Negative fixer storage

[will965]

At school there is a big bottle with ready diluted fixer but when i develop films at home i dilute it eery time and then chuck it out. Can I just mix all my fixer at once and keep it in a bottle? If so can i reuse it each time I develop a film, and also how long should it last like this?

 

[oriecat]

You should get some hypo-check and that will tell you when the fixer is exhausted. Theres no reason to chuck it each time, you are just wasting what is probably still good fixer.

 

[Hertz van Rental]

The manufacturer should give guidlines as to how many prints or films can be fixed for a given amount. Read the leaflet that came with the fix.
Using a stop bath prior to fixing will prolong the life of the fix.

 

[PreludeX]

it my school if we throw out the fixer you get in big trouble.. even at the art institute of seattle its very useful for a week or more

 

[ksmattfish]

When fixing film I reuse old fixer until it won't clear the film in a reasonable amount of time (less than 10 min). You can see the effect with film, and if the fixer is no good, you can always re-fix with fresh stuff.

With prints it's important to monitor the quality of the fixer, as you won't know if you've failed to fix the print properly until some time passes (possibly years). I use fresh fixer for my prints, and save the older stuff for film.