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  #1  
Old 19th December 2021, 03:14 PM
John King John King is offline
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Default And the answer is......?

Here is a new on on me. I showing a friend how to print RA4 colour. He has just started using a second hand 10x8 Nova 3 bath tank. (The tank had not been used for several years but heats up as it should). I helped him set it up and showed what to do in my darkroom - then threw him to the wolves!

Full of enthusiasm he set everything up and - failure. The prints were faint no matter what exposure was given and the longer it was in the developer there was no change except to a blue colour cast.

I can only put it down to chemical contamination of the developing slot. We have cleaned it out by many flushes with warm water scrubbed with the NOVA tank cleaner (My lungs may never be the same again!). It is visibly cleaner than a plate my dog has just licked.

There are no leaks from the stop bath slot or the blix into the dev, but still the contamination is there. I have watched him mix new developer from concentrates and no mistakes were made. He even made enough to go in my 12x16 Nova and there it was tried with no problem - so back to what must be contamination.

Is there a neutraliser that can be used to clean out what is in the tank that must be causing the problem. I use domestic bleach to clean my tank out but it hasn't worked with his.
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Old 19th December 2021, 03:59 PM
Terry S Terry S is offline
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John, I'm sure someone with more chemical knowledge than me will pop in with some helpful advise but, in the mean time...

I have read a number of times now, of different people 'de-contaminating' their chemical bottles after use, by filling them with a strong solution of Sodium Carbonate / Washing Soda, which is then left for a while. All that I know, is that it's a alkaline solution, but as said some people seem to swear by it.

Terry S
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Old 19th December 2021, 04:22 PM
Nat Polton Nat Polton is offline
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Have you thought of exposing a sheet of your paper on your enlarger with a previously used good negative.
Then exposing the friends paper on their enlarger with the same negative and filter settings.
Swop the papers and develop in the other persons chemicals.
It should confirm if it is the tank chemicals, or possibly a paper or even a filter fault.

Cheers.
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Old 19th December 2021, 04:40 PM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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I echo Nay try exposing a known good negative on your set up and processing in his nova then repeating it the other way round
Richard
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Old 19th December 2021, 05:04 PM
John King John King is offline
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I forgot to mention we also took a sheet of paper out of the box and exposed it to the room light and developed that. The result was the same, seemingly under developed with an all over pale blue cast. It should have gone within a few seconds to pure black.

The paper - Fuji is not very old, he's just bought it and is stored in a cool part of the darkroom. We did expose a negative onto paper from the same box via my enlarger and used my Nova to process it, it was perfectly normal.

I have some washing soda so we can try that. The NOVA came from FLEAbay so heaven knows what has been through it.

Last edited by John King; 19th December 2021 at 05:14 PM.
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Old 19th December 2021, 05:58 PM
Mike O'Pray Mike O'Pray is offline
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Just a long shot, John but if you shine a bright spot-beam type of torch into the slot, can you see any coloured sheen or material of any sort in the bottom.

When I had serious silver deposits in my slot from fixer the sides were pristine white and bottom looked its usual black or blackish colour which the bottoms are in my Nova but once I shone a powerful torch into it I could see a sort of sheen on the bottom.

This was very stubborn deposits of silver that took literally days to begin to lift and then only by several scrubbings with a dense bottle brush i.e. a few minutes rubbing on each day

Without the help of the torch the bottom being black and 8 inches deep looked perfectly clean in normal daylight or room light

Mike
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Old 19th December 2021, 07:03 PM
Nat Polton Nat Polton is offline
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I am not sure what the result would look like when the RA4 chemicals are put in the wrong order in the tank slots.
My tank is empty at the moment so I cannot check.

Could this be a possible source of the problem.
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Old 19th December 2021, 08:35 PM
John King John King is offline
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No it is not that. The 1st slot is the one for developer and it showed staining typical of developer usage. It is my thinking as the Nova has not been used for quite a while (it isn't mine) it may have been used for B&W and the 1st slot was used for Stop bath and not cleared out when it was drained. Consequently the remaining stop bath has crystallised and it may take a few days soaking with washing soda to counteract the acid of the stop bath.

It is going to be left for a week with repeated daily changes of water/soda to see if that cleans it out. (When I used my NOVA for B&W, the development was done in a tray, but the stop/fix and quick rinse were done in the slots, which is what may have happened in this case.)
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Old 19th December 2021, 08:41 PM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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Another long shot, but could the actual plactic be contanated with something,I have had that happen with something else and it caused all sorts of problems and in the end all I could do was replace the part. Also could the problem lie with the chemical itself I have been sold bad developer which was in date but had problems in manufacture
Richard
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Old 19th December 2021, 10:34 PM
John King John King is offline
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If it is the Nova processor you can't just 'replace' a part the only thing that you can change are the heating elements.

They are made from acrylic sheeting which is chosen because it doesn't absorb anything nasty although they do discolour but that is a by-product from the developer.

The processor is back with it's owner and the soda crystals are in all three slots to be changed daily with the heater on all the time. We will just have to wait and see.
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