Crystals formed in Beutler's High Actuance Developer

**mcfactor** · 7-Jan-2010, 09:11

I mixed up a batch of Beutler's the other night (from scratch), everything seemed fine, it mixed with no issues and the solutions seemed fine. When I looked at it last night (after 24 hours), there was a think layer of crystals at the bottom of solution A. Does anyone know what happened?

My guess is that the solution cooled too quickly (they were in glass bottles on a cold tile floor) and crystals formed. But it was not frozen, the bottle was room temperture to the touch. Is this possible? If so, is it the metol or the sodium sulfate?

Most importantly, can it be fixed? I havent tried to mix up the solution, but assuming I can get the crystals to disolve, would the developer still work?

Thanks,

Noah

**Merg Ross** · 7-Jan-2010, 10:53

Have you mixed Beutler before with good results? If so, you already know what I will suggest.

The "A" should be mixed with hot water (125 degrees F). Before adding the Metol, put in a pinch of Sulfite. Then, be certain that the Metol is completely dissolved before adding the remainder of the Sulfite. This is very important. I don't believe rapid cooling would be the cause.

In checking my Beutler stock mixed in July, it is as clear as the day it was mixed. Perhaps heating the "A" would work.

It's a great developer, enjoy!

**mcfactor** · 7-Jan-2010, 11:36

yeah, thats exactly how i mixed it, and it looked clear when I transfered it to the bottle. I will try to heat it up tonight and see if it re-disolves.

**mcfactor** · 8-Jan-2010, 08:36

Ok, so turns out that I am an idiot. I put in 5 times the amount of metol I was supposed to! Yes, 50g instead of 10g. Thats what I get for mixing chemicals late at night after working all day.

While I'm doing the confession thing, I also developed 3 sheets of unexposed Velvia 50 with 1 sheet of Hp5 because I had them in the same box and did not check the notch codes. It was somewhat costly, but not nearly as bad as ruining exposed film.

I remixed the developer last night and processed the 7 other sheets of Hp5 sucessfully!