I had to reduce a few 4x5 negs from a portrait session that I was obliged to shoot without a meter. I used Ansel Adams's 2-solution approach. The dried negs have little flecks of something randomly embedded in them which is going to make spotting a real chore. Other negs from the same developing batch that were not subsequently reduced are fine.

It's possible that I failed to use distilled water for the two baths, though our own water is usually pretty good. After reduction, per Adams, the negs were freshly fixed for a couple of minutes (Ilford rapid fix), washed, and soaked in distilled water with Photoflo.

I'll certainly use distilled in the future, should the need arise again. But is there something in the simple reduction chemistry (bath one ferricyanide, bath two, sodium thiosulphate) that might exacerbate something in the town water to cause this problem?

Thanks.