Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2015/06/23

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Subject: [Leica] Can anyone share hard water, high mineral content darkroom experience?
From: garymarklund at gmail.com (Gary Marklund)
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 2015 19:23:03 -0700
References: <CAFuU78dcaWqoZqVQ9crheEJg75nnyOriSK5r7EC9-_ztUVYv5w@mail.gmail.com> <172CE6201B424289B76D177082AB7B73@OWNERPC>

 We have very hard water here in the desert. I use distilled water for
mixing developer (film and paper) and Photoflo, also toner if I'm doing
that. In addition, I use a filter system for the rest. I looked into an RO
system, but I think it takes about 5 gallons of water for each gallon you
get out of it. Not what I want to do given the general overall water
shortage.

Gary


On Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 4:29 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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Replies: Reply from lew1716 at gmail.com (Lew Schwartz) ([Leica] Can anyone share hard water, high mineral content darkroom experience?)
In reply to: Message from lew1716 at gmail.com (Lew Schwartz) ([Leica] Can anyone share hard water, high mineral content darkroom experience?)
Message from billcpearce at cox.net (Bill Pearce) ([Leica] Can anyone share hard water, high mineral content darkroom experience?)