- Location
- NY
I'd like to relate an experiment that I conducted this week.
As many of my fellow MR members have done, I've traded frags with folks around the country. Well I've been dabbling a bit lately in selling some frags, also around the country.
I met a guy on another board, nano-reef dot com that wanted to buy three frags from me. Pink Birds Nest, ORA A. Tort & Monti Dig. He asked me if I can ship to him overnight Express. I checked the USPS website with both of our zip codes and it said only Post Office to Post Office (10am guaranty). I informed him that I could not guaranty door to door. He let me know he was located only 6 miles from the Mexican boarder and he doesn't get door to door from anyone in less than two days.
With this information, I agreed to ship PO to PO overnight guaranty. I added a twist to it. I asked if he had a digital camera. He said he did. I asked if he'd be willing to conduct a shipping experiment and document it with photos for me. He agreed.
The experiment was that I was to ship him the three above corals in the standard way, double bagged in water. However, I wanted to try an Eric Borneman and Anthony Calfo endorsed method as well. I wanted to ship him one each frag of the A. Tort and the Monti Dig. free of charge. I chose those two because they are heavy slimers and the Birds Nest isn't.
The theory postulates that these corals slime heavily because they are exposed to air during the day for sometimes up to 6 hrs and the slime coat is a UV protection that keeps the coral moist as well. The shipping method is to saturate a paper towel and wrap the frag in it. Then place the frag in a sealed plastiic bag to create 100% humidity.
Well I packaged everything up on Wednesday for Thursday delivery to his post office. I double bagged the frags in water, wrapped the frags in wet paper towels, enclosed all bags in a larger bag, put them in a reusable Coleman Cooler (instead of cardboard with styrofoam), surrounded the corals with styrofoam, added a heat pack, and went to the post office.
Here's where the fantastic journey actually starts. I like to get my shipments into Express mail as close to 5pm as possible to shorten the shipping time as much as possible. When I got to the post office, the clerk said they can't guaranty any less than two day shipping! I explained what their website said and she consulted with the postmaster directly with me. They said the websites have been known to be incorrect. They also said it was possible to get there overnight, just no guaranty.
I had no choice at this time, I commited to the guy in Tx and off it went. Well the delivery did not get there yesterday the way I had hoped. At that time I spoke to the Tx dude and explained everything. He was very cool and said that's what is expected in deep south Tx. Obviously at this point I was not thrilled of the prospect of having the corals die.
Well this morning he calls me and tells me that the PO called him and said the cooler arrived. He took pix, which I haven't gotten yet, and said EVERYTHING I packed survived the two day shipment! We were both ecstatic. I actually didn't realize that I was as good a shipper as that :thrash:
The corals in the water were probably in a toxic soup from sliming for almost 40 hrs of shipping, in 90 degree south Tx heat no less. And the frags wrapped in paper towels I'd have figured would have just died from lack of submersion.
The experiment was a success in shipping in saturated paper towels. This translates into lower shipping costs (salt water weighs 8.5 lbs per gallon) and healthy corals on the other end!
I will post his pix as soon as I get them for all to see. He actually said the A. Tort was as purple as can be.
I hope this little experiment goes a long way for all of us.
Russ
As many of my fellow MR members have done, I've traded frags with folks around the country. Well I've been dabbling a bit lately in selling some frags, also around the country.
I met a guy on another board, nano-reef dot com that wanted to buy three frags from me. Pink Birds Nest, ORA A. Tort & Monti Dig. He asked me if I can ship to him overnight Express. I checked the USPS website with both of our zip codes and it said only Post Office to Post Office (10am guaranty). I informed him that I could not guaranty door to door. He let me know he was located only 6 miles from the Mexican boarder and he doesn't get door to door from anyone in less than two days.
With this information, I agreed to ship PO to PO overnight guaranty. I added a twist to it. I asked if he had a digital camera. He said he did. I asked if he'd be willing to conduct a shipping experiment and document it with photos for me. He agreed.
The experiment was that I was to ship him the three above corals in the standard way, double bagged in water. However, I wanted to try an Eric Borneman and Anthony Calfo endorsed method as well. I wanted to ship him one each frag of the A. Tort and the Monti Dig. free of charge. I chose those two because they are heavy slimers and the Birds Nest isn't.
The theory postulates that these corals slime heavily because they are exposed to air during the day for sometimes up to 6 hrs and the slime coat is a UV protection that keeps the coral moist as well. The shipping method is to saturate a paper towel and wrap the frag in it. Then place the frag in a sealed plastiic bag to create 100% humidity.
Well I packaged everything up on Wednesday for Thursday delivery to his post office. I double bagged the frags in water, wrapped the frags in wet paper towels, enclosed all bags in a larger bag, put them in a reusable Coleman Cooler (instead of cardboard with styrofoam), surrounded the corals with styrofoam, added a heat pack, and went to the post office.
Here's where the fantastic journey actually starts. I like to get my shipments into Express mail as close to 5pm as possible to shorten the shipping time as much as possible. When I got to the post office, the clerk said they can't guaranty any less than two day shipping! I explained what their website said and she consulted with the postmaster directly with me. They said the websites have been known to be incorrect. They also said it was possible to get there overnight, just no guaranty.
I had no choice at this time, I commited to the guy in Tx and off it went. Well the delivery did not get there yesterday the way I had hoped. At that time I spoke to the Tx dude and explained everything. He was very cool and said that's what is expected in deep south Tx. Obviously at this point I was not thrilled of the prospect of having the corals die.
Well this morning he calls me and tells me that the PO called him and said the cooler arrived. He took pix, which I haven't gotten yet, and said EVERYTHING I packed survived the two day shipment! We were both ecstatic. I actually didn't realize that I was as good a shipper as that :thrash:
The corals in the water were probably in a toxic soup from sliming for almost 40 hrs of shipping, in 90 degree south Tx heat no less. And the frags wrapped in paper towels I'd have figured would have just died from lack of submersion.
The experiment was a success in shipping in saturated paper towels. This translates into lower shipping costs (salt water weighs 8.5 lbs per gallon) and healthy corals on the other end!
I will post his pix as soon as I get them for all to see. He actually said the A. Tort was as purple as can be.
I hope this little experiment goes a long way for all of us.
Russ
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