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

[billcpearce at cox.net (Bill Pearce)]

Mine didn't make a dent in my water bill, but that's my ex-wife's problem 
now. I don't know how toxic what comes out is, I was treating water from a 
municipal supply, and our nation has become one of idiots, the only people 
who believe municipal water supplies are unhealthy are people trying to sell 
you something. I washed in tap water, and mixed photo flo with RO water. 
Well water, of course is another thing. I do know the RO machine did 
occasionally make a dribbling noise as it discharged into the drain, but 
that was infrequent. Can't possibly imagine the five for one business is 
even close to correct.
-----Original Message----- 
From: Lew Schwartz
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2015 12:17 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] Can anyone share hard water, high mineral content 
darkroom experience?

We supply our own water from our own well. These ro units seem fairly
inefficient + problem getting rid of waste with concentrated toxic stuff
might hurt our septic system.


-Lew Schwartz

On Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 7:29 PM, Bill Pearce <billcpearce at cox.net> wrote:

> most home centers sell home RO machines, and they are fairly inexpensive,
> shouldn't be nearly expensive as most of your other stuff, around here
> about $300. They produce well filtered water with lots of bad stuff taken
> out, and as a bonus, you can use them to feed an icemaker in your
> refrigerator. Can't make enough for flowing water in a washer, but if you
> use water baths, it should be good. Great for chemical mixing. I always
> filled some old milk jugs at off times to keep plenty on hand.
>
> -----Original Message----- From: George Lottermoser
> Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2015 2:02 PM
> To: Leica Users Group
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Can anyone share hard water, high mineral content
> darkroom experience?
>
>
> 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
>
> http://www.imagist.com
> http://www.imagist.com/blog
> http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist
>
>
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