How to ship?

juicemonkey · Jan 14, 2010

I have a friend that is going to ship me some frags, need to know how and logical prices? Can anyone help?

cykenp · Jan 14, 2010

Find the smallest cooler that can fit all your frags, bag them up as close to shipping as possible, ship it priority next day, (FedEx is usually by 10:30 delivery depending where you live). Rates will depends on location from and to. Just go on their website and type in your zip codes to find out. Anywhere between 25 to 55 bucks. Don't know about UPS. And for now, make sure you put some heat packs depending on the size of your cooler. If you can, I'd wait til the weather is decent where you are.

mr_X · Jan 14, 2010

i wouldn't use the smallest container you can find. heatpacks heat up. if the box is too small, they will overheat the water before they do any good.
if you are within a 3 or 4 hour drive, ups ground(and probably fedex ground) is overnight for about 10-15 dollars. they have specific zones which can be double checked by going to a ups store or calling them.

there are calculators on the major shippers' websites to estimate shipping.
i've shipped hundreds of boxes with all three (ups, usps, and fedex) and have found them all to be about the same for reliability.
usps is the cheapest, and they allow live coral shipments.

overnight in this weather, with at least 1 heatpack. i use 2 in the winter, a 20 hour and a 40 hour (the different term heatpacks have different peak points).

i use a styro lined 12 x 12 x 10 box for small amounts of coral, and fill any voids with packing peanuts(make sure you don't use the biodegradable ones, water dissolves them). i just shiped a few pieces the other day and the water arrived at the destination only 4 degrees lower than it left. that's awesome in this cold!

Stray32 · Jan 14, 2010

mr_X said:
i wouldn't use the smallest container you can find. heatpacks heat up. if the box is too small, they will overheat the water before they do any good.
if you are within a 3 or 4 hour drive, ups ground(and probably fedex ground) is overnight for about 10-15 dollars. they have specific zones which can be double checked by going to a ups store or calling them.

there are calculators on the major shippers' websites to estimate shipping.
i've shipped hundreds of boxes with all three (ups, usps, and fedex) and have found them all to be about the same for reliability.
usps is the cheapest, and they allow live coral shipments.

overnight in this weather, with at least 1 heatpack. i use 2 in the winter, a 20 hour and a 40 hour (the different term heatpacks have different peak points).

i use a styro lined 12 x 12 x 10 box for small amounts of coral, and fill any voids with packing peanuts(make sure you don't use the biodegradable ones, water dissolves them). i just shiped a few pieces the other day and the water arrived at the destination only 4 degrees lower than it left. that's awesome in this cold!