Tetenal E-6

Hi,

I have a Tetenal 5L E-6 kit. I noticed that some part of the first developer had crystallized and was sitting on the bottom of the bottle. I tried warming the developer up to see if I could get the crystals to dissolve. If any did, it was not an appreciable amount. I poured off what was liquid into another bottle ( I bought a case of brown glass bottles to put my developers in ) and used it to develop a roll of film. I was surprised to see that the film came out fine. Good color balance, grain, latitude... So has me curious, what exactly crystallized and why is it there if the developer seems to work fine anyway? Anyone have any thoughts?

On another topic, I have used Arista's E-6 in the past and have been happy with the results, the only drawback was the lack of a stabilizer. If they put the formalin in the BLIX step, I missed seeing it in the MSDS. I'm thinking I could use photoflo and add some formalin from the aquarium shop. Any thoughts on this as well?

Joel

I have seen the precipitate, never figured out what it was, and never seemed to miss that part that precipitated. Looking at some (there was a url link here which no longer exists) (there was a url link here which no longer exists) doesn't reveal much either.

About the STAB: PhotoEngineer has posted all relevant information, including a recipe, (there was a url link here which no longer exists).

Thanks, that is kind of what I was thinking for the stab. I'll give it a go.

Joel

After the last round of finding crystals in the first developer, I filtered them out and poured the developer into a brown glass bottle. I did another roll today and again found something has crystallized in the first developer. The clear component of the blix is also starting to precipitate something. Still, slides came out fine. I did notice that a white film formed on my tank and the film that wiped right off. I will probably now just replace the chemicals with a fresh batch, but still curious as to what is going on.

Joel

About that clear BLIX component going milky: it is toast, see (there was a url link here which no longer exists) thread. Unless you are ready to self mix and have the proper equipment, you need to get a fresh kit.

I think I'll save the stabilizer form the Tetenal kit and get a fresh Arista kit. Before the Tetenal kits became available again, I was using the Arista E-6 kits, seemed the open concentrates from the Arista kit lasted much longer for me.

Thanks

Joel

Joel_L said:

I think I'll save the stabilizer form the Tetenal kit and get a fresh Arista kit. Before the Tetenal kits became available again, I was using the Arista E-6 kits, seemed the open concentrates from the Arista kit lasted much longer for me.

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I would be surprised if their BLIX component concentrates are all that different. You can't put too much acid into the BX1 part, because EDTA would precipitate, which means they put Acetic Acid into the BX2 part. That BX2 part is mostly Ammonium Thiosulfate and Acetic Acid. We know that Thiosulfate becomes more acidic as it gets oxidized by aerial oxygen, and with the Acetic Acid already in BX2 it takes much less Oxygen than it would take with regular Ammonium Thiosulfate concentrate.

Not knowing about the Acetic Acid in BX2 and its effects two years ago, I did not protect my opened and partially used BX2 bottle with inert gas, and that led to the issues I had with Sulfur precipitate as described in that other thread. This issue was solved by flooding the BX2 bottle with inert gas whenever I had to open it to pour out some concentrate, like I already did with the FD and CDx bottles. No such measure is necessary for BX1 and STAB. If you don't have access to nitrogen or argon cylinders, I recommend either lighter fluid or Tetenal Protectan spray. I use the latter one, and my partially used BX2 now lasts for well over a year without refrigeration. Protectan is a bit expensive but lasts a very long time.

I always flood my bottles with Argon after each use, seems to work well. I am also considering that I may have contaminated the chems somehow, though I don't have any real reason to expect that. The only Arista kit that went bad on me was the first developer when it was about a year and a half old and only was about 1/4 full for 6 months or so. This was when I bought the Tetenal kit and let the Arista sit.

Thanks

Joel

I don't think you can contaminate BX2 with anything in trace amounts that would cause it to precipitate Sulfur. Even with inert gas inside your container will eventually let some Oxygen through, and this will eventually kill BX2. Can you tell us roughly how old that Tetenal kit is now? If you use these kits so infrequently, you should consider storing the concentrates in glass bottles.

My processing is very sporadic. I think this batch of Tetenal is about 8 months old. When the FD started to crystallize I did buy a case of brown glass bottles and did transfer the FD into one, the BX2 went shortly after. I did buy a new Arista kit today, I'll see how it holds up in the glass bottles. I just seem to remember back when I could get the Kodak 6 step E-6, it lasted until I used it all up, over a year.

Joel

Joel_L said:

My processing is very sporadic. I think this batch of Tetenal is about 8 months old. When the FD started to crystallize I did buy a case of brown glass bottles and did transfer the FD into one, the BX2 went shortly after. I did buy a new Arista kit today, I'll see how it holds up in the glass bottles. I just seem to remember back when I could get the Kodak 6 step E-6, it lasted until I used it all up, over a year.

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Tetenal E6 5 liter kits generally last well over a year for me, but I learned the hard way that I had to use Protectan for the BX2 component, too.

Obviously Kodak 6 step kit doesn't need that much Acetic Acid in its fixer, which means it lasts much longer. Sadly, the general amateur public screams for 1 bath kits, so we have to expect 3 bath kits to become the norm for home processing.