Interesting indeed! I didn't even realize I should be taking a picture after I put a part with zinc soldered aluminum piece into the acid bath. Lemme just say it kinda looked like batteryacid-flavored 7-UP, and my rectifier wasn't even plugged in yet. The zinc instantly started gassing in the acid and was gone in about minutes time.
So I got good news and bad news.
Good News: I now know what happens to the zinc based aluminum welding/soldering material when it is introduced to an anodizing tank.
Bad News: I now need to find out where I can get rid of 5 gallons of battery-acid/water solution and start a new fresh acid bath.
I think what happened is that the acid "ate" the zinc. The zinc has now contaminated the acid and when the aluminum starts its anodization reaction the free-floating zinc can easily find its way in to the Al oxide honey-comb(see picture in previous post. With the zinc impregnated in to the anodic layer the dye basically has no where to go, leaving me with a poorly dyed piece of aluminum ready for a lye bath.
At least while staring at the acid chewing up the zinc I figured out simpler different method for my hard drive coolers pass through tubes. Tap the holes and screw in some nylon npt fittings. Of course that leaves me with raw Al in the tapped holes, but I will etch the old contaminated anodic layer off and and re-anodize.
-mc