shipping corals from warm weather to cold weather

[mfinn]

I may have a small frag pack shipped from a area that is 85 degrees day time temp to my area that is 35 to 40 night time temp.
Do you add a heat pack because of the cold weather on my end? How do you deal with the two temp differences?

 

[Krish]

That's a really good question Martin! Only thing I can think of is have it is shipped in one of those thermal containers/bags that retains the internal temperature. Usually they hold their internal temp pretty good. My little girl uses one for school. You put something cold in it and it stays cold all day. You put something hot in it and it stays hot all day. Maybe have the frag pack packed in that, then put that in a box. Just a thought...I honestly have no idea.

 

[saltwaterfishes]

That's a really good idea krish, my kids do the same.....cold or hot holds temperature.
I'm going thru withdraws not buying online in this cold weather.

 

[mfinn]

One of my very first online buys was from a lady in Florida that shipped me a frag of ppe's and it was in one of those small lunch box thermos containers.
Since then I've had several thermos containers shipped to me with coral frags in them.
I had forgotten about it untill you mentioned that.
Thanks

 

[mfinn]

This shipment is from Puerto Rico.

 

[Krish]

Nice! Atleast their country allows them to export

 

[mcoomer]

This shipment is from Puerto Rico.

Do you have any info on how long it's going to take your frags to get from there to here? Is it possible to overnight them from there? Obviously speed is a good thing when you're shipping frags.

You can buy little styrofoam containers from places that ship seafood but I've got another idea. Pick up some insulating foam sheet and cut pieces to build your own insulated container. Pick up a box that's a bit oversized for your frags, cut the foam to fit the inside dimensions, and tape the seams to hold everything together and prevent gaps. Bag your frags and place them in your new insulated box using packing peanuts to take up any extra space and prevent things from bouncing around. One sheet of that foam would make a lot of boxes and at less than $10 even the average hobbyist can afford to do it.

Mike

 

[user 2204]

When having corals shipped, you always plan on the wost case senario on the receivers end. With that said. I have received corals the begining of this month with a 40 hour heat pack and water was nice a warm when it arrived the next morning.

Remeber that the heat packs are not meant to put out massive amounts of heat through out the transit. They're meant to put out a little heat over a long period of time.

Hope this helps out. Cheers,
Alex

 

[mfinn]

Do you have any info on how long it's going to take your frags to get from there to here? Is it possible to overnight them from there? Obviously speed is a good thing when you're shipping frags.

You can buy little styrofoam containers from places that ship seafood but I've got another idea. Pick up some insulating foam sheet and cut pieces to build your own insulated container. Pick up a box that's a bit oversized for your frags, cut the foam to fit the inside dimensions, and tape the seams to hold everything together and prevent gaps. Bag your frags and place them in your new insulated box using packing peanuts to take up any extra space and prevent things from bouncing around. One sheet of that foam would make a lot of boxes and at less than $10 even the average hobbyist can afford to do it.

Mike

Already have all the how to's and where's worked out. Was just wondering how others dealt with shipping from a very warm area to a cold area with a 40 -50 degree difference in weather.

I just had a frag pack shipped from Florida yesterday that the shipper used a heat pack.

 

[mcoomer]

Another thing to consider is that the inside of a UPS jet isn't real warm. It's not ice box cold but once that jet gets to altitude it's not warm. I'd put a heat pack inside an insulated container.

Mike

 

[mfinn]

Yeah, I'm pretty much convinced it should have a heat pack.
I have had dozens of shipments and never really thought about the two extremes.

 

[user 2204]

Actually all Boeing cargo jets have climate controlled pressurized holds. I know some of the have 2 climate controlled areas. One is for cooler stuff and one is room temps or there abouts.

Here's a couple of helpful links and information.

Cargo Hold Temperature — Tech Ops Forum | Airliners.net

http://agritech.tnau.ac.in/export_import/Air Cargo.pdf