Damn water spots...

[Scott --]

Hi, all -

I'm having a hard time with water spotting on drying right now. I have some Arista-branded PhotoFlo coming, and am washing in distilled water from now on. We don't have hard water here, so I'm not sure why the droplets are leaving spots. But there's definitely spots:


So, my question is, how do I get rid of them from the negatives I have? Just rewash and dry? Or are the negatives ruined?

Scott

[BarryS]

Just rewash your negs and you should be fine. You don't have to wash the negs in distilled water, but the final rinse should be in distilled water with a bit of photo-flo. Hard water has a lot of dissolved minerals, but all tap water will have some level of minerals.

[Brad Rippe]

Scott, I use Edwal LFN, not photo flo. Put a few drops in a liter of distilled water and soak the negative for 30 sec, then hang to dry. That should take care of the spots.
-Brad

[fireallconsuming]

denatured alcohol and Q-tips cleans it right up, just be conservative with the alcohol or it'l streak

[Jim Galli]

For future, I had a lot of problems until I started adding sodium hexametaphosphate (calgon) to my last of 8 washes. I save that wash with the additive and pour it in tray with foto-flo to give the negs a final swish in before I hang them up. Works in the dishwasher, and works on your negs. You can get a lifetime supply for a few $$ on ebay, or if you live in town, probably lots of other places too.

[Mystery Jig]

I get very good results with Sprint End Run mixed with distilled water. It has alcohol and that hexa-whatsit stuff in it.

[Sanjay Sen]

As others have suggested, if you wash the negs and rinse in a wetting agent, they should be fine. I have been using Ilford's Ilfotol - for film and paper - from day one and have never had any drying marks. You just need a few drops (1+200 for the Ilfotol) in the final rinse before drying.

[Daniel_Buck]

I've never had problems drying when using Edwal LFN and tap water, I hang dry my negatives overnight. LFN is cheap, maybe pickup a bottle and give it a shot?