Tantalum cap help

[R.G.]

i believe that you can use an aluminum electrolytic in place of a tantalum electrolytic .... just match the capacitance value and the voltage rating ... ( you can always use one that's rated at a higher voltage )

Yes, you can. However, if the circuit needs the low ESR that tantalum gives you, it won't work as well.

I would just wire it to a battery and leave it to pop somewhere safe of course, (if it's the wrong way) this way you will know for the rest of the caps which lead is which.

That makes the presumption that the kinked lead or the printing is really consistently a marker for the polarity. If they aren't, then you're still going to have 50% fallout if they're random.

However, for a limited number, you can also connect them to a battery one by one and mark them individually the way that they didn't blow up.