success rate of corals when shipping in the cold?

fast57 · #1 01/22/2007, 10:33 PM

when its around 20 degrees and you need to ship something like zoos what s the guesstimate success rate of survival? I know to use about 3/4 thick foam and a heat pack. I would think that overnighting it would be a must. But woulde there be any other tricks that would improve your chances? Would damp shipping be better then wet??

GO BEARS!!

avshockey311 · #2 01/22/2007, 10:51 PM

I just shipped some shrooms 2 day and they did not make it. That was in a thermos inside and styrofoam cooler with packing and a heat pack.

fast57 · #3 01/22/2007, 11:16 PM

that was 2 day correct? where did you ship them to? i wonder if they would have made the overnight shipping....so what do all these online stores do?....business doesnt just stop in the winter

birdfish · #4 01/22/2007, 11:37 PM

Hi all,

I have shipped from LAX to Spain ~ 55 hrs. transit time with 95% success rate a few years back. Fish and corals. The key was amount of water to avoid ammonia buildup. One thing to remember is that a heat pack generally raises the temp only about 10-20 degrees F inside the box. So when it is very cold you need a couple or three in the box, since it may be left in a truck outside overnight. As for dry or wet on zoos, I would think wet would give you more insulation against the cold, but be worse if it actually got real cold, re-heating would be slower. Depending on type of zoo too, some are deepwater and never get exposed while others live in tidal zones for which it is no issue. In a thermos I'd have thought sure it would be fine! WOW! I'd say overnight and over-heatpack everything when it is this cold out.

birdfish

avshockey311 · #5 01/23/2007, 12:57 AM

That was 2 day I think it was 43 hours. But I thought no problem with all the insulating I did and a large heat pack. Im just waiting until it warms up to do the rest of my shipping.

aquarius77 · #6 01/23/2007, 01:07 AM

I just got zoos from acrossed the nation shipped usps express mail (2-3 days) and they made it and opened up the next day. This was in temps of like 10-30 degrees.

fast57 · #7 01/23/2007, 08:45 PM

so has there been a consensus on which is more reliable wet or damp shipping?

fast57 · #8 01/23/2007, 08:45 PM

hey aquarius ....how were they packed?

homebrewdude · #9 01/23/2007, 11:01 PM

I will be getting 7 fish and some corals shipped overnight from CA to Chicago.
I will find out tomorrow...

DaveJ · #10 01/23/2007, 11:12 PM

I recently purchased a large hammer, med frogspawn and sps combo rock from Dr Macs. I live in Fort Worth and we were having some major cold spells with ice and snow. I delayed shipment a few times to get them in a window where the temp was over 40 degs and requested additional heat packs. Happy to report that all arrived quickly and in good condition and have started to adapt to my tank well. My biggest fear was with the LPS especially the hammer since it was so large. I think if you have continued temps of freezing or below, you should probably avoid purchasing anything because you never know how long things will sit on a runway or in a holding center. I think the key is how well the vendor packs and a bit of luck on the delivery itself.

aquarius77 · #11 01/24/2007, 07:30 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by fast57
hey aquarius ....how were they packed?

They had a large heat pack that was still warm when it got here, the zoas were in a bag with about 1/8 of the bags volume being water. The heat pack and bag with the frag was inside a home-made styrofoam insulating "box" and that was placed inside the shipping box. The temp inside the box seemed cool to me and so did the water in the bag. with a few modifications i might even reuse the styrofoam insulating. I would buy from the guy again and have him ship in extreme weather with no worries, for zoos, i have never had anything else shipped live except chaeto and, all the pods croaked.

HTH

fast57 · #12 01/24/2007, 05:32 PM

no heres another question....On the people that posted so far or other people that have had success was the package shipped overnight or 2 day?...was it Fed ex, UPS, or USPS?

fast57 · #13 01/25/2007, 06:16 PM

anyone....anyone....bueller?...ferris bueller...

DaveJ · #14 01/25/2007, 07:24 PM

Mine were shipped UPS and marked RUSH and Live Animals etc... I just had a bunch of stuff come in from inland aquatics today Fed X and arrived around 9 am... everything was good in there too.

fast57 · #15 01/25/2007, 08:26 PM

was that overnighted..and where did it come from ...and how was it packed?

homebrewdude · #16 01/27/2007, 11:58 AM

My overnight order from UPS
CA to IN

One dead fish..

dcombs44 · #17 01/27/2007, 12:15 PM

I've heard from vendors like liveaquaria, that the heat packs are used more to help slow temp. changes, not so much as to keep the water heated. The main function is to lessen the stress from drastic temp changes in a short time period. If they put too many heat packs in, the water can actually overheat. I would wait until temps go up a bit just to lessen the chances of a DOA.

Rays · #18 01/27/2007, 12:58 PM

Most vendors insist on overnite, 2nd day is not an option, infact most ship overnite express. I've had great service from both UPS and FedEx.

fast57 · #19 01/27/2007, 01:30 PM

homebrewdude, How did everything else look when you first seen it? Is it ok now?

Marsfrogie · #20 01/27/2007, 08:09 PM

I've had a lot of success shiping via USPS Priority for 2 day delivery locations. This has been in very cold weather. I use those disposable rubbermaid containers and then place one heatpack with each rubbermaid container and seal it in a one gallon ziplock bag. I then wrap all of the containers in some foam sheeting and stuff it into the box. Works great.

homebrewdude · #21 01/27/2007, 10:08 PM

Everything is good. Still trying to get the trigger to eat.

My clowns are already hosting the anenome