Fixer Exhausted Premature?

[ColColt]

I've always reused Kodak's Rapid Fixer for film. Lately I've notice my two month old solution I keep in a dark brown container looks milky when put into a graduate for fixing purposes. There's only been right at 10 rolls of 24 exposure Tri-X or HP-5 through that batch and already it looks cloudy.

I've rad on the forum some years ago you should get up to 25 rolls in a liter before it needs dumping and I got less than half that. I mixed half of the recommended gallon so i should have gotten about 50 rolls instead of the ten before exhausted.

I poured some into a container and took a film leader and added to see how long it took for it to clear...about ta minute so, why the cloudy look? I was getting ready to mix a new batch but would like to hear comments on why it's cloudy looking.

 

[Mablo]

I had a relatively fresh fixer batch that turned almost dark in a few weeks. No idea what caused it. I have a habit of sniffing the fixer (very slightly!) before use. In case I smell rotten egg I toss the batch and make a new one.

 

[jschrader]

As far as I understood one cannot recognize exhaustion of fixer by its color. Actually, it is exhausted when too much undeveloped ( = light sensitive silver halogenide) remains in the film. This will later (in years) turn into brown spots and spoil the film.

Never overuse fixer. It is not that expensive

 

[ColColt]

It wasn't just the cloudy, milky color but the smell as well...didn't smell like fresh fixer-more like mild sulfur. I wold have thought out of two quarts of fixer I could get much more than ten rolls.

Instead of the gallon it makes I cut it in half and make just half a gallon.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

Not sure if this applies but fixer capacity is reduced with tabular grain films.

Chris

 

[ColColt]

I don't shoot the T-grain films...mostly Tri-X, HP-5 and FP-4. Occasionally I'll use RPX-400.

 

[Terry Christian]

Just yesterday I used some fixer I've had for a while but not exhausted, and it was also a bit cloudy in appearance; but it worked just fine and fixer test solution didn't come up with any precipitate, so I just fixed for a bit longer than usual.
I won't count on its still being viable for much longer.

 

[ColColt]

What was puzzling to me was the fixer wasn't that old and testing a piece of film with it it cleared it in under a minute. I just didn't like the looks of it and the smell was somewhat suspect so, I ditched it.