Don't throw away your darkroom fixer, replenish it! 

Thank you. This makes the Ilford instructions clear (pun intended).

This is fantastic, I've been clip testing my fixer for decades, but when my working stock fails the 50% of fix-time point I've always thrown it out and mixed a whole new bottle. Obviously that stops today. I don't know how or why I've never fully read the instrux (in fairness film chem data sheets are far from the only written instructions I've ignored in life) but I've wasted many gallons, then many litres of fixer and $$ over the years. I've consumed tons of film dev and darkroom content over the years and this is literally the first time I've seen how simple the fixer replenishment process can be. As long as you make videos I'll be watching them - big thanks!

That is so true and very easy to check. I never undestood those who just throw away an old fixer batch without first testing it.

Jim: thanks for this. Your videos are easy to understand and useful.

Jim: thanks for the informative video and a reminder that you can replenish fixer. Back in the early 80s I was involved in an E6 lab in London. We used to run the old fixer through a special device that collected the silver content, that is in the fixer. It was then picked up and sent away to a company who used to extract the silver and send us a cheque for some hundreds of pounds. I’ve just finished building my dark room. I don’t plan on putting through the volumes of film that we used to process at the lab. I will be processing black-and-white film and if my memory serves me correctly transparency film yields more silver due to the different process?

Hi @jsollowsphotography. Thank you so much for this video, this is the only resource I could find on the internet explaining the replenishment section of the Rapid Fixer TDS. I still have some confusion regarding what's on the TDS and hope you could explain it. On page 3 of the TDS it says for "Replenishment of Working Strength Fixer: 45ml/135-36". Is 45ml supposed to be the minimum amount of newly mixed working strength solution added to the existing working strength solution, or is this how many rolls to expect to fix when replenished. From your video I'm thinking it's the former, since it sounds like you're able to fix more than one roll when you replenish using 50ml of working solution. How many rolls would you estimate you can do between replenishment? Thanks again for this video, it's very well done and has just the information I needed

Very informative! Thanks

This is awesome! Thanks!!! I am just getting back into film after 33 years. I was surprised that most people now seem to throw out stop bath and fixer after every use. I couldn't remember exactly, but i always thought that i reused those a lot. The Developers i kind of remember throwing out, maybe the print developer less? I will be using your method here! Stupid question, where do yuu get the film pieces? Should i just sacrifice a roll of fresh film and cut it up? Thanks fir your videos, simple, easy to understand, on really helpful topics, and nicely filmed.

Thanks for this information. How much working solution do have for film development? I have a one gallon jug of working solution 1:4 that I use for film and paper. How much replenishment would you add for a gallon?

Thanks for the video. My problem is that I am getting a lot of black I am guessing silver salts floating around in the fixer. Do you somehow filter your working solution from time to time?

Thanks for explaining the process but didnt you mean 'replenish' the (old) fixer by adding fresh fixer at a ratio of 1:9 instead of using (as mentioned in the video) a ratio of 1:4 which is what you would use when mixing an entirely new solution.

Does this technique work for the Ilford Rapid Fixer for prints as well?!i am planning to use Ilford Rapid Fixer for both film and prints, but to have sperate batches for each. Is that correct? And can the print batch be replenished the same? Thanks!