundry bleach. Somehow I wasn't crushed by sudden deceleration of gravitational forces and am still here. I guess I got lucky.

Photo Engineer · Oct 16, 2014

But I'll bet your film was not as lucky!!!!

Slight contamination of bleach in fixer, can it still be used?

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