SPS Acquisition Guidance, Please?

[Jon Fleck]

So....have invested the last six months working getting my SPS dominant tank up, cycled and stabilized to optimum water parameters including par with T5 lighting. Now, I am facing the next challenge of getting livestock to me. I am located in RURAL Arizona being two hours from Las Vegas and three hours from Phoenix. I am looking for any recommendations on vendors whom from your experience have AWESOME shipping and guarantees and include SPS acros in their inventory. Regrettably, overnight air (vendor name purposefully omitted) delivery here is grouped with ground delivery and typically won't get to my door until 8:00PM which is close to 12 hours in a 97 degree + delivery vehicle. One prior attempt at SPS delivery was a disaster and mitigated that I was testing the process and only one frag was shipped and lost. I would prefer NOT to have to wait until October when temps are more manageable. It is my understanding that one other freight vendor does an overnight priority which is fairly reasonable in price (versus the $100.00 air freight bill for four pounds shipped from central Oregon to northern Arizona) and COULD be at my door by late morning. Any and all direction, recommendations, thoughts, personal knowledge, WHATEVER, etc., based upon past experience would be HIGHLY APPRECIATED. BTW....I am sincerely THANKFUL for REEF2REEF when all other options appear to not work. jff

 

[ihavecrabs]

Check out BattleCorals.

Adam, the owner, always ships overnight and it is included with his "Battleboxes" which are a supurb deal when you look at a per item cost with the frags he ships. He also packs with heat packs or cold packs.

When I have received his shipments, the corals look like they have never left a tank. Polyps open, colors amazing, etc.

Reach out to him here or on his website to discuss shipping to your area too and around your concerns.

95% of my SPS comes from Adam. Worth a look

 

[Jon Fleck]

Jon -
THANK YOU for taking the time to provide this information.
I will certainly look at Battle Corals.
Regards -
Jon

 

[ihavecrabs]

No worries!

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

So....have invested the last six months working getting my SPS dominant tank up, cycled and stabilized to optimum water parameters including par with T5 lighting. Now, I am facing the next challenge of getting livestock to me. I am located in RURAL Arizona being two hours from Las Vegas and three hours from Phoenix. I am looking for any recommendations on vendors whom from your experience have AWESOME shipping and guarantees and include SPS acros in their inventory. Regrettably, overnight air (vendor name purposefully omitted) delivery here is grouped with ground delivery and typically won't get to my door until 8:00PM which is close to 12 hours in a 97 degree + delivery vehicle. One prior attempt at SPS delivery was a disaster and mitigated that I was testing the process and only one frag was shipped and lost. I would prefer NOT to have to wait until October when temps are more manageable. It is my understanding that one other freight vendor does an overnight priority which is fairly reasonable in price (versus the $100.00 air freight bill for four pounds shipped from central Oregon to northern Arizona) and COULD be at my door by late morning. Any and all direction, recommendations, thoughts, personal knowledge, WHATEVER, etc., based upon past experience would be HIGHLY APPRECIATED. BTW....I am sincerely THANKFUL for REEF2REEF when all other options appear to not work. jff

Perhaps it would be best to seek out vendors or hobbyists that are within a reasonable drive, then picking up frags and driving home the same day. I am located on the northwest side of Phoenix and have a wide variety of high end SPS if you are interested in taking a road trip. See my build thread for pictures of some of my pieces. I have over 140 different SPS. I'm sure there are people in the Las Vegas area that would have some nice frags available too.

 

[bobby.w.hodges]

World wide corals is the only company that I've had ship me coral (so I wouldn't have to drive with it) and I was very impressed, the foam boxes they use are very thick and there is plenty of water in the bag to help maintain temp. One tip I would offer is to wait until the temperature outside gets closer to 80deg, that way there is less risk of over heating.

 

[Jon Fleck]

World wide corals is the only company that I've had ship me coral (so I wouldn't have to drive with it) and I was very impressed, the foam boxes they use are very thick and there is plenty of water in the bag to help maintain temp. One tip I would offer is to wait until the temperature outside gets closer to 80deg, that way there is less risk of over heating.

THANKS !!! Jon

 

[blstravler]

If you aren’t far from a local FedEx or UPS Facility have it held there and go pick it up. It should be there early in the morning and you should have no issue picking it up.

 

[watchguy123]

If you aren’t far from a local FedEx or UPS Facility have it held there and go pick it up. It should be there early in the morning and you should have no issue picking it up.

+1

The best possible choice for delivery is indeed to have your corals sent to the shipping center nearest you and then go get them from there. That is the earliest way to recieve shipped corals.

 

[Coastie Reefer]

Guess I’m not following your original post about them combining air and ground deliveries. Most overnight deliveries are supposed to be guaranteed by 10am. I mean the truck does have ground and air packages but certain packages should get priority. My overnight shipments have always been on time or maybe 10:20ish at the latest. I live in middle of nowhere Louisiana.