Processing Problems

[nray]

I am having trouble finding real distilled water. I have an instrument that measures disolved solids ... The stuff i get from walmart mesures 100 ... tap water mesures 400 bottled water 250 ... true distilled water 0 .... I checked with walmart about there distilled water and said they add minerals for taste.... so how come they sell it as distilled water? because there are no rules or laws that govern water sales. not in florida.... so i am in the search for real distilled water.... Real distilled water dissolves anything... and fast.... for now i have been using the walmart water... 10 - 15 gallons a week.

Make d76 with real distilled water and the chemical dissolves almost as fast as you pour it in..... use tap water and it may never get completely dissolved.
Make sure you use distilled water for the final rinse with photoflo ... very important it stops the crud from forming on the negs...

Hah....thanks for that. Yeah.... my last negative was good, but had smears on it. Using tap water at the end and a bit of some dish soap in the water for final rinse.

[jk0592]

I buy distilled or demineralized water at the local pharmacy, in gallon size. I think it is more to prevent scale formation in some appliances. Anyway it works well.
You should not use soap for final rinse of your negatives. Instead, use photoflo or similar product meant for this specific purpose.

[cyrus]

There really should be no need for distilled water for mixing regular chemicals like fixer and D76

[Pete Watkins]

I know that I'm in a different country and another continent but I use de-ionised water from the local auto spares shop, it's a lot cheaper than distilled over here.
Pete.

[photobymike]

There really should be no need for distilled water for mixing regular chemicals like fixer and D76

Depends on where you live and whats in the water when it comes out of the tap. Some city water is so high with minerals disolved solids that it will not mix anything including instant coffe or cool aid... Our county water registers about 350 on my disolved solids meter... and it has what are called chorimines disolved gas in the water. I is so bad the county does not recommend that your pets drink it. LOL LOL my bird and cats get bottled water... now thats a hoot... anyway.... mixing D76 in distilled water is easy and fast takes less than 5 minutes in room temp water.... that was in distilled water... then when you finish developing your film treat in photoflo but use distilled water because it is clean and will not leave a sludge on your film.... distilled water is one of the most important when developing film. I would bet you have sludge of un mixed chemical on the bottom of your D76 container. If you mix D76 in hot water and cool down ... if it forms crystals on the cap ... your water is to "heavy" with other things disolved in it..... Yea Cyrus i wish there was no need for distilled water, but its his tap water that is at fault here.

Ebay has what is called a TDS (total disolved solids) pen ... its 22 bucks.... there cheap... but well worth the money...... by the way some distilled water sometimes minerals for taste because it is used for baby food formula ect... tru distilled water is hard to find.... i use walmart water ....cheap and has 80 TDS reading....real distilled water has a TDS under 20.....