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Red Sea Iron Test Kit



Previously I had reported that I got reasonable results when I used 
the Red Sea Iron test kit to test reference solutions of iron I had 
made up. I used ferric sulphate to make these test solutions and I had 
a concern that  that I might not get the same results with a chelated 
iron.  To test if the kit would react to chelated iron I made up some 
reference solutions using liquid Miracle-Gro house plant food  which 
contains 0.10% Fe. All the iron is chelated.   I made solutions of 
0.1, 0.2 and 0.3mg/l. I used tap water to make the dilutions because 
I cannot detect iron in my tap water and I felt tap water would be 
more representative than using DI water. 

 I got very good agreement between the test solutions and colors on 
the test card. The 0.1 soln had an aqua color, the 0.2 a gray color 
and the .3 a light brown color.  One very important point to note is 
that the colors develop very slowly with the chelated iron. The kit 
recommends 10 minutes and I waited 15 min for the colors to fully  
develop.

This kit isn't going to detect the difference between  .08 and 
.13mg/l Fe,  but by my tests it will detect the difference between 
.1,.2 and .3mg/l.  That's all really all the precision that I think I 
need  - not bad for a $5 kit

By the way using the Liquid Miracle-Gro seems to be a simple way to 
make up iron reference solutions.  It only cost $2.27 and I used very 
little of it leaving most of it for my house plants. One precaution I 
did take was to warm the Miracle-Gro slightly and shake it to make 
sure everything was in solution.
Jim Spencer   Sayre, PA
jrs at cyber-quest_co