Ordering Corals Online

Herbie

Herbie

Banned
I need a little primer here folks. When you order online, do you just take the next day off work or what? Should I have stuff delivered to my office and then use a heat pack? Should I just have it delivered to my house and try to get home as early as possible? How long is it good in the bag? My wife works from home on Fridays, but she won't be good for more that floating a bag or something. Would that be better than anything else? How are you folks dealing with the timing and your careers? :noidea:
 
The group buy organizer I usually go in with typically has someone at home all day to accept teh package and I pick it up after work or a Saturday. We haven't lost anything yet.
 
honestly the online ordering i have done has been fine! If you think about it when they ship it overseas it will sit in a terminal and get to the distributer all in a matter of a couple days. So same day delivery you are fine. as long as they put oxygen in the bag you are good to go!
 
They are fine to stay in the box for awhile, but you usually only have 1-2 hours from time of delivery to make sure they are alive for the arrive alive guarantee.
Saturday delivery is risky, which is why alot of online vendors don't like saturday delivery. If the shipping company messes up, you won't get your corals until monday and you will have a bunch of dead corals. Avoid Saturday delivery if possible.
If the vendor ships via FedEx, you can have the box kept at your local FedEx store, so you can pick it up whenever that day.
 
Usually the person organizing will b off work or do a Saturday pick up. But they will also just float the bags in there tank. I think it would b to much stress on any livestock to get acclimated twice on the same day it arrives.
 
With the weather being like it is, you should be fine leaving the package outside for a few hours. I have ordered from BlueZoo, and LiveAquaria and was very impressed with the packaging. I was able to accept the order right away, but I believe that the livestock would have been fine for many hours. I would be more concerned with somebody stealing the package, than having it sit outside for the afternoon.
 
As long as someone is there to put the box indoors(out of direct heat/cooling), you will be ok. I usually get home at 4-5pm. My coral boxes arrive at 10am and just sit there. I order quite a bit of expensive sps, and havent lost any.
If they could be floated it would be better, but Ive waited until 5pm many many times to acclimate with no issues. I drip acclimate slowly over 3 hours. Depends on who you are buying from and how it will be packed though.
I wouldnt even worry about waiting until 7pm. Anything after 7, I'd start to worry a bit, but its likely ok.
Just my experience, I have a coral shipment about once a week.
 
This is really helpful to me folks (and probably future newbie's as well). I think a Friday delivery with my wife just floating the bags will work. I get home at about 5 on Fridays anyway.
 
I got an order from AquaSD when it was snowing outside.. I didn't even know the package was outside till I got email confirmation (on my cellphone, and it was delayed terribly). It sat on my porch in the snow, toppled over for about an hour and a half I'd say. I didn't lose any.

I was shocked, but I think the corals are a bit more hearty than we all think.
 
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