Fixer exhaust question

Hi all,

 

New to the forum and new to home film development.

 

I have a question regarding the usage of Ilford rapid fixer, that

might be a no brainer for some, but not very clear to me.

 

Ilford rapid fixer fact sheet states that unreplenished solution is

exhausted after 24 rolls per liter.

 

So, if I make 1 litre of 1+4 dilution I can use it to fix 24 rolls. If I

use a Paterson 3 reel tank with 3 films inside, does one fixing

session of all 3 films count as 3 rolls towards exhaust of the

fixer?

 

So I am left with 21 rolls worth of fixing strength from that 1 litre

I made?

 

Not sure if my explanation was very clear, please bear with me.

 

Thank you

<p>The Ilford folks are great photo sciences however they tend to lean concretive because they want you to have outstanding results. That being said, don’t pay any attention to me, follow Ilford’s instructions.<br>

The rapid fix main ingredient, the one that does the fixing is ammonium thiosulfate. This is “rapid” fixer because it acts about 50% faster than sodium thiosulfate which has been around since 1837. About the middle of the last century ammonium thiosulfate came available as a liquid 60% concentration. We use this chemical diluted one part concentrate to three parts water for film and one part concentrate and seven parts water for papers. <br>

<br>

No one can truly predict how much film or paper a given volume can safely fix because a lot depends on the silver content of the material and upon how heavy it was exposed and developed before it got to the fixing bath. Anyway, we gage fixer life on the square measure of the film or paper being processed. Thus each roll has a specific surface area thus three rolls has 3X the surface area. In other words we count by roll. <br>

Don’t despair, there is an easy way to test the fixer for serviceability. Save scraps of film for testing. The sniped off tongue is commonly used or a sniped off centimeter or two. You test in room light with an undeveloped scrap piece of film. Swish the scrap film in the fixer solution diluted to working strength at the temperature you will be using. Start a stopwatch or note the time upon entry of the scrap in the fluid. You will observe the film enters the fixer as opaque and then turns milky then transparent. This is called clearing the film. You time how long it takes for the film to clear. Now your safe fix time is twice the clearing time. This is a tried and true test that never fails. You discard the used fixer solution when the time to fix is intolerant. You discard when the spent fix become dark and or has floaters or solids floating. A truly spent fix can stain your film or paper. An improperly fixed film can be salvaged even after days or weeks, by re-fixing. You don’t have much to worry about, Re-use and but test. </p>

<p>Here's a video that demonstrates the process that Alan describes above: <a href=" Long ago, I used a Kodak solution in order to determine if fixer was still good but then, because I used the same procedures repeatedly, I just figured out when the testing showed my fixer had gone bad, and never surpassed that amount of film and paper to be fixed. Good idea is to err on the side of caution and toss fixer early.</p>

<p>One thing I do is I never dilute from mix for film. Ilford,Kodak and all others use the basic same formula and I get a year out of a Gallon of mix. Just adding used back to the jug. BTW I process a lot of film. I do tend to extend it closer to the end but it always works. If I get a pack that says it makes one liter or a gallon that is how I use it for film.</p>

Ok, thank you all for your fast and elaborate answers. Will test

the fixer and adjust based on my findings. Maybe I will go Ilford

way and have 2 batches of fixer, one fresher than the other, and

use them both in conjunction.

 

Thank you again.

<p>I concur with all of the above but would add that I use two-bath fixing and have done so for the last 11 years. You can find more about two-bath fixing in this forum. There is an excellent posting by Dan Schwartz from 2004. I also occasionally use Merck fixer tests strips to test the state of my fixer. Over the years I have evolved a two-bath fixing regime which assure that the negs will last as long as possible. I combine this with the Ilford Method for washing film to ensure the film is fully washed.</p>

<p>My developer and fix go down the drain after each tank of film. Nothing ever goes back in the bottle. That way there's never ever any question about it being fresh or exhausted. Developer and fixer together come to about $1 a roll (based on one-gallon quantities of Kodak D-76 and Kodak Rapid Fixer) so I see no point in taking chances.</p>

<p>I tested today my 1 liter batch of rapid fixer on a leftover film leader with the method mentioned above. The fixer has been trough 18 rolls of HP5+ so far and the clearing time was around 55 seconds. First time seeing in real time what is actually happening with the film when it is fixed, so the test was also a nice science lesson :) <br>

I will keep testing every 5 rolls and see how much the fixer is worth using. <br>

I will try and report back, though I don't know how much time will take me to shoot and develop another 5 rolls.<br>

Thank you</p>

<p>I normally don't do film quite often enough, and the rapid fixed doesn't seem to keep so well. But it isn't all that expensive.</p>

<p>I have had it silver plate the inside of bottles, which I think happens when the pH gets too far off. I keep the mixed fixer in sealed bottles, but maybe not sealed well enough. </p>

<p>If you keep the pH within the specified range, you should get the capacity specified. If not, change it more often.</p>

<p>I mostly don't follow the lifetimes indicated, but try to consider the actual chemical. Developers turn brown when they are dead. </p>

<p>Most developers Glen. Xtol stays clear and Caffenol is already brown. But that is not on track about fixer.</p>

<p>The Ilford folks are great photo sciences however they tend to lean concretive because they want you to have outstanding results. That being said, don’t pay any attention to me, follow Ilford’s instructions.<br>

The rapid fix main ingredient, the one that does the fixing is ammonium thiosulfate. This is “rapid” fixer because it acts about 50% faster than sodium thiosulfate which has been around since 1837. About the middle of the last century ammonium thiosulfate came available as a liquid 60% concentration. We use this chemical diluted one part concentrate to three parts water for film and one part concentrate and seven parts water for papers. <br>

<br>

No one can truly predict how much film or paper a given volume can safely fix because a lot depends on the silver content of the material and upon how heavy it was exposed and developed before it got to the fixing bath. Anyway, we gage fixer life on the square measure of the film or paper being processed. Thus each roll has a specific surface area thus three rolls has 3X the surface area. In other words we count by roll. <br>

Don’t despair, there is an easy way to test the fixer for serviceability. Save scraps of film for testing. The sniped off tongue is commonly used or a sniped off centimeter or two. You test in room light with an undeveloped scrap piece of film. Swish the scrap film in the fixer solution diluted to working strength at the temperature you will be using. Start a stopwatch or note the time upon entry of the scrap in the fluid. You will observe the film enters the fixer as opaque and then turns milky then transparent. This is called clearing the film. You time how long it takes for the film to clear. Now your safe fix time is twice the clearing time. This is a tried and true test that never fails. You discard the used fixer solution when the time to fix is intolerant. You discard when the spent fix become dark and or has floaters or solids floating. A truly spent fix can stain your film or paper. An improperly fixed film can be salvaged even after days or weeks, by re-fixing. You don’t have much to worry about, Re-use and but test. </p>

 

Thank you for this information. Your explanation was one of the best I've read.

I just use Edwal Hypo Check.

 

"Hypo Check is a liquid used to find out whether your fixer is exhausted. Use two drops in your fixer and if there is a residual silver in your fixer, the hypo checkwill turn milky white, indicating the fixer is exhausted."

I also use a hypo check, home made. Should you want the recipee I could look it up in my archives (in english even!).

<p>The Ilford folks are great photo sciences however they tend to lean concretive because they want you to have outstanding results. That being said, don’t pay any attention to me, follow Ilford’s instructions.<br>

The rapid fix main ingredient, the one that does the fixing is ammonium thiosulfate. This is “rapid” fixer because it acts about 50% faster than sodium thiosulfate which has been around since 1837. About the middle of the last century ammonium thiosulfate came available as a liquid 60% concentration. We use this chemical diluted one part concentrate to three parts water for film and one part concentrate and seven parts water for papers. <br>

<br> https://ovo.fyi/xvideos/ https://ovo.fyi/youporn/ https://ovo.fyi/xhamster/

No one can truly predict how much film or paper a given volume can safely fix because a lot depends on the silver content of the material and upon how heavy it was exposed and developed before it got to the fixing bath. Anyway, we gage fixer life on the square measure of the film or paper being processed. Thus each roll has a specific surface area thus three rolls has 3X the surface area. In other words we count by roll. <br>

Don’t despair, there is an easy way to test the fixer for serviceability. Save scraps of film for testing. The sniped off tongue is commonly used or a sniped off centimeter or two. You test in room light with an undeveloped scrap piece of film. Swish the scrap film in the fixer solution diluted to working strength at the temperature you will be using. Start a stopwatch or note the time upon entry of the scrap in the fluid. You will observe the film enters the fixer as opaque and then turns milky then transparent. This is called clearing the film. You time how long it takes for the film to clear. Now your safe fix time is twice the clearing time. This is a tried and true test that never fails. You discard the used fixer solution when the time to fix is intolerant. You discard when the spent fix become dark and or has floaters or solids floating. A truly spent fix can stain your film or paper. An improperly fixed film can be salvaged even after days or weeks, by re-fixing. You don’t have much to worry about, Re-use and but test. </p>

Here's a video that demonstrates the process that Alan describes above:

Long ago, I used a Kodak solution in order to determine if fixer was still good but then, because I used the same procedures repeatedly, I just figured out when the testing showed my fixer had gone bad, and never surpassed that amount of film and paper to be fixed. Good idea is to err on the side of caution and toss fixer early.

You discard the used fixer solution when the time to fix is intolerant. You discard when the spent fix become dark and or has floaters or solids floating.

 

Discard when the clearing time is twice what you measured with fresh fixer. Don't wait until fixer becomes dark (never saw that for fixer) or has solids floating.