Mix chemicals just before use or put in to storage?

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Wilson
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I have stopper and fixer concentrates. Can I dilute them and put into storage to save me the hassle of creating the dilutions before each processing session?

Ilfostop says concentrate will keep for 5 yrs in full airtight bottles or 12 months in half full tightly capped bottles. But has a working strength of 7 working days. Does this mean when I dilute them and put them into storage it will not last very long?
 
You don't mention whether your processing film or paper, I hand process all my black and white material, and for film use one shot dev, the fixer and stop at working strength seem to keep well enough, they are decanted back into storage, with anti oxidant spray etc. For the paper side, I use nova 10*8 and 16*12 deep slot processing systems, with float.

The chemistry seems to keep well enough, although the dev gets replaced after each session, and topped up durring processing
 
some stop bath chemicals ( all ? ) have an indicator in them , when they are exhausted they change colour , the ones ive used turn from yellow to purple ,,,as for fixer with regards to film ,cut off a piece of leader from the film and immerse a part of it in the fixer and time it ,the film should have gone clear in less than half the time given to fix the film .that is if the fixing time is three minute the film leader should have gone clear in under one and a half minutes . look for clearing time on google or wikiwotsit , im sure there will be something there about it .
 
Don't use a stop, but I mix fixer in a 2 litre container, I don't even throw used fixer away it goes back in the bottle, except if its Kodak film, I flippin hate pink fixer...:shake:
If I'd to place a time/quantity limit (and I'm only guessing), I'd say a 2 litre mix does 25 rolls of 120 or 3 months...or both.
I did exhaust my fixer mix once, whether it was quantity of film fixed or the time it was in the bottle, I dunno.
Whatever, I just mixed some fresh and re-fixed the film that failed...came out fine.
 
and whats wrong with girlie fixer ?
 
I dunno, its more than that, Kodak in general has let me down a few times, me and Kodak just don't get on.
I like to keep things clean, and emptying pink into my nice clear fixer....grates.
So its a pathological dislike of Kodak, with no solid foundation.....:thinking:

Bugger, I just remembered I have 50 rolls of Kodak 320TX...wtf...:shrug:
 
back to the kodak for now then john !
 
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