Washing Film - Best Environmentally Friendly Way to Do It?

[Photo Engineer]

I remember reading an earlier thread that recommenced two test, not just one. Made sense for me.

"And, the use of the silver nitrate test for hypo and silver sulfide for silver is a good pairing of tests to check the quality of the wash."

http://www.apug.org/forums/forum37/3...ch-out-11.html

I do not remember who made that statement, but it is prudent advice. A test for HQ and Metol might be warranted as well. In any event, you may note that Bill and I are banned from that thread. I am loathe to continue any discussion along these lines.

PE

[dancqu]

OK, so it's whether, not weather. Dan

[jnanian]

thanks fotch,

i really forgot what a train wreck of a thread that was.

[eli griggs]

I don't use a chemical stop-bath for film or paper, so when processing film, I change the tank water by fill-and-dump six times between developer and the fix and use the Ilford Method for a final wash.

I prepare my wash water ahead of development by keeping gallon jugs of tap water with the prepared solutions and distilled water I use for mixing and processing, thus everything is in the same temperature range. This also means I am not running water while processing and a small, two reel steel tank can be processed with less than two gallons of tap water.

If I needed to use distilled water only, I'd use the Ilford Method for both washes and reduce wash-water usage to under a gallon. I believe distilled water is currently 54¢ a gallon at WalMart.

I use TF-4 fixer to reduce print wash times, as well as a wash aid, if doing paper base and I'm using a low-flow, battery-box 'archival' washer with the outlet feeding a common tray washer for an initial first rinse.

Eli

[dancqu]

I don't use a chemical stop-bath for film or paper, so when processing
film, I change the tank water by fill-and-dump six times between
developer and the fix and use the Ilford Method for a final wash.

Between the developer and fix, six changes of water. And myself,
none. That goes for paper as well, no stop. I've only had good
results from doing so. I attribute the good results from the
use of very dilute one-shot fixer. Dan

[dancqu]

I call it the Alternate Two Tray Still Water Diffusion Method.
THE LEAST water way to wash. See my just previous post
this thread. Fred Picker endorsed. Dan

I've repeated above only the last paragraph of my post 80 this
thread. Although the developer may be of any usable strength
the fixer used with the processing method I detailed is used
one-shot. The very dilute fixer is down the drain after one
or a few same time processed prints. That adds a little
to the method's overall use of water.

The volume of fixer used must be a multiple of the number
of prints same time processed in order to maintain the
fixer's silver levels within 'archival' levels.

With one shot developer, single tray processing is possible.
With one shot very dilute fixer a single fix yields 'archival'
results. With fresh chemistry each or a few prints same
time processed there is no carry forward build up of
chemistry. I've found no need for a stop bath of
any sort. All in all some big Pluses, +++. Dan

[John W]

The very dilute fixer is down the drain after one
or a few same time processed prints.

Perhaps I'm missing something, but dumping used fix seems... counter-productive, especially in a thread focused on water-conservation. If I understand correctly, all the unexposed silver from all the prints you process goes down the drain instead of through some form of silver-recovery. Why is this a good idea...?

[CBG]

... A test for HQ and Metol might be warranted as well. ...

I'm curious, how does one test for HQ or Metol?

C

[Photo Engineer]

IDK. I think there probably is one for HQ, as one oxidation product is bright green. I'll give it some thought.

PE

[Anscojohn]

IDK. I think there probably is one for HQ, as one oxidation product is bright green. I'll give it some thought.

PE

*****
Pardon, all, if I missed a point by reading the first few posts then skipping to the end. But I did notice one thing that was not made explicit early on: and what ye olde lab ratz taught me----take the film, or the prints, out of the water before you dump the water. That way, one is not redepositing some of the fixer back on. That's the way I have always done it, when not using a steady wash stream. Of course, I am fully ready for all the experts to tell me why the old guys who did this were wrong.