Reef Boarding

[yellow dog]

Hey all,

I am moving to the Bay area in August and I have a question for all you local reefers. I am looking at fed ex'ing the livestock from my 65G reef tank (won't part with it because some the corals are fairly rare and have been with me for a long time) from the midwest. I need a recommendation as to a lfs that would receive my livestock shipment and be able to board it (for a fee of course) for a couple of weeks until I am able to set up my tank. I am especially looking for a place that has the right equipment and that is completely trustworthy. Thanks in advance!

[dsb1829]

Yeah, that is a pretty tall order. You may find a store to do it, but you are basically asking them to risk introducing disease or parasites into their system. I don't think that I would run that risk if I were a store. Also, I am sure you would want to hold the store responsible if one of their employees dosed the tank with something that killed some of your corals. There is just too many variables that spell trouble for a store to get involved.

If it were me I would do it a bit differently. I would get my tank moved to your new home while leaving your livestock in rubbermaids or something. Once the tank was in place and ready I would ship the livestock using the airport. I have heard this route only takes about 6hrs instead of the 12-13hr for fedex. You could either fly with your livestock or find a trusty friend or lfs employee to box up your livestock and send it to you. I understand that this route is a bit more complicated, but not really. It also keeps your reliance on others to a minimum.

$.02

:smokin:

[yellow dog]

Thanks for the reply Doug. My main concern in finding a LFS to board would mainly be that they have a reef set up (proper lights etc) to hold my corals and that they are trustworthy in the sense that my corals don't end up for sale etc. (like I said some of my stuff took me a long time to get), but definitely not looking to hold them liable for stuff that is DOA or dies while boarding. If there is any place people can recommend I'd love to hear it. Doesn't seem like a bad proposition for a LFS, particularly since I'll need to completely outfit a new tank when I get out there. Worst case scenario is that I leave them with my LFS to be shipped a few weeks later.