I put steel ball bearings in fixer... what's happening?

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mooge

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so today's fixer was pretty dead, and instead of dumping it right away I figured I'd try removing the silver first.

it was suggested somewhere on the internet to put steel wool in exhausted fixer to get the silver out; I didn't have steel wool but I did find a small bucket full of pellet gun sort of pellets (copper coated steel) lying around, so I dumped them in my fixer.

now the copper is gone and after a bit of agitation, the fixer is black and pretty opaque.

so the silver and iron ions are supposed to swap places or something? could anyone explain what's happening (or what should be happening)?

and once all of this is done, what am I to do? dump the liquid, keep the solids?


thanks in advance!
 
Copper complexes with thiosulfate, but the complex is yellow. The iron should still react with the silver, but it's hard to say what else might be in the copper alloy coat or steel that may be more reactive. The sludge you filter out will definitely contain a mixture of amorphous silver and copper complexed with thiosulfate, but there might be other things in there too. Next time get some "steel" wool, which is low carbon steel, essentially just plain metallic iron.

Marty
 
Forgive me guys, but somehow I don't understand why so many people bother with this ugly mess of removing silver from the fixer.
Are there no local/municipal services that collect hazardous/toxic household waste in Canada or the US? Or are they too expensive? I mean, how do you dispose of the rest of your household toxic waste like used engine oil, used batteries, dead neon tubes/CFLs and electronic waste?
I shoot around 100 b+w films per year which leaves me with about 5 liters of used fixer, which I collect in an appropriate container. So, once a year I bring the stuff to the local special waste collecting facility together with all the other household toxic waste that will have accumulated over that period and that's it. This service is free of charge for individuals here, but even if I had to pay a couple of bucks for the disposal, I certainly wouldn't bother messing around with steel wool and silver sludge.
Just my €0.02,
John
 
In Australia, we get charged a lot (a lot more than a few bucks) for disposing of all these kinds of things. I luckily have access to a service provider who I know well who can take my photo waste for free, but the cost here is a major disincentive for a casual user.

Marty
 
My local family-owned photo store/lab (so happy I have one) handles my fixer for me. I bring it in in the bottle, they bring me back the empty bottle. I buy some film or a filter, or paper, or a camera, or whatever from time to time. Works out well. I wonder how long it will last -- I hope they survive forever.
 
I think the idea was that if you get the silver out of fixer, you can dump it down the drain and it's not as bad for the environment. I guess. there is a hazardous waste thing somewhere here, so I could do what you do and maybe that's actually a better idea.

and that was an incredibly terrible sentence.
 
You get hardened fixer 😀

Just use glass beads to avoid corrosion. I do not think bearing balls are made out of non-rust steel.
 
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