C-41 Stop Bath Wash BLIX and Freezing Question

[bwcolor]

I was reading the instructions provided with the Tetenal C-41 kit and they suggest that a 3% Acetic Acid stop after color developer helped to keep the BLIX fresher. I looked into purchasing Glacial Acetic Acid with an eye to dilution to 3%, but wonder if just using a water rinse after color developer would serve the same purpose. I only use water as a stop bath in B&W film development, but does it also stop development with C-41?

Also, I purchased the five liter kit and now I'm a bit stumped as to how to keep the concentrate separates fresh. I was thinking of freezing in a Freestyle collapsible (accordion) bottle, but have read that these are oxygen permeable. Glass looks great, but would crack with expansion of the solution. Do any of you freeze your concentrates and if so in what?

 

[Keith]

I only buy the one litre kits for this reason and would rather have have five of them on hand to be used as needed!

The chemistry can go off very suddenly with little warning as I've discovered.

 

[Freakscene]

The chemistry will fail if you freeze it. There are developer components that are affected by freezing and which polymerise and precipitate out at very low temperatures. Start by using distilled water to make the solutions, put them in a brown glass bottle with a good lid, or a Schott bottle:
http://www.schott.com/uk/english/products/laboratory/bottles.html
in a dark place. Fill the airspace with nitrogen (wine saver will do:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0000DCS18/?tag=dscsite40-20 )
and develop a test roll before developing anything critical.

Concertina bottles are worse than bad.

Marty

As Keith mentioned, when they go off, it happens quickly.

 

[bwcolor]

OK, have lots of brown 500ml bottles. Thanks for the information and no freezing.

Anyone using a stop bath with C-41 developer, or a wash between developer and blix?