shipping of large pieces

[CoralWealth]

well I bought both a Red Planet mini colony and also a mari piece as I sold some frags locally and some equipment I wasnt using.

Man do I have the worst luck, the first Red Planet was completely dead when it arrived. So I got a refund and ordered from someone else and now this one arrived RTNing and I am sure it will be 100% dead by the time I get home from work

Well the mari, it was also RTNing when it showed up and was completely RTNed within the coral and I got a replacement. This one is also not looking the best, I didn't see RTN when I put it in the tank but I had to rush back to work. However it had 0 PE and it was very very stressed out.

The only thing that I think all of these had in common was there was no heating pack in the any of the boxes (I know it is warm outside) but this is the only thing that I could think of that is causing this to happen. All the bags also smelled sooo bad when I opened them.

The corals were so stressed that I could not even dip them so I know it is nothing on my end, especially since all of them were already RTNing in the bag.

Is the success rate of shipping big pieces really this bad or is my luck just awful? Luckily I am working with very nice people and they have been grateful to give refunds or replacements. I also feel just as bad for them as I do for myself as obviously they are losing out too.

I have been excited to get these pieces as my tank has been doing the best it ever has lately and I almost have coralline covering everything and I have to scrape it off my glass almost daily so I know my tank is ready for big pieces and not just frags. However the shipping luck with these 4 pieces is really making me never want to order another large piece unless I can pick it up in person.

Even if the latest mari survives, it is going to take MONTHS for it to get color back

 

[BoomCorals]

Just curious... Were these from vendors or hobbyists? RTN before arrival usually means something was wrong from the start, or went wrong during transit. Either the coral was already stressed, or in transit got too hot/cold, not packed well, etc. (currently there is nowhere in the US that I'd ship and use a heat pack, it simply isn't cold enough) Corals can handle colder temps but not hot. 85F is death, yet high 60s will often be fine for most.

As to success rate of shipping big pieces, I actually just sold a whole bunch of colony sized pieces to people here on the forums, and only had one incident, even though the coral showed up healthy and were ok for a day or two. Couldn't really nail down a cause on that one, it's possible it was something extreme in transit, or an issue in acclimation, but I did refund it regardless.

How old is your tank? Was it started with dry or live rock? Are you monitoring parameters regularly?

 

[CoralWealth]

Just curious... Were these from vendors or hobbyists? RTN before arrival usually means something was wrong from the start, or went wrong during transit. Either the coral was already stressed, or in transit got too hot/cold, not packed well, etc. (currently there is nowhere in the US that I'd ship and use a heat pack, it simply isn't cold enough) Corals can handle colder temps but not hot. 85F is death, yet high 60s will often be fine for most.

As to success rate of shipping big pieces, I actually just sold a whole bunch of colony sized pieces to people here on the forums, and only had one incident, even though the coral showed up healthy and were ok for a day or two. Couldn't really nail down a cause on that one, it's possible it was something extreme in transit, or an issue in acclimation, but I did refund it regardless.

How old is your tank? Was it started with dry or live rock? Are you monitoring parameters regularly?

Both vendors and hobbyist. They are packed really well, no broken branches or anything just RTN in the bags.

My tank is going on a year old, it has nothing to do with my tank as they arrived RTNing already in the bags. I started with dry rock and I have corraline growing over everything. I monitor my params all the time, including alk daily that i keep stable at 7.5. But like I said it has to do with the shipping but I do not see anything they could have done differently which is why this is really getting on my nerves as it sucks seeing these pieces arrive dead without a chance in hell. Even when I cut them up and cut over an inch from where th last RTN was, the rest of the coral will be dead within a hour or two.

Every bag arrived smelling so disgustingly bad, the corals also smelled so bad I could not stand it.

These are very well known hobbyists and vendors too who specialize in this, it really just looks like the coral gods dont want me to start with a colony. they want me to continue staring at my 60 frags and mini colonies haha.

 

[BoomCorals]

The questions about your tank were just questions, not that it had anything to do with a coral arriving already RTN'd. Leads us back to either something in transit or the corals were stressed already for some reason or another when shipped. Sometimes these things happen, and it sucks.

 

[CoralWealth]

The questions about your tank were just questions, not that it had anything to do with a coral arriving already RTN'd. Leads us back to either something in transit or the corals were stressed already for some reason or another when shipped. Sometimes these things happen, and it sucks.

Oh yeah I know! I just wanted to get that out there too.

I can really rule out that something was going on with the corals before shipment because there are from good people who wouldnt ship a coral that wouldnt make it. It has to be something in shipment which is why I am just confused on how all 4 packages could arrive this bad. Like I said all were very well packaged which is why I am at a lost.

