Diafine alternative for highly reusable developer

A

abram

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Hi guys,

I started doing my own home developing this past fall. Since I have a septic system and live near sensitive wetlands, I wanted to avoid putting any chemicals down the drain, which means that any used developer has to be stored and disposed of. And I don't want to be storing gallons and gallons of waste chemicals (my town only offers hazardous waste disposal once a year).

So I've been using Diafine, which has worked well for those purposes - I can reuse the same developer over and over again, and every 12 months or so it will be exhausted and I can set aside two 1-liter bottles for proper disposal.

The problem is, I'm really not happy with the look I'm getting from Diafine and Tri-X/HP5. It just seems to have a weird contrast curve and I don't like the way skin tones look. So I'd like to find something that gives more of a classic high-contrast look. But I don't want to be generating a lot of chemical waste, which rules out developers that get mixed fresh each time and then tossed. Any suggestions? Thanks!
 
You could experiment with HC110, very small amounts of the concentrate get used and could even potentially get re-used. I'm down to 3ml for a roll of 35mm 35 exposure with no noticeable effects, semi-stand: 5 sec of agitation every 15 mins for 1 hr or 2 hr if trying to get as much shadow detail as possible.
 
Some people save their used developer and evaporate it, then store and occasionally properly dispose of the residual solids.
 
First time I've heard someone not like Diafine with TriX. HP5 or FP4 are another matter. I would second Caffenol and would stay away from HC110. That stuffs fairly toxic, even dilute. I also understand your concern about release of toxic chemicals. But what are you doing about fixer? That has dissolved silver in it. A heavy metal that is fairly toxic. Do you do some kind of silver recovery?
 
Would it help to use a developer that has a replenisher? I've never done this, but if it is done by adding some replenisher without disposing of any liquid, maybe the same bottle can be used for a long time before it finally has to be thrown away.
 
stompyq said:
But what are you doing about fixer? That has dissolved silver in it. A heavy metal that is fairly toxic. Do you do some kind of silver recovery?
Click to expand...

So far I've been reusing the same fixer, which is presumably accumulating silver. I plan to take it to hazardous waste disposal when it's expired. Based on what I've been reading recently I think I'm also going to start setting aside my rinse water and putting some steel wool in it for a suitable amount of time to absorb any remaining silver before I put it down the drain.
 
Thanks for the suggestions so far everyone! This is definitely helping me think about the problem at a higher level. Reusing developer is one solution, the other is making sure the developer I'm using isn't environmental harmful or bad for a septic system (which are not necessarily the same thing). I'm definitely interested in caffenol, but a replenishable developer is interesting too. I've heard good things about Xtol, which is supposedly relatively environmentally friendly and is also replenishable.

The other interesting idea is that of just being willing to store more chemicals. Even if I have to mix new chemicals once a month, a 5-gallon bucket or two would hold a year's worth of used chemicals.
 
Fixer is the most used and in general, the most harmful item in a B&W negative development process. IIRc, janian (an APUG member who is also a Caffenol expert) provided some information on a silver recovery service through a third party.

BTW, do not overuse your fixer solution more than 10-20%. They leave some nasty stuffs. Simply not worth it and it is quite annoying when I realised my mistakes. Now I keep a record of how many rolls I'm using with each batch of fixer working solution. If you use T-max and Delta films, they will exhaust the fixer lot quicker. Lovely stuff though.

Re Diafine alternative, search owith APUG's formula and forum section. You'll find quite a few alternatives.

Bests,
Ashfaque
 
Though I have normally used D76 1:1, recently I've been replenishing it instead, with excellent results. In the past I'd done this successfully with UFG and Acufine, so I already knew the concept was good, and it is working fine with D76 as well. I have two batches running that I use for different films--one is straight D76, and the other is diluted 1:1. Assurances from people on the web who haven't tried it is that replenishing diluted developer will fail, but that experiment, running four months so far, is going perfectly fine. That batch is even in large format deep tanks without floating lids, just covers, which would be the worst of all possible situations, in theory, but I could see that possibly the lack of pouring could be contributing to the success, so I'll mention it.

Unlike fixers, there's not much in developers, and the bulk of it is pretty harmless, I think. I bet one of the largest issues with fix is the accumulated silver.
 
Replenished X-tol can be used for years. You can also replenish D-23, which has to be made from scratch but only has two ingredients - Metol and Sodium Sulfite. Add Metaborate for the replenisher.
 
I've been using the same Microdol-X stock solution for over two years. I replenish it; Info is available on the internet
 
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