There's something growing in my fixer

[eric]

I don't seem to recall my kids dropping sea monkey eggs into my Nova Slot processor. But what is that *STUFF* that grows in there? Kinda nasty. Some stuff is clear and floating around and other stuff is like coffee scum.

How come it don't grow in developer? Maybe because it is more acidic? No clue.

 

[Ole]

Sulfur? Some of it will be formed on the surface, and float. Some will be formed in the liquid, and gradually "congeal" and sink slowly. Your fixer is dead, mate!

 

[eric]

Sulfur? Some of it will be formed on the surface, and float. Some will be formed in the liquid, and gradually "congeal" and sink slowly. Your fixer is dead, mate!

Oh darn. I thought it would be something more interesting like alien eggs or something like that. Well, good thing my local pusher is only a few blocks from work.

And I bought that fixer tester a few weeks ago too. Didn't even use it yet cause I suspected something in my Nova was probably dead.

 

[rbarker]

. . . Your fixer is dead, mate!

I disagree. It's Alive! It's Alive! (had any lightning storms lately?)

My guess is that what you're seeing is the photographic equivalent of pond scum. My assumption is that soluble elements of the emulsion combine with bacteria from the air (or, whatever) and the solution starts forming "life". I've seen the same sort of thing with wetting solution that has been left standing too long.

 

[eric]

My guess is that what you're seeing is the photographic equivalent of pond scum. My assumption is that soluble elements of the emulsion combine

But why fixer? Not developer? Hmmmm, makes you wonder.

 

[FrankB]

Your fixer is dead, mate!

No, it's not! It's just pining for the fjords!

 

[modafoto]

The place I rent a darkroom I was changing the film fixer one day (a 5 liter opaque bottle)...It was some what going black (very exhausted stuff!) and I found a spoon in there...all black and very etched! I did a fixer check before discarding the stuff and found the fixing time to be 45 minutes! Sometimes it is goooood to discard the chemicals!

 

[Tom Stanworth]

Be responsible and make sure whatever it is gets nailed to a wooden board and correctly classified before being wiped out.

 

[eric]

I wonder...if left unchecked for a few million years...what will it grow into? Maybe a new species of grey haired, grey beareded, jolly looking being?