Has to be in transit somehow, all were shipped this week and in the past two days. The only thing that they all had in common is they didnt have a heat pack and went UPS. I know you said you wouldnt use a heat pack either so I am sure thats not it, just crazy how all 4 arrived like this.

Has anyone else have a coral arrive that literally smelt worse then a dead fish? Like the bag was so bad that when I opened it by the tank that I had to open all the windows in the room to not gag on the smell, this was the same with all 4 bags too. Then for some reason I decided to smell the coral and dang were they bad. I did it with the first one that I knew was dead when I received it so I did it with all the corals as I knew it was a good factor on if they were completely dead or what. I also compared the smell to a large coral in my tank and the coral in my tank just smelled like normal saltwater, so now I know that is a good factor to see what kind of shape the coral is in haha

 

[jda]

Colonies are hard. Hard to take care of, hard to ship, hard to acclimate to their new home. Some people are good at it.

I don't want to start a war, but I will not buy any wild/mari colonies that are more than a week away from the trans-shipper and will never buy them when kept under LEDs for any amount of time. I want them as close time-wise to the ocean environment as possible and DO NOT want them in some wholesaler or LFS tanks with less light than they were getting or I will give them (I have the same rule with clams). Colonies also can suffer under inadequate and shadowy LEDs where frags can do OK. One of the LFSs that I just saw today is lighting wild and mari colonies with a pair of Kessils 700s hung 30" over a 6x3 frag flat - those are dying by the hour. Again, this is just me and not going to start a light war, so take it for what it is worth. Plus, with big-time shops, they chop up the good wild ones so the ones that they sell you are just so-so (usually) - mari are different since everybody has seen nearly all of those.

Hobbyist colonies are different, but I still have some rules, but mostly around their reputation.

Dead snails smell even worse than dead corals.

I have had acros get into the mid 60s and come out OK - they bleach, but they come back. I always shoot them with a temp gun when I get them so that I can report back to the shipper if there are problems.

If you want to try some colonies, get a box shipped to you filled with Fiji or Aussie stuff. You will get some duds. You will get some nice ones. They are a lot of work, but they are also the healthiest this way, IMO. They can be really cheap this way too. This is usually not for the faint of heart.

 

[BoomCorals]

Just to counterpoint, I've never had maricultured and wild have any more or less problems under LED vs halide etc, or any light for that matter. We have enough data from people like Dana Riddle and others to know that the type of light doesn't matter.

 

[jda]

I am seriously not trying to argue, but this is an amount thing, not a type thing. They are different, and it matters. If you have not seen some shops, wholesalers and distributors cut down on light to save money knowing that they will move pieces anyway, then you are not paying attention. They all choose LEDs since they cannot turn down a halide, but the choice is the problem, not the panels. There are plenty of good places who do it right, yourself included, but I cannot take that chance unless I know them, so I avoid most of them... it is not worth the risk.

I will argue with you on another thread that shadows from the different types of light matters a whole lot, especially with colonies.

 

[Scorpius]

I've had two issues buying coral online. One was near single digit temps and the other was a heat pack mistakingly added during early summer. Other than that I've had good success with online vendors. WWC and UniqueCoral is where I do my business.

 

[CoralWealth]

I wont name the hobbyists I got the Red Planets from or the Vendor where I got the mari from but they are all VERY respectable and I have ordered from them in the past, just not big pieces like this.

Which is why I was wondering if this is common or just completely bad luck for shipping this week.

 

[BoomCorals]

I am seriously not trying to argue, but this is an amount thing, not a type thing. They are different, and it matters. If you have not seen some shops, wholesalers and distributors cut down on light to save money knowing that they will move pieces anyway, then you are not paying attention. They all choose LEDs since they cannot turn down a halide, but the choice is the problem, not the panels. There are plenty of good places who do it right, yourself included, but I cannot take that chance unless I know them, so I avoid most of them... it is not worth the risk.

I will argue with you on another thread that shadows from the different types of light matters a whole lot, especially with colonies.

Ah I think I get what you're saying. I didn't quite understand from the first post, but I see your point now! I agree with you on that.

 

[jda]

If you were to poll even the best, they would probably all tell you that colonies are the hardest. ...and some of it is luck. ...so common and luck?

Be careful with mari stuff... that is where most of the AEFW, nudis and other pests come from. If they have acro crabs in them still, then the previous stops did not dip them well enough to kill the pests. I have never personally seen pests on wild colonies, but I know that they exist.