[Leica] Can anyone share hard water, high mineral content darkroom experience?

[George Lottermoser]

On Jun 23, 2015, at 12:54 PM, Lew Schwartz wrote:

> I've never worked in these conditions. We're drawing from our own well,
> probably high calcium & iron in water. I mix my own developers, but have a
> great source of distilled H20. (Run off from the dehumidifier.) My main
> concern is with washing & the fixer. I got hold of some old style calgon.
> How much would I mix in? I plan to wash negs in the ion filtered well water
> with a final soak in the pure H2O plus wetting agent.
> 
> I haven't tried any of this yet, but soon ....
> 
> Comments? Ideas?

I worked for 25 years with very hard, untreated water, high in minerals, calcium and iron, in my darkroom.

I used commercially distilled water to mix all chemistry.
I used double filtration for wash water;
though always did a final distilled water soak, rinse, soak, rinse, drop of photoflo in final rinse.

Never let the negatives or prints dry with even filtered hard water on them.

Regards,
George Lottermoser 

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