It is often used as a tracer dye within water to determine the rate and direction of flow and transport.

Rhodamine dyes fluoresce and can thus be detected easily and inexpensively with instruments called fluorometers.

Although highly soluble, this formulation is very corrosive to all metals except stainless steel.

[1] Butanol (40 g/L), ethanol (80 g/L), methanol (400 g/L), propanol (15 g/L), MEG (50 g/L), DEG ( 100 g/L), TEG (100 g/L), isopropanol (15 g/L), ethoxyethanol (25 g/L), methoxyethanol (50 g/L), dipropylene glycol (30 g/L), PEG (20 g/L).

[5] The dye has a remarkably high photostability, high fluorescence quantum yield (0.95[6]), low cost, and its lasing range has close proximity to its absorption maximum (approximately 530 nm).