Anode Corrosion

[XK120DHC]

Guess I did a dumb thing.. I left my Zinc Anode plates in the rinse water the last time I plated (it's been "a while"!).. Today, upon inspection, I saw that my Zinc Anodes are covered in a white corrosion.. These were new zinc anodes and one even has a 3/16" dia hole erroded thru it..
I thought it would be okay to leave the zinc anodes in distilled water.. the time before this, when I plated, I washed, rinsed and dried off the zinc anodes and a "black something" grew on the surface.. It was a bear to clean off..
So, cleaning them doesn't help, leaving them in distilled water doesn't help.. What should I do?
And how can I clean off this white corrosion?

[KCV6]

The white corrosion is "white rust". This is what happens to zinc if it is left damp. best bet is to scour it with a scotchbrite or equivalent dish washing scouring pad in warm tap water back too reasonably clean zinc then rinse and dry. It does not have to be perfect.

Cheers... Mark

[XK120DHC]

Mark;
Thanks for the reply..
I just knew I had ruined a good set of anodes.. they really looked bad!
I did scrub off the "big chunks", but because the underlying appearance was so ugly I believed they were so much junk..
I'll clean them , dry them and store the "properly" from now on..
Thanks, again.

[KCV6]

Charles, don't feel bad about it I think most of us have done the same thing at one time or another, well I certainly have and not that long ago (last month) .

So I take it the plates were cactus once you removed most of the loose stuff?

Cheers... Mark

[XK120DHC]

So I take it the plates were cactus once you removed most of the loose stuff?

Cheers... Mark

Mark;
No, not "cactus", but a butt-ugly combination of gray & black sploches..
I just "hit the high spots" as I really didn't have time to scrub them properly, plus "Ol Arthur" was giving my hands fits. I plan on "gittin' sirrus" on the plates this weekend. Other than that one small hole, I don't know if they are salvageable or not.
In any case, I ordered another pair of zinc plates.. just in case. The new ones WON'T stay submerged, for any reason