something is ruining my fixer O_O

[mooge]

so I come back from vacation and my fixer has gone black for some reason-- precipitate in the solution and coating the walls of the bottle. And it doesn't work. Okay. so I whip up a new fixer solution using the remaining fixer in the bottle and now, after... I guess it's been three weeks or so and 6x2 rolls of film later, the same deal. black bottle, precipitate in solution.

what's the deal?

Maybe oxidation? but the concentrate looked okay. Maybe my stop bath? But it's yellow (... which means it's okay?? I really don't know). or maybe it's the HC-110 which has gone a bit red... but in theory they shouldn't have any contact. or is it because I'm shooting Arista Premium and it's Ilford rapid fixer?


Any guesses?


and of course Henry's has been out of fixer, HC-110 AND HP5 for the last two weeks...


>.>

<.<

 

[M.Hilo]

If those films you developped were ok, then I would get fresh stop and fixer to start with . . . see if it happens again.

 

[icebear]

Get a new bottle, dump the old one and set up fresh fixer.
Do not use the troubled bottle - I assume it's plastic?

 

[zuiko85]

I use Ilford liquid concentrate fixer, mixed per instructions and record the number of rolls that go through it. I do get a black preciptate that I filter out through a coffee filter every few rolls. It always works, completely clearing the negatives within the specified time. I have on occasion tried to go well past the number of rolls that Ilford says can be fixed. Finally the fixer just won't clear the negs completely at all. Never come across the problem of the whole solution going black but I would suspect that it must be some kind of contamination. Perhaps using distilled water for mixing the fixer would help. Beyond that I just don't know. Have you done a search of the archives for any related topic?

 

[mooge]

the film cleared (after some persuasion) so I guess the fixer still worked.

the weird thing is the previous batch went black so I threw out the bottle and made the current batch in the concentrate's bottle-- and now that batch is black too.

it's just weird that I haven't changed my process at all and now some fixer weirdness is coming up.
maybe the concentrate has oxidized?
anyways, I've lost a couple days of developing. only... like thirty rolls to go?

thanks, everyone.