Water marks on negatives

I use only Agfa AXP 25 ASA.

 

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Developer: Rodinal 1:25 for 6 minutes at 68F

Stop developer: water for 1 min at 68-70F

Fixer: Kodafix 1:3 for 3 min at 68F

Wash/Rinse: water at 68-70F

Squezee

Sponge

Hanging in tight closet for 2 hours

 

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Results: everything is perfect, but I get a lot

of water marks and/or spots.

 

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Does anybody knows what to do about the above?

 

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Please suggest.

 

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Thank you people - John

After washing the film, soak in a wetting agent at the recommended dilution (Kodak Photo-Flow or Ilford ILFOSOL) with agitation for 1 minute. Be careful about using a squeegee - you could damage the emulsion. I just hang the film with a weight and let it dry - no spots & our water here is pretty hard. Good luck.

The best way I've found to eliminate water spots on negs is to eliminate the drops of water on the negs before drying. Yes, I mean squeegee them!!! I use a soft sponge squegee (not the rubber kind) and I keep it just barely damp so that it will absorb 95% of the water/photo-Flo mix.

I've never scratched a neg this way and I've been doing it for 15 years. Negs dry quickly this way and I rarely get spots. When I do get them it is usually because I used too much Photo-Flo in the water and the squegee was too wet ( therefore could not absorb enough of the water on the film)

I had this problem too many eons ago. If I squeegeed, I sometimes scratched the negative, and if I used Photoflow, I sometimes got newton rings when I printed with my glass negative carrier. I resoved the problem by finishing my washing of the negatives in distilled water. After washing my negatives in a washer, I returned them, still wound in Nikor reels, to the Nikor developing tank which had been thoroughly rinsed with tap and then distilled water. I then closed the tank, poured in distiilled water, and gave it a short rinse. I followed this with two one minute rinses with agitation just as I did in the developing step. This process removes the tap rinse water which contains salts that cause the negative spotting. After the final distilled rinse, I hang the negatives to dry without touching them. If you want them to dry faster, you can remove droplets of water by dabbing with a small tissue - no wiping!

APX-25 is especially prone to water marks for some reason. It helps

if you let it sit in the photoflo or whatever for several minutes

rather than Kodak's recommended 30 seconds.