We have all heard of the old "fixer is (denser) heavier than water and will sink to the bottom" line. I thought it was dismissed as a fallacy. But one day I was fixing some reels of MF film in a tall Paterson tank. I added the fixer solution, but ran short of fixer and so immediately added some water to the fixer solution that was already in the tank. (I figured the diluted fixer would still do the job well enough, even if it took longer) Then I was distracted with something else and didn't agitate the tank.
Well, lo and behold, when I removed the center column that held the reels to check the progress of the fixer, the reel on the bottom was obviously clearer than the one on the top. It would seem to support the theory that indeed, the fixer solution sank to the bottom.
Bookmarks