Justin!(posted 8507 days ago)I also got tired about all those water spots on my negatives so finally I took the step to use a very fine sponge. I haven't seen any harm to my negatives. No scratches. But I also decided to try to rinse in "cold" water whitch I do by gradually (in a couple of minutes) lower the temperature from 20 C (70 F) down to about 14 degrees C. This may help to make the emulsion a little bit harder. I also use a hardener fixer. From now on I have so far now problems with my negatives. And I think that I can be pretty violent when using the sponge. My recommendation is that you make a test. Take one roll of film and use the sponge in different ways on different parts of the roll and try to find out how violent you can be. /Lars