Transporting large number of frags?

[swannyson7]

I'm setting up a tank at a local frag swap this month and I'm debating the best way to transport frags. It's about a 90 minute drive to get to the venue, so heating isn't a major issue, but securing the frags might be. I've made a couple three tier racks out of egg crate & acrylic rod that fit into 5 gallon buckets, but I'm wondering if there's a better way? Most of the frags are on plugs so they'll be fairly secure in eggcrate, but there's a few that are just on tiles. For anyone who's ever had to transport a large number of frags, how did you do it? Also, will I need to worry about aerating the water at all for that short of a drive? I can use a couple battery powered air pumps with air stones if necessary, but I think the agitation from the drive might be enough if I don't fill the buckets to the top. Any input/experience would be greatly appreciated!

 

[swannyson7]

This is what the racks looks like:

Any input or other ideas?

 

[slugwall]

Nice design but I think I see a flaw, it might be the picture so please excuse me. From the looks of the rods it seems like if you add weight to the top 2 that they would just slide down the poles? do you have notches in the poles so the eggcrate doesn't slide down the poles?

Good luck by the way!

 

[swannyson7]

There are notches in the acrylic rod and the tiers are held in place with zip ties.

 

[cdness]

Swannyson, you basically made the exact same thing I did when hauling lots of frags. I mount mine to tiles as well to save on the costs of the plugs and keep my frags super cheap. This does have the issue of sliding though. I used more eggcrate to section off the corals to help prevent the slide. This way common corals like birdsnests I could let touch and not have an issue but I could keep them away from the hammers. One design change though is I used ALL eggcrate. Even where you have rods, I had eggcrate.

-- Removed since Swanny is quicker on the draw than I am...lol

I wouldn't worry about the air.

 

[slugwall]

My bad I see the one in the front is notched... so how would stop the sloshing of water all over the place? would you fill the bucket up all the way full then cap it?

 

[swannyson7]

I was planning on filling them about 95% of the way to the top and then just putting the lids on the buckets

 

[gooch]

The Bucket method works. I have also seen where they take the plano compartments that are in tackle boxes. Drill holes in the top and bottom for water flow and put a coral in each compartment. I like the bucket method myself. I have about a half dozen of them that are made from Acrylic from Andy at The Blue Glow. They are pretty nice since they hold the plug a little more securely than egg crate. Not to mention each tray has its own legs. So you can pull it out of the bucket and drop it right into the swap tank and you are good to go.

 

[returnofsid]

I've transported corals, to a swap, in a similar fashion and had a major issue. If one coral stresses too much, it can wipe out all the corals. When I was transporting corals, in a similar way, I had several buckets worth of frags. In one bucket, a large piece of M. cap completely slimed up, killing a whole bunch of corals that were in the bucket. In the rest of the buckets, everything was just fine. Make sure that your frag plugs fit tight enough that they don't fall out of the frag rack, falling against other corals.

Because of the issues I had, on a recent frag swap, I packed completely differently, actually bagging everything. However, I bagged all like frags, from the same colony, together, saving a lot of bagging.

Both of these swaps were a 5 hour drive. The second swap, in which I bagged everything, the corals spent the night in bags, prior to the swap. I bagged them, drove 5 hours, spent the night in a motel, and the swap was the following morning. Everything was 100% healthy, the second swap.

 

[swannyson7]

I'm hoping I don't run into a similar problem with the short drive. I might put the higher end frags in specimen file or bags just in case, but I'd rather not have to go through the trouble.

 

[jakem]

Check out the BLUEGLOW.COM they have a rack system that works great.

 

[Joe Knows Reefs]

I've used the tiered system from Andy and loved it. I was able to set my frags up days ahead of time in the tank and the morning of the swap just drop them down in the bucket. Iined the perimeter with actual plugs acting as a fence and put tiles inside. It worked well for me, just don't do any speed racer stunts and you should be good