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Thread: Silver precipitating out of fixer

  1. #1
    Gary L. Quay's Avatar
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    Silver precipitating out of fixer

    I seem to be getting shiny flakes of what looks like silver floating around in my fixer. For the fixer I use for film, I use TF4, and the flakes are about 1/8", and for paper I use Clayton AFC Archival Fixer, and it takes the form of a black, granular residue on the bottom of the bottle or tray. I use distilled water, and (generally) a running water stop instead of a stop bath. I think it's odd. The folks at the camera store where I take my fixer have pointed out the residue or flakes, so I have to get this figured out before I can take some there again for recycling.

    Any help is greatly appreciated.

    Thanks!

    --Gary

  2. #2

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    Re: Silver precipitating out of fixer

    I don't understand why the store will not take your fixer with the flakes in it. Recyclers simply remove and collect the silver from the fixer and sell it. If these are in fact silver, why wouldn't they want it?

  3. #3
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    Re: Silver precipitating out of fixer

    Filter out the silver precipitant with a coffee filter.

    Re-use the fixer until it reaches it's capacity, then flush it down the drain.

    Unless you are using a huge amount of fixer, no need to recycle it.

  4. #4

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    Re: Silver precipitating out of fixer

    Are you using an alum hardener in the fix? If you are this could be aluminum sulfate (?) precipitating out. This can happen with too much hardener being used. My photo chemistry doesn't get tested as much as it used to. Many years ago I used to work for Sprint Systems and knew all this stuff.

    Tom

  5. #5
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    Re: Silver precipitating out of fixer

    Tom, the fixers that he is using are non-hardening fixers.

  6. #6
    Lachlan 717
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    Re: Silver precipitating out of fixer

    I've had the thing happen with Tefenal Superfix. Just got a tea strainer from the kitchen and got on with it. Didn't seem to have any effect; no chunks left on the film!!

    As Gem suggests, filter it and keep on using it!
    Lachlan.

    You miss 100% of the shots you never take. -- Wayne Gretzky

  7. #7
    IanG's Avatar
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    Re: Silver precipitating out of fixer

    A tea strainers not enough to do much at all, use a coffee filter.

    Ian

  8. #8
    Just waiting to be developed..
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    Re: Silver precipitating out of fixer

    Quote Originally Posted by Gem Singer View Post
    Filter out the silver precipitant with a coffee filter.
    Re-use the fixer until it reaches it's capacity, then flush it down the drain.
    Unless you are using a huge amount of fixer, no need to recycle it.
    I really wouldn't recommend dumping silver rich fixer down the drain. Its a heavy metal and not good for the sewer system and the environment.
    If you have a septic tank and leach field then it could be a disaster. It could contaminate your tank, ground and possibly ground water
    The easiest thing to do is to put a bunch of pieces of steal wool in a 5 gallon bucket. The best kind is the fine steel wool, they look like hot pockets.
    Home depot has it for under $10 a pack. I buy a few packs every quarter and dump them into my system.

    Pour all of your fixer in the bucket and the silver will plate onto the steel and remember to stir occasionally.
    I forget the actual chemical process but silver sludge will form and end up at the bottom of the bucket. It looks like a grayish black sludge.
    After a few weeks or months depending on usage, you can draw off and dump the fixer from the top with a lot water.
    Remember not to let the sludge or the wool go down the drain. Its slightly valuable and not good for the environment.
    You can keep adding steel wool and fixer until the sludge layer is thick enough to collect.
    You can try to have it refined or at least dispose of it properly. Some recycling centers may take it or a silver refinery. The phone book or google can help with that.

    This is basically the same as buying one of those silver recovery cartridges. In those, the steel wool is wrapped around a casing and the fixer flows through and around it.
    They probably have a higher silver recovery yield and are easier to refine but they are a bit expensive.
    The steel wool bucket approach will probably not remove 100% of the silver from the fixer but you are reducing it a lot.
    Enough that i feel comfortable dumping the fixer after a month in the bucket.

    If those are silver flakes that came out of solution, you may be able to strain them out and use some fresh fixer to bring them back into solution.
    Then dump it into a steel wool silver recovery bucket mentioned above.

    Hope that helps.
    -Ian Mazursky
    www.ianmazursky.com Travel, Landscape, Portraits and my 12x20 diary
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  9. #9
    Lachlan 717
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    Re: Silver precipitating out of fixer

    Quote Originally Posted by IanG View Post
    A tea strainers not enough to do much at all, use a coffee filter.

    Ian
    You must use a different model to me, Ian. The one I use is fine. The solids are around 3mm in length; easily large enough for a poor-quality strainer to catch. In fact, the whole reason I used a strainer is because the flakes looked like tealeaves. So, please don't tell me what works for me and what doesn't.
    Lachlan.

    You miss 100% of the shots you never take. -- Wayne Gretzky

  10. #10
    Just waiting to be developed..
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    Re: Silver precipitating out of fixer

    I just thought of this, You can also use a fish net with a coffee filter placed in the net.
    Its like catching fish in a pet store tank before you bring them home

    But seriously, i am using coffee filters to clean my fix after using it for Pyro. It works really well.
    Ive seen different type of tea strainers, some have a really fine mesh. Some are even gold plated or so they say.
    They may work just fine as long as they are stainless steel. Ive had a few cheap ones that came with my tea pots.
    They rusted out within a year then we had to buy better ones. Those tea pots weren't cheap either, just the strainer
    -Ian Mazursky
    www.ianmazursky.com Travel, Landscape, Portraits and my 12x20 diary
    PrePress Express

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