[M_D]

There is a good chance the baking soda rinse is causing your problem, I would just rinse with good quality water. We dip our racks in a RO water rinse tank for 10-30 seconds, then spray rinse. Baking soda caused us problems like you decribe, once we quit using it 90% of our problems went away. I certainly wouldn't leave it in a strong solution that long.

I almost asked if you were using a soda rinse before, but since there are several other things that could cause the same results I wanted to get more details.

A heated cleaner works faster and more effectively.

The sodium hydroxide etch probably will not help you, if you etch the parts long enough to remove enough material it will dull the part. The etch is good for de-oxidizing the aluminum (much better than the desmut/"de-oxidizer"), and helps to even out a matt finish. If the part is free of oxide and you don't want a flatter finish, it is of little use.

We don't desmut parts that don't have smut, so parts that are buffed or are being anodized with a bright fresh machined finish get pre-cleaned of excessive cutting oil, buffing compound, etc., then dipped in the heated cleaner only for the time needed to make water sheet, rinsed in water, and anodized.