What am I growing in my stabilizer?

[morback]

Hello,

I just unearthed a forgotten bottle of stabilizer. It seems to have become someone's home.

What is it? Alternatively, what should we name the host?

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[sagai]

UFO may be ...

 

[Rudeofus]

Since all stabilizers contain a strong poison for all kinds of germs, it is unlikely that you are looking at living matter here. I have read somewhere that Formaldehyde can polymerize, so that might be it. Since this seems to be working solution: did you mix it with deionized water?

 

[morback]

UFO: un-identified floating object?

No, it's not mixed with de-ionized water. I'm pretty sure I don't have a living organism there, for the reasons you mentioned. Still, pretty impressive construct.

In my other stabilizer, the one that gets used regularly, I started seeing "fibers" that I filter out. No idea how those come about, but maybe those two things are related?


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[bsdunek]

In my other stabilizer, the one that gets used regularly, I started seeing "fibers" that I filter out. No idea how those come about, but maybe those two things are related?

I think you should try breeding them - you can have a hybrid whatever. Then you can write an article about how wonderful it works for alternative photography processes.

 

[Rudeofus]

Since STAB is the very final liquid that each of your color film strips encounter, anything that's in STAB will likely end up in your film. Filtering, unless done through very special membranes, will not filter out tiny particles (see coffee and tea for example). Therefore I would not recommend using STAB that shows any sign of phase separation or particle formation.

 

[Photo Engineer]

A lot of the active ingredients in your stabilizer went into making that and therefore there is little left for the film no matter what you do.

I would discard this batch.

PE