Shipping a Pico Jar

[NeonRabbit221B]

I have a simple pico jar with a dwarf cerith, blue legged hermit, chaeto and some aiptasia on live rock. What would be the best way to ship this? Jar empty and contents in bags? Stuff some styrofoam to keep the rock in place and **** it full? Here is a picture. Also any CUC members who don't need a heater or can survive in room temperature water under a warm lamp?

Long story but my sisters boyfriend loves diving in the reefs in his travels around the world and keeps goldfish in at my sisters house. He seemed very interested in my reef tanks. He has also had the habit of giving people live animals for christmas in the past (a rabbit, hamster, lobster and goldfish so far). I would really like to get this to him but have never shipped.

 

[brandon429]

how fun is that, we get to try what KP aquatics tries only you are shipping cured aquarium items, they're not likely to die off. This is how I'd do it, for sure try and get us the reassembly photos for our first shipping pico reef test. I am certain this will work:


tap rinse the sand 100% clean of course lol, final rinse in RO water and leave the sand in a bowl and keep it wet with saltwater a little until its time to ship, then it goes into a plastic baggie air squeezed out, perfectly clean. it stays open topped/not sealed until the day it ships out.

the rocks can be packed literally in wet newspaper, very wet, in plastic bags and leave some air in them like an inflated balloon if possible. rocks, no water, 100% wet newspapers wrapped around them, take the jar down and clean it

any corals or hermits/snails id ship them in a large water bottle emptied out and made as a saltwater move vessel. leave air room, not totally full of water. chaeto and snail can ride in the clean saltwater bottle over to new place.

they re assemble it all with 100% new saltwater at 78 degrees/ .023 and it will skip cycle in that way. the rocks are good for a week like this

all cycling bacteria will make the ride a worm might die/natural seletion lol. as a whole this will work easily. that rock is nicely cured.

 

[brandon429]

pjreefs.com has made a living out of shipping pico reefs/ I knew Paul from nano-reef.com long before his site or the cool sealed picos he sells. he mails out kits similar to this way.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

how fun is that, we get to try what KP aquatics tries only you are shipping cured aquarium items, they're not likely to die off. This is how I'd do it, for sure try and get us the reassembly photos for our first shipping pico reef test. I am certain this will work:


tap rinse the sand 100% clean of course lol, final rinse in RO water and leave the sand in a bowl and keep it wet with saltwater a little until its time to ship, then it goes into a plastic baggie air squeezed out, perfectly clean. it stays open topped/not sealed until the day it ships out.

the rocks can be packed literally in wet newspaper, very wet, in plastic bags and leave some air in them like an inflated balloon if possible. rocks, no water, 100% wet newspapers wrapped around them, take the jar down and clean it

any corals or hermits/snails id ship them in a large water bottle emptied out and made as a saltwater move vessel. leave air room, not totally full of water. chaeto and snail can ride in the clean saltwater bottle over to new place.

they re assemble it all with 100% new saltwater at 78 degrees/ .023 and it will skip cycle in that way. the rocks are good for a week like this

all cycling bacteria will make the ride a worm might die/natural seletion lol. as a whole this will work easily. that rock is nicely cured.

I was thinking about ordering the same jar on amazon and shipping that to his house a few days ahead for Christmas morning maybe with pictures and a guide. The day after Christmas I can do exactly like you said and bag and tag it. I am worried about the livestock sitting underneath a tree or in a holding center cause a truck was late due to holiday traffic.

Do you think a heater is necessary if I don't have coral and the only inhabitants are aiptasia, a hermit and cerith? I was hoping to avoid another level of complexity but can include a little 2W betta heater if needed. Appreciate your help!!

 

[brandon429]

Not sure, those are pretty tough animals but don’t know their lower end tolerance for heat

 

[DaneGer21]

Not sure, those are pretty tough animals but don’t know their lower end tolerance for heat

Couple cheapo hand warmers will take care of that

 

[brandon429]

Nice one, it will be a little power capsule sent right over I’ll put all chips in it’ll work.

 

[brandon429]

Basic water prep steps a newb will miss, matched to that bowl:

don’t store change water capped, open is best. Top off as needed, store in a pantry. Bring to use temp by few mins submersion in warm kitchen sink water, have new water made up ahead of time. After its brought to 78 ish, then add distilled water to get the salinity just right after it’s been sitting uncapped somewhere awaiting use.

finding a lfs that sells pre made is ideal. Keep an uncapped five gallon blue bottle of .023 water handy aat


the pre made sw from petsmart will run that with ease, but uncap / aerate before use a day or two

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Not sure, those are pretty tough animals but don’t know their lower end tolerance for heat

Both Dwarf Ceriths and Blue Legged Hermits can do just fine in colder temperatures from what I am reading. So I won't end up heating the water and just use a lamp to keep the water temperature about 72F.

As far as salinity stability I will include instructions to use distilled (easily available). I pre-weighed 6 packets of salt to mix at that exact salinity.

I am not too concerned about long term stability or survivability but I would love to see it last a year in the simplest, no maintenance condition I setup. Rock for bacteria, chaeto for oxygenation/nutrients, aiptasia as a centerpiece and feeding it once per week (and small CUC for the waste). This is a simple experiment where I can see if I can implant the idea that he wants a larger reef tank by caring for the simplest setup I could imagine.

 

[RVA REEF]

if you add sand make sure its rinsed before shipping

 

[TriggerFinger]

I think this is a cool idea! I hope you can swing it! For reference, here is my last batch of rock from kp Aquatics. There was probably 2-3 cups of water in the bottom of the bag. The brown paper was sopping wet. I received all kinds of live hitchickers; no heat packs included but it was the end of September so not as cold as it is now.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

if you add sand make sure its rinsed before shipping

Likely no sand on this one

I think this is a cool idea! I hope you can swing it! For reference, here is my last batch of rock from kp Aquatics. There was probably 2-3 cups of water in the bottom of the bag. The brown paper was sopping wet. I received all kinds of live hitchickers; no heat packs included but it was the end of September so not as cold as it is now.

That seems like it would work. The good thing is that the rock structure fits in a jar so if shipping cost is by weight then it shouldn't be very bad.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Brief update for those who are interested. Temperature of the water dipped to 69 and the hermit was in cold shock and dwarf wasn’t moving. Decided to rig together this heating pad from adafruit and soldered on a usb connector. Jar is sitting pretty at 73 and CUC is moving around again

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

forgot image.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

@brandon429 Just a followup. Jar made it safe but the rock had some die off and the aiptasia didn't make it (havn't shown up yet). He is enjoying watching the critters move around and is interested in new additions and moving forward with a small reef jar setup. He has already bought a Par38 reef bulb and air pump so I thought I would ask the chief jar resident on options for first time jar keepers for corals. Do you mainly keep hermits/ceirths in your jars?

 

[ApoIsland]

Any update on the jar? I also originally purchased a couple of the ABI par 38 for my 2 gal jar, but didn't like the color of either the 50/50 or the blue bulb. I found the Nicrew 30W much more enjoyable because of the adjustable blue/white intensity options. Plus I like the look of the fixture its self a lot more.

 

[NeonRabbit221B]

Project failed due to a heat spike and he came home to a 90 degree jar. The 50/50 is very blue. I still have my setup that I may restart one day