Even though these bottles are sturdy and relatively thick, there are always going to be microscopic holes that are just big enough for air to get through with enough time. In some places, tap water contains dissolved minerals that will react with the fixer and reduce its efficacy over time. Using distilled water, and sealing the bottle without air will ensure that 1L of diluted fixer remains viable for up to 6 months.
Neutral fixer is perfect for people who have eczema or are sensitive to that pungent fixer odor. The best solution is to always fill sealable glass bottles all the way to the top so that no air can get in.
Fixer should always be stored in cool, light-free conditions according to Ilford and Eco-Pro technical datasheets.
These solutions are able to tolerate some exposure to air, but they will degrade faster as the bottle is emptied. That means storing the opened fixer into smaller bottles, or in plastic containers that you can squeeze the air out of will make unused fixer last longer.
One piece of advice I have is to not use metal lids when storing Rapid Fixer. Fixer is designed to remove the still light-sensitive silver ions on the film, meaning that they react with metals. So the best way to keep these chemicals fresh and lasting a long time, is to store the stock solution in smaller, fully-filled sealed bottles.
Preferably glass with plastic lids, although the plastic storage bottles will work as well — albeit not as long since they are more porous. Using these techniques, you should easily be able to keep a bottle of fixer lasting for well more than a year at a time. Have you ever gotten the maximum capacity out of a bottle of fixer? Let me know below how you keep your fixer solutions. Daren is a journalist and wedding photographer based in Vancouver, B.
I will use Kodak T-max fixer as an example, diluted with water, as this is the fixer I use. I develop my own black and white film partly because it is more economical. If I was to dump my fixer after every roll of film home developing would soon prove expensive.
I made up a diluted batch of 1. The bottle is not full to the top so air is in the bottle. I tend to leave the film in the fixer for a longer period than suggested to be safe 20 minutes but I have not observed any problems so far. Even if you want to play it safe and make up a new batch of fixer every month it will still be much cheaper than making a new batch after each roll.
A quick test to see if your fixer is still good is to put a piece of undeveloped film into the fixer dilution. It takes literally many years before sulfation will occur, and by years I mean "most of a decade". Even after sulfation has begun and there's a nice layer of white precipitate at the bottom of the fixer bottle, the fixer will still work though somewhat more slowly. If you do the clearing test and fix for twice as long as the clearing time, your negatives will basically be fine.
If there is precipitate, you'll want to filter it out with a coffee filter in order to not get spots on your film though. Once the fixer starts to smell strongly of rotten-egg gas instead of mostly vinegar , that's a sign that it's decomposing and will start sulfating soon. That begins after about 2 years in the cupboard in my experience. You don't need to protect fixer from oxygen in the way that you do developers which are reducing agents and therefore very sensitive to oxidation.
Just keep it in a sealed bottle in the cupboard, nice and cool but never frozen. Dead Link Removed with normal use. Because fixing is to-completion and should leave nothing in the film, it doesn't matter which brand or type you use, and they're all based on thiosulfate.
They all do the same thing and leave your film in the same state, i. Some are faster ammonium or slower sodium than others, some are easier to wash out of FB papers alkaline fixes but those are basically the only relevant differences. For film use, it doesn't matter which you pick as long as you follow the instructions for the one you're using. If you end up chucking half out after a decade because it went off, who cares?
The only time I've has fixer 'go bad' was when I forgot how much film I had run through it and it just stopped working. Pulled the film out after 6 min.
Then I mixed new fixer and ran the film through again and it cleared just fine. Once fixer starts to sulfurize it should NOT be used. If any bits of sulfur adhere to the emulsion it will be impossible to remove it without damaging the film.
Fixer is cheap but film is expensive. Last edited by a moderator: Jun 18, Thank you so much. It seems like I'm set then. You must log in or sign up to reply here. Show Ignored Content. Your name or email address: Do you already have an account? No, create an account now.
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