Minox Daylight tank difficulty

I am having some success with my Minox Daylight tank; however, it seems the first 7 to 8 images taken on the roll- the ones that roll onto the daylight tank spindle last when loading for development- are not being processed properly. They wind up looking a bit as though they have not been fixed properly. I have been following the instructions that came with the tank. Anyone have any tips on how to properly use the tank? I do fill until it overflows into the drip basin, I wonder if there is an air bubble that forms inside and prevents adequate development and fixing.

The Minox daylight development tank need proper agitation.

 

There are two ways to agitate the developer

 

a) Insert a glass thermometer into the center hole of Minox tank, then raise the thermomeeter followed by lower the thermometer

b) Use an eyedropper, fill with one tube of developer add it to the center hole, when the developer raises above the hole and

fill the cap, use the eyedroper to take off the overflow and put back to the center hole, thus making the developer recycling

in the Minox tank

 

Either one of these two methods works all the time

Thank you.

As the moderator says, good agitation is important. That, to me, is one of the weak points of the Minox tank. I use the thermometer method and pump it continuously during development, rinse and fixing. As you have done, I make sure the tank is really full, adding a little liquid after agitating for 30 sec. or so.

I had never heard of the eyedropper method, but, it sounds good too. In any case, continuous agitation is important.

While the Minox tank is great for situations where you don't have access to a darkroom, I like my Nikor reels. They're not difficult to load, you can use more solution, and agitation is easier. Additionally, as I reload the cassettes, they don't have the felt light traps soaked by chemicals. Just my way of doing things. Unfortunately, the metal reels are very hard to find these days.