Soft or Hard water

[reverend jay]

Forgive me if this has been asked before, but I am about to mix up a new batch of paper chemistry and since I have just had a water softener installed if this is going to be problematic. What's worse?, having the calcium of hard water or the sodium of softened water added to the mix?
thanks

 

[Stefan Findel]

I have not had any problems with softened water. On the contrary, I would prefer it over hard water, which has given me problems when sulfide toning.

 

[winger]

Well, if I were you, I'd have the resulting water tested before deciding. We have well water and a softener system. I was still getting "stuff", so had it tested. The range for soft water is 0-60 mg/l, moderately hard is 61-120 mg/l and hard is considered 121-180 mg/l. Ours (and this is from the tap, after the softener) is 352 mg/l. Which is why I'm using distilled to make my developer and fixer and do the final rinse.

 

[Rick A]

Personally, I mix my developers in deionized (distilled) water. Tap water is okay for stop and fixers, unless its too hard. We used to live in Texas, and I used distilled for every thing. The water was so hard there, that we had to decalsify our coffee maker at least once a week, or it would die. Another option would be a water filtration systen with replacable cartridges. A sediment cartridge is a big help.
Rick

 

[gainer]

During the warm months I have a darkroom dehumidifier that supplies soft water of sufficient purity and quantity. In dry months, I avoid carbonates and use metaborate print developers and TEA or borax in my film developers.