I added the required amount of Rittel's Bacteriacide to my solutions.
Today after 36 hours of not stirring one of the vats, I found HUGE immense numbers of mold and bacteria colonies growing on the surface of the solution. At least 500 colonies, probably billions of spores.
What happened?
I did add more Bacteriacide. If this was stupid and I should have added a sterilant or pulled skins, let me know.
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Did you check the ph? I am assuming this is your acid pickle bath, correct? If so that is what happened. I had the same thing happen a few weeks ago. I got lazy and did not stir my skins and found the mold. I lost a very large cape because of it. Another thing is I used a different acid than I normally use. Oxcalic is the one I got the mold with. I have never had a mold grow when usin formic or Safety acid.
Todd B
I was reading about commercial bacteriacides and preservatives, and it appears that most are only effective within the range 3 - 3.5 to like 10.
The pH on this bath is 1.
The mold appeared AFTER acid was added - it was fine the whole time I'd left the skins alone "as-is".
The mold is back today (saw it tonight while running tumbler). This is 24 hrs. AFTER more bacteriacide was added and stirring was done.
It was so hot outside today, 92F, that I did not go in to the tanning area to clean the vat out - it's unbearable (too hard to breathe).
Mold spores & some bacteria have a toxin in them, you don't even have to be allergic to mold and still it gets hard to breathe in a moldy area.
Appears as if this product isn't effective here and now. Maybe I got a bad bottle of the stuff, it's new. The pH is probably breaking it down.
It was also not effective when added to tanning oil for wet tans though. I ended up washing four sour-smelling foxes today. They are ok but they smelled bad until washed.
Other skins have been similarly affected, but they are always ok, just stinky. Washing helps.