Mold, Fungus, Mildew, etc.

[marcmarc]

Hi everyone,
I use distilled water for my film processing. I buy the plastic gallon jugs in the super market often 15-20 bottles at a time. Occasionally however, some of these bottles get small tears or rips in them and they leak as they sit outside in my covered car port in the parking garage of my building. So I stopped by Freestlye recently and picked up several plastic gallon containers to pour the water into to keep until it comes time to use it. These are black and made of sturdier plastic so I know they wont leak. However, since I will be keeping water in these for extended periods of time, now I'm wondering if I risk any growth inside the containers like mold or mildew. Remember, these are black so I may not be able to see anything and trying to clean these may be impossible. So are these safe to use for distilled water over long periods of time? The whole point in using distilled water is to avoid any potentially harmful additives that may be lurking in my tap water but that will cancel out if these plastic containers will soon be home to various growths that may result from prolonged water storage. Thanks for replies.

 

[Svenedin]

Micro-organisms like fungi need something to eat and if your water is distilled there is much less risk of that but they can grow on minuscule quantities of nutrients including dust. I too use distilled water and I have never noticed any microbial contamination in open containers (which in my case are the white plastic containers the water was sold in). I don't think you need worry but it would be wise to check before you mix up a batch of your dev, fix or whatever.

 

[AgX]

The plastic jugs that failed are made from clear PE without incorporated UV-protector. They indeed will deriorate in the sun. Sun light protection would be the easiest remedy. (Most simple and cheapest with a tarpaulin.)

 

[jvo]

i use distilled water from the supermarket...i go often enough, i'd buy fewer bottle at a time, less storage issues and deterioration.

 

[shutterfinger]

Get a Pur filter and put it on your tap. Unless you have very bad tap water it will be as good as distilled.

 

[M Carter]

Get a Pur filter and put it on your tap. Unless you have very bad tap water it will be as good as distilled.

I've got an under-sink filter with a drinking faucet - when I started using that, my lith developer spotting problems went away. Seems to be the bomb for everything I mix. (Our water is very rusty here). I still used distilled for film developer if the negs seem like something I'll want to print often or the shoot was difficult.

if you're buying that much distilled, a countertop distiller may be a good idea - they're like $80 and will do a liter or so a day I believe.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Micro-organisms like fungi need something to eat and if your water is distilled there is much less risk of that but they can grow on minuscule quantities of nutrients including dust. I too use distilled water and I have never noticed any microbial contamination in open containers (which in my case are the white plastic containers the water was sold in). I don't think you need worry but it would be wise to check before you mix up a batch of your dev, fix or whatever.

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