Zonal Pro EC Fixer

[swamiji]

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Well I discovered that I had a bottle of zonal pro ec rapid fixer, in my cabinet, and wanted to find out how many times I can reuse before tossing it. But in my search I found out that the company that produces it is out of business. Argh.

 

Well the bottle I have is not very old, so I might as well use it. So is there anything different about Zonal pro, than most fixers? I am used to Kodak rapid fixer, and just ran out.

 

I guess the most important question is how many times can I reuse it?

 

For most film it says 1:6, which is ok, and 3 minutes time which is fine, but it says little else.

 

Oh, I am not working with a hardener, so that is not an issue.

[miha]

As a general rule, you can easily fix ten rolls of film in one litre of working strength (1+4) rapid fixer by reusing it. At least this is how I do it.

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[appleman]

You could mix it with a tonic with ice and lemon.

[swamiji]

You could mix it with a tonic with ice and lemon.

 

That would certainly fix me up pretty well...

[swamiji]

As a general rule, you can easily fix ten rolls of film in one litre of working strength (1+4) rapid fixer by reusing it. At least this is how I do it.

 

Is there any indicator with Zonal Fixer?

[miha]

Is there any indicator with Zonal Fixer?

 

No, fixer has no indicator and Zonal Pro shouldn't be different to any other ammonium based (=rapid) fixer. When in doubt make a simple test called 'Film clearing time' (see page 5): http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/201142795282272.pdf

 

Good luck!

Edited July 26, 2012 by miha

[swamiji]

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When in doubt make a simple test called 'Film clearing time' (see page 5): http://www.ilfordphoto.com/Webfiles/201142795282272.pdf

 

Good luck!

 

Great info, thanks. It's been a while as you probably guessed. At least my Rodinal hasn't turned.

[fotohuis]

You can test the condition of your fixer, amount of saturation of Silver (Ag+) ions, with a 10% KI (Potassium Iodide) solution:

 

10ml fixer on test + 5 drops 10% KI:

When the fixer clears it has not reached the limit of 2g/ltr. Ag+.

When the fixer turns on milky you have reached the limit of your fixer for films and PE/RC papers.

For fiber/baryta papers the archival limit should be 1 g/ltr. Ag+.

 

You have also Tetenal fixer test strips for this, in fact coming from the Machery-Nagel company. They have also a good pH test strips for stop bath and checking the developer buffering system.

 

For most Citric Acid type stop bath an indicator has been build in. pH<5,5 Yellow. When your stop bath is going over pH 5,5 it's turning to a Blue color.

 

Greetz,

 

Robert

[250swb]

Here is an excellent way to test your fixer

 

fixer exhaustion

 

Abide by this and you won't go wrong.

 

 

Steve