keep water temp traveling to swaps???

Telefonica007 · Mar 21, 2014

hey everyone.. i got a quick question. i may take a drive to a swap in a few weeks and its a bit of a drive. im trying to figure out a way to keep water temp at a decent number. i have some ideas and want feedback...

1. tape a few of the hand warmer heat packs to the outside of the bucket or containers you will have corals in...

2. heat seal the heatpacks (2-3 times) so they can just be put directly in the water during travel.

3. Put heatpack in a tupperware container and let it float in the bucket corals are traveling in....

4. drill a hole on top of buckets so heater can lay in it. somehow reseal the hole so water doesnt splash out. I can get a car lighter converter so that i can plug in the heater.

what do you think?? any other these good?

thanks

hybridazn · Mar 21, 2014

Power inverter with a smaller sized heater

Telefonica007 · Mar 21, 2014

i just dont know how to seal the hole after i drill it. its gonna big a 1 inch hole (at least).

hybridazn · Mar 21, 2014

Telefonica007 said:
i just dont know how to seal the hole after i drill it. its gonna big a 1 inch hole (at least).

Drill the hole in the lid of whatever your transporting the water in. Then just use good, old fashioned duct tape to seal around the cord.

Jimbo662 · Mar 21, 2014

If you have an LFS near you ask them for one of the styrofoam containers they get fish deliveries in and use that instead of a bucket. That'll help stabilize the temp too.

jgraz · Mar 21, 2014

Are you bringing corals to sell?
I recently attended my first swap and drove about 4 1/2 hrs. All in all the corals were in a cooler for about 6hrs. What we did was to cut a piece of eggcrate to fit into our frag tank and placed that directly in a cooler. Added water and done. My temps dropped 2* in the six hrs they were in there. All total we had about 200pieces and lost none.

As far as sealing heat pack in a watertight pouch, don't bother. They need air in order to heat. No air, no heat.

skinz78 · Mar 21, 2014

I use a power inverter with a small heater.

Telefonica007 · Mar 21, 2014

jgraz said:
Are you bringing corals to sell?
I recently attended my first swap and drove about 4 1/2 hrs. All in all the corals were in a cooler for about 6hrs. What we did was to cut a piece of eggcrate to fit into our frag tank and placed that directly in a cooler. Added water and done. My temps dropped 2* in the six hrs they were in there. All total we had about 200pieces and lost none.

As far as sealing heat pack in a watertight pouch, don't bother. They need air in order to heat. No air, no heat.

I forgot about them needing air.. . Good call!!!

mic209 · Mar 22, 2014

How many hours is a bit of a drive? I recently picked up some frags while on vacation, had them in a foam box for over 36 hous. 24 of those hours was in the hotel which was kept in the low 60's, no heat pack and the temp in the bags only dropped 3 degrees by the time I got home. Frags opened immediately after getting them in my tank. I've traveled with both zoas and acros this way whith no problems.