Re: Watering the garden with darkroom water

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>, Paul Butzi <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Ok, I've been extracting the silver from my spent fix for quite a
> while now. (before that, I took the spent fix to a lab, which happily
> took it in and extracted the silver for me).
> But I've been doing nothing special with developer. Should I be, why
> should I be, and what should I be doing?

Developer should not be an issue, My understanding is that
it migrates the silver, or activates it but does not act as a solvent
and remove the free silver ions into its solution
that are left after you decide to stop the process.

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Gregory W. Blank

"Gregory W. Blank" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:WhoWill-(E-Mail Removed)...
> In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
Paul Butzi <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> > Ok, I've been extracting the silver from my spent fix
for quite a
> > while now. (before that, I took the spent fix to a lab,
which happily
> > took it in and extracted the silver for me).
> > But I've been doing nothing special with developer.
Should I be, why
> > should I be, and what should I be doing?
>
> Developer should not be an issue, My understanding is that
> it migrates the silver, or activates it but does not act
as a solvent
> and remove the free silver ions into its solution
> that are left after you decide to stop the process.
>
> --
> Check out My Homepage at
> http://members.bellatlantic.net/~gblank

Developers with a lot of sulfite (D-76, D-23, D-25,
Microdol-X, etc.) do dissolve some halide. If reused the
silver can eventually become a problem, being deposited on
the film in the form of dichroic fog. However, that is
pushing it pretty far. Low sulfite developers, such as print
developers, don't dissolve significant silver.
Most of the undeveloped halide comes out in the fixing
bath.
Silver is a bacteriostat whcih can cause problems with
septic tanks (kills off the bacteria) and can cause problems
with aquatic life for the same reason. It doesn't kill fish
but can indirectly kill off the stuff the fish eat.
--

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
(E-Mail Removed)