New Shipping Ideas???

[cntryboi407]

The age old question. How do we ship corals for a great price? I am just wanting to throw this out there and see if there are any ideas of shipping coral/fish that would keep them healthy even if they weren't shipped overnight. I'll will start it off with this idea. I was talking at the LFS and the idea of pumping the bags with nitrogen gas came up and it was considered that could keep the corals living for standard shipping without the price of overnight shipping. Any ideas?

 

[mvm]

I thinnk the biggest problem with corals is temp control over the 2-3 day period.

 

[Harry_Y]

Why nitrogen gas?

 

[CHALICEKEEPER]

I live in florida its 2 hot for that

 

[iani]

What would nitrogen gas do?

 

[cntryboi407]

Why nitrogen gas?

Nitrogen is present in all living organisms and is an essential part of amino acids. It was an idea that had some basis of relation to keeping corals healthy

 

[iani]

But coral need oxygen, not nitrogen. I don't think coral can directly use nitrogen gas. Therefore having nitrogen gas in the bag would do nothing for the coral.

 

[cntryboi407]

But coral need oxygen, not nitrogen. I don't think coral can directly use nitrogen gas. Therefore having nitrogen gas in the bag would do nothing for the coral.

This is true. I tried to think of something that allowed the water temperature to stay the same. The use of heating packs help but maybe some sort of chemical that may react with water and produce a mild heat/temperature effect??

 

[rhdoug]

Corals (not sure about softies) can be shipped wrapped in wet paper towels with no problem. No water = less weight = less shipping costs.

 

[bige11]

Corals (not sure about softies) can be shipped wrapped in wet paper towels with no problem. No water = less weight = less shipping costs.

Now that takes some stones. Tell u what, u send a $500 chalice in paper towels! I'll pay the extra shipping. seriously though, I think it can be done but temp is still an issue.

 

[holdyourlight]

USPS Express is usually $20-$25 for me and i use it all the time. My packages are lightweight usually less than one pound, two pounds max and thats with styro, packing peanuts and heat pack. theres no reason to use alot of water in the bag. the way i pack them its impossible for the coral to get out of water. i use 3x10" bags and then everything is double bagged.

 

[rng_pw]

there was a speaker from florida who came to one of our local reef meetings, his name was James Fatheree. Any way after the meeting he came over to my house and picked up quite a few frags from me. His flight was'nt until the next morning so we just put them in a styro box and then the next day he just soaked a paper towl and wrapped all of the corals in it and flew home. i talked to him about a week later and he informed me that every coral was doing great. I dont think that I would do it mind you but I know someone who has had success with it.

 

[Stray32]

+1 I shipped two boxes yesterday, 5 lbs total for $50 through USPS. One went to Indiana, the other to CT.

USPS Express is usually $20-$25 for me and i use it all the time. My packages are lightweight usually less than one pound, two pounds max and thats with styro, packing peanuts and heat pack. theres no reason to use alot of water in the bag. the way i pack them its impossible for the coral to get out of water. i use 3x10" bags and then everything is double bagged.

 

[benny z]

USPS Express is usually $20-$25 for me and i use it all the time. My packages are lightweight usually less than one pound, two pounds max and thats with styro, packing peanuts and heat pack. theres no reason to use alot of water in the bag. the way i pack them its impossible for the coral to get out of water. i use 3x10" bags and then everything is double bagged.

i have used usps for 4 shipments in the past month and a half. out of those 4 shipments i have had 4 headaches/delays/bad experiences. i will never use usps again.

 

[Stray32]

Never had a problem with them, and I have shipped dozens of times.

 

[holdyourlight]

i have used usps for 4 shipments in the past month and a half. out of those 4 shipments i have had 4 headaches/delays/bad experiences. i will never use usps again.

Wow
i have never had an issue.

 

[ReeferGoalie]

Different corals have different requirements for shipping, depending on their ability to adapt to temp differences, if they slime during shipping, if they actually require water for shipping, etc.

There are lots of corals you can ship something other than overnight. Many softies (Zoanthids, Mushrooms, Ricordea, Capnella, etc.) as well as various LPS (Acans) can survive 2+ days in shipping a lot of the time.

There are also lots of corals that will survive dry shipping (or fare better due to their tendency to exude noxious slime during transport): Xenia, Acros, many anemones (though they may not do very well over a multi-day shipping period).

 

[benny z]

Never had a problem with them, and I have shipped dozens of times.

Wow
i have never had an issue.

i would blame it on my local facility, but this last one was mis-shipped to maryland from texas (was supposed to come to illinois). it arrived 3 days late. trying to get any info/customer service from usps is impossible in this type of situation, which is very frustrating.

i have also received dozens of shipments in the past month and a half from fedex with zero issues. it's worth paying $50 v/s $25 or $35 for me to use fedex from now on. i am done with usps period. if the seller won't ship fedex, i'm not buying from them.

 

[iani]

I've always had issues with USPS myself as well. IME, more than 50 percent of the time the packages are delaying with USPS. I now never ship with usps or get overnight packages using USPS.

 

[myzislow]

i have used usps for 4 shipments in the past month and a half. out of those 4 shipments i have had 4 headaches/delays/bad experiences. i will never use usps again.

yup! usps is the pits. I'll only use them if I'm shipping within the state, and even then I don't like to. I've never had a lost package, or a package arrive in bad condition using nothing but UPS priority overnight service. Sure it's a little more $, but it's worth it